Wicked Through and Through!

I saw Wicked last week. It was amazing! I've been wanting to see it for the past 3 years it's been playing downtown. The cast, though not as great at acting as I would have liked, had amazing vocals. Fiyero's voice sent shivers down my spine. I got teary during "The Wizard and I," "Defying Gravity" (which is a rush!), and "As Long as You're Mine." Most of you have already seen parallels between the themes of Wicked and the things we as Moho's go through.

The storyline is about a girl who through no fault of her own is green- a trait that others find repulsive but simply is the way she is. She wants desperately to change it, and believes that the Wizard will change it for her when she becomes his assistant. At school she starts out loathing a bubbly wanna-be witch who is obsessed with public image and will do anything to appear perfect, but she ends up becoming friends with this girl. They both excel in school and go to meet the wizard. For a moment the green girl feels like she finally fits in, but then she finds out that wizard really doesn't have magical powers and can't degreenify her. She chooses to rebel against the wizard, and her friend chooses to stay with the wizard because that is was society wants. It is a tragic fall out that leaves the green girl being branded as wicked while all of oz fight against her. She ends up faking her death so that she can run away with a hot guy.

In so many ways this seems like my story. Through no fault of my own, I wound up being gay. The trait was detested by society and by myself, and I hoped that the Church authority would fix me. I went to school where I found myself loathing bubbly Provo. Then I started to like Provo. Then I found the Authority of the Church didn't have the power to degayify me, and I became disenchanted with the Church. I had a fallout with the happy bubbly Mormons of Provo, but we are still friends. I have choosen the wicked path, and it is turning loved ones and society against me. All I have left to do is find an escape from Oz and run away with a hot guy.

Perhaps paralleling my story to Elphaba's is a bit of a stretch, but you should get the soundtrack. You may also find the lyrics apply to your story, different as it may be from mine. The themes are certainly universal.

I think the biggest lesson that I learned from the musical is that there is no such thing as a "wicked" person or a "righteous" person (Romans backs that up). People simply are people and they respond to the circumstances they find themselves in. I certainly don't fault Elphaba (me), Glinda (Provo/BYU students), the wizard (Church leaders), Ozians (Mormons), or any of the other characters for making the decisions they made. They did the best they could in their circumstances. In my book all of them are justified,