shoop and nothing at stake, part 1

For a birthday present, Mrs. Shoop and I took a friend to see the long-running musical Wicked. We had fun, but I was bothered by a few elements of the show, and it took me a while to figure out what was missing for me. I think I've got it now. It has to do with "the stakes."

As an occasional actor, I would hear "raise the stakes" from directors more than occasionally. I would always want to respond with a witty retort along the lines of "oh, yeah?", but I never got around to it. And much to my chagrin, I find myself using the phrase when I direct--we do, metaphorically, become our parents. The phrase means to invest more emotionally in the situation--there needs to be more at stake, otherwise you've got a conversation or a discussion when you need something huge and life-changing.

With musicals, the general wisdom is that characters sing when the stakes are so high, there's no other way to express their feelings. And that, I think, is primarily what's wrong with Wicked. There are plenty of high stakes in the story itself--it's the Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the "Wicked" Witch of the West, and she's in the center of an emotionally loaded story, except when anybody sings, and the stakes disappear. Which, for a musical, should be absolutely deadly.

The songs are by Stephen Schwartz, and the thing about Schwartz is that he's still the same goofy guy who found himself the composer of Godspell and Pippin all at once back in the 70s. The songs were never that great, but they were pleasant and occasionally clever, and they had some youthful enthusiasm. And he's still writing pleasant and occasionally clever songs, but the enthusiasm's gone, and it hasn't been replaced with anything deeper. Moreover, it would appear that the only reason the songs are in the show is that it's a musical--originally with two big musical stars whose names were above the title--and the songs pretty much have to be there. But do they really?

Listen to the Broadway cast recording closely if you haven't seen the show. There's the "I want" song, "The Wizard and I," where the wicked witch voices her deepest aspirations--she wants to work closely with the Wizard to make Oz better. (Interesting note: it's Elphaba, the wicked witch, who gets the "I want" song, so that should make it her story. The fact that Wicked is only partially her story is another one of the problems.) Fine, that song needs to be there. But a song where Glinda and Elphaba sing about "loathing" each other? Why, exactly? How about they say, "I hate you," and "I hate you more," and then move on to the next scene? Or "Popular"? Okay, yes, it gave Kristin Chenoweth a big comic number, and you have to give Krtistin Chenoweth the big comic number, and it also gave spunky future showgirls all over the world a song to learn, lip-synch to, and channel their inner Chenoweths. But no way does the situation--Glinda gives Elphaba tips to be popular--warrant a song. There are power ballads for Elphaba, at least two or three, and they all sound the same and could be taken care of with a few lines of dialogue. There's never enough at stake to get the characters singing. Occasionally the songs, and the performers, provide some entertainment, but it's entertainment that has nothing to do with story or character.

Wicked probably would have made a cool straight play. But it's a musical, and my goodness, what a mammoth cultural juggernaut it is. One more thing--the merchandising that the legions of tween girls have to score either before the show or during the intermission. You have two main choices--green attire that encourages "Defying Gravity," recalling Elphaba's big end-of-Act-One number celebrating empowerment and possibility (and yes, a 2-minute monologue would have been more effective here, too), or pink bottoms with the word "Popular" emblazoned on the ass. It's too square of me, I suppose, to worry about "mixed messages," but I do anyway. Maybe girls can defy gravity, but they still have to know about pop-U-lar.

Next time: nothing at stake, part 2--Darwin in Malibu.