I normally wouldn't make a Wicked thread but...was the ending changed? SPOILERS- Page 2
I normally wouldn't make a Wicked thread but...was the ending changed? SPOILERS
Joined: 12/31/69
#25Ending...
Posted: 1/29/05 at 11:57am
The ending sucks. It's not dramatic like people have said. She melts. I don't even like the ending of Maguire's book. Dorothy throws the water on the witch while she bathes and she dies. That's it. There shouldn't be any other ending.
As for the tinman, scarecrow and lion ideas, I actually like that. It gives more of a connection to the characters.
SMDeeva
Swing Joined: 7/25/04
#27Ending...
Posted: 1/29/05 at 12:25pm
First, Wicked is not my favorite musical, I am not one of those people. I enjoyed the show, and saw it several times. But I am not posting this because I am going to "die" if I don't.
Now, as far as the ending. Before Elphaba leaves to go find Nessa, who she knows is in trouble, Fiyero tells her to go to his castle, and he says, there are a lot of trap doors, and passage ways, you will be safe there. We will meet there.
After she goes to Nessa and he gets captured, No good deed, lalala... she goes to his castle. And she gets a letter from Fiyero, which to Glinda means it is that he has died. However, for Elphaba, (to me) it is him telling her "okay, lets do it". That is when Elphaba gives Glinda the book, and tells her I will probably never see you again. There were "rumors" going around that water would melt her (from the start of the 2nd Act) and so she uses that, the hysteria of the masses, to "escape". Knowing that water won't really kill her but everyone will think it does. So she gets through to a trapdoor, and into a passageway where Fiyero can later find her. Which he does.
I think it is set up pretty well, if you really notice the little things. The first time I saw it, I didn't get it as well, I was like "yeah yeah, whatever". But the second time, I was like "wow, they did a really good job setting it up..." At least for me.
The show is "eye-candy", I don't think it is meant to be a musical that will change your life. It is good fun. And is very loosely based on Wicked the book, not The Wizard of Oz. And in the book, he leaves it open eneded... "And there the wicked old Witch stayed for a good long time." "And did she ever come out?" "Not yet." I think that is leaving it open to whatever you want to think. Did she die? Is she in an afterlife? Or was it all a prank to be able to escape and be happy? Of course they are going to make it a little bit "nicer" at the end, that is what the "masses" tend to like. But it is all in the way you view it.
Just my thoughts...
Swing Joined: 12/31/69
SMDeeva
Swing Joined: 7/25/04
All of Oz thinks she is dead; that is what the opening number is about to me. They don't know. But at the end, we know the secret! shhhh :) 
camthom
Featured Actor Joined: 1/27/05
#30Ending...
Posted: 1/29/05 at 4:12pm
A) Wicked has recouped it's initial (enormous) investment. Making it one of the only financial successes in the past several years.
B) Stories change when they are musicalized and the people writing the shows (especially in this case with the uber-talented Schwartz) KNOW what works and what doesn't work after decades of previous successes and failures.
C) Gypsy-arguably one of the most "perfect" musicals ever written, and inarguably, a musical which set standards for decades after it was written-also had a fake ending. Mama and Louise never made up, never borrowed each other's clothes and never went to parties together, in fact they NEVER spoke again. Apparently audiences need a denoument.
D) Wicked has taken the world of Oz (which was created by L Frank Baum and altered/played with by McGuire) and made it something real and alive for audiences to see in person, which I see as a pretty brilliant accomplishment. We could be having the same conversation about what McGuire did to Baum's original by changing plotlines, making assumptions that were never intended, and what some would call "bastardizing" the world of Oz.
E) I don't think it's a perfect musical, I think it has flaws. But someone did something right because audiences seem to be on their feet everynight, having felt like they've been told a story effectively and completely.
#31Ending...
Posted: 1/29/05 at 4:21pmI think Wicked is also very clever. I think the reason the ending was put on there is because alot of people, myself included, get really attached to the charecter of Elphaba and feel sorry for her becase she actually isn't all Wicked, shes misunderstood, too. And the ending is better because its a happy one rather than just having her die. I know that doesn't matter but I think it's about having a happy ending rather than a sad one.
*I don't care if I'm ever rich or famous, I just wanna be a star*
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