Myths & Mischief

Mourn the Wicked: Part 2

Hello, and welcome to Myths & Mischief. As we go through our anxious wait for “Wicked: For Good” (coming to theaters November 22nd of this year), I suggested we take a closer look at some of the musical numbers and beats of the beloved musical.

Part 1: Dancing Through Life

After leaving Dr. Dillamond’s shack at the edge of Shiz, Elphaba finds herself in the woods on the way back to school. While traveling by lantern light, she hears the galloping of hooves before—

A handsome stranger atop a noble steed knocks her over. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. You must have blended in with the… foliage.”

Elphaba goes through her usual schpiel about “No, I am not seasick” (“Neither am I”), “No, I did not eat grass as a child” (“Oh you didn’t, I did”), “and yes, I have always been green” (“and the defensiveness, is that a recent development?”)— a cute back-and-forth quip with a charming stranger. Elphaba seemed nearly impressed by him before walking away. He offers a cute “I’m up for more trampling”, to which she answers simply:

This is important because it hints at a major plot point in Act Two/ “For Good”. (My fellow theater nerds, don’t ruin it for the others ;) )

We find out the next day that the handsome, flirtatious stranger is Prince Fiyero Tigelar of Winkie Country, newly enrolled in Shiz. Galinda, dreaming of her happily ever after, readies herself to meet Fiyero.

She readies herself to perfection and goes to meet the charming prince, who we find to be superficial and almost worry-free, while being shrewd about his views on life. But he certainly stirs up the air at Shiz, with everyone falling for his charms.

After meeting Galinda, she gives him a tour of the school, starting at the library or “Book Place” where there are plenty of rare books (and some medium rare ones as well). As they go through the library, Fiyero’s first question is what they do for fun around there, to which Galinda responds “Nothing. Until now.” The handsome prince then suggests the Ozdust Ballroom, a place that is slightly illegal, and completely scandalocious. After a run-in with Boq, who we finally hear introduce himself as Boq Woodsman (mostly to impress Galinda), Fiyero takes it upon himself that it is time for him to corrupt his fellow schoolmates.

What follows is Fiyero’s “Dancing through Life” sequence, a fun, vibrant sequence in which he creates a basically a mob of students dancing around to his philosophy of life. “Why invite stress in?” and all that jazz. The following stills sums up the dance sequence well, giving you an idea of the chaotic mob mentality that the students get.

Elphaba, being the only one who isn’t falling for his siren’s call, as it were, decides to leave the library and the students who are “merrymaking” so she can focus on studying, showing us once again that she is nothing if not hard-working and puts her heart into everything she does.

After the dance sequence, Boq, who has been crushing majorly on Galinda all this time, finally musters up the courage to ask Galinda for a dance at the Ozdust. After brushing away some sweat on her brow with her handkerchief, he replies that she can keep it. “I cry a lot”, he says. I wonder who else in the original Wizard of Oz cried a lot… Hmmm… perhaps it will remain forever a mystery.

Galinda, being the quick-thinking individual she is, instead directs his sights to Nessarose, saying that “Gee, I know that someone would be my hero if that someone were to go invite her.” Boq offers, and Nessarose enthusiastically agrees. This is a pivotal moment in Nessarose’s character arc, so paying attention to how this affects her and her journey in “For Good” is very important.

Fiyero and Galinda comment on the matchmaking, but then reveal themselves to be free, because as they both say, “You’re perfect,” “You’re perfect,” “So we’re perfect together, born to be forever dancing through life”.

What follows next is Galinda getting ready for the Ozdust, where Pfannee, one of Galinda’s besties, discovers the hideoderous hat that Galinda’s grandmother made her. Galinda comments that she would give it away, but she doesn’t hate anyone that much. The two behind her give her a look, knowing exactly who she could give it to. She is easily swayed, and when Elphaba makes her return to the room, Galinda sees the school books of Elphie’s private classes with Madame Morrible, which she instantly feels something inside herself grow almost jealous of as  Elphaba tries to talk to her about Nessa and their night at the Ozdust.

Galinda invites Elphaba, offering the hat as something she can wear because it “goes with everything she [Elphie] owns”. They deserve each other, she says, because they’re both so “smart”. She claims to give it to Elphaba out of the goodness of her heart, but we know the malicious intent behind it, pointing out that Galinda is not always as “good” as she makes herself out to be.

Elphaba looks at the hat, taking it in as an honest-to-goodness act of kindness from Galinda’s part. Perhaps this was the first gift she had ever received from someone who was not Nanny Dolcibear—we are left only to speculate. Either way, her distrust slowly melts, and she smiles as she looks at the hat.

Since one good turn deserves another, Elphaba goes to Madame Morrible that very night, asking for a favor, which we will get to very soon.

So, the scene for “Dancing Through Life” continues, with the students of Shiz dancing their night away at the Ozdust Ballroom.

We have a scene with Boq trying to confess the real reason he asked Nessa to the Ozdust, but upon seeing Galinda and Fiyero cozying up, he loses his nerve, and he recovers his statement by telling Nessa he asked because she was “so beautiful” and Nessa tells him that “They deserve each other”, to which Boq simply answers “let’s dance.” What follows is a dance scene that I find to be very charming, because instead of just spinning her chair around, he involves Nessa in the dance, showing that deep down, Boq is a good guy with well-meaning intentions, not treating Nessa any differently because of her disability.

After Nessa and Boq’s scene, we see Madame Morrible enter the scene, and she presents to Galinda a practice wand, officially inviting her to her sorcery seminars. But, there’s a caveat: this came at the request of Elphaba, under the condition that if Madame Morrible didn’t accept, Elphaba would quit her classes

Madame Morrible minces no words about having no faith in Galinda impressing her or succeeding. She then tells Galinda that Elphaba has just arrived, and Galinda realizes that sh*t is about to hit the fan, because she did not have good intentions in giving Elphie the hat. And now, she will face the consequences of her actions.

Then, we see Elphaba readying to meet the crowd, where she is greeted with sneers, jeers, and laughter all directed at her. She tries to walk it off, entering the middle of the room and beginning her own version of a dance scene, much to the amusement of the onlookers.

Galinda, watching in the crowd, says she feels horrible to Fiyero, and then, in a show of solidarity, begins to try to emulate the dance, showing a kind of mercy to Elphaba and a true sense of kindness.

Galinda’s actions move Elphie to tears (hmm, water on the skin? Okay), and the two continue the dance, finding camaraderie as the others in the crowd begin to accept and even emulate the dance themselves.

Fiyero watches on, and you can see the wheels in his mind turning as he watches Elphie and Galinda together.

This is where a true friendship between Galinda and Elphie is born, and you can see through both of them that this friendship will change the course of their lives forever.

Well, I would continue on but the “Dancing through Life” sequence took us through an incredible journey of character growth and little peeks into how the characters evolve for “For Good”. Next time, we will discuss “Popular”, Dr. Dillamond, and “I’m Not that Girl”. 

Thanks for taking this journey with me back into Oz, and I will see you later!