Alrighty guys, I just thought I'd pop on over and see if anyone has both read the book Wicked and seen the musical. I read Wicked in December and found it to be a fantastic read (problems do abound... hard to understand in parts, some odd plot angles, etc) -- full of philosophical and ethical questions.

I just got home from seeing the musical version and I'm torn... The two are so different sometimes I have a hard time reconciling they were one in the same. Some characters weren't even close to their characterization in the books -- Boq and Fiyero are two that spring to mind -- and the ending was as candy-coated as just about everything that comes out these days is.

Even with these faults, I find the musical just as enjoyable as the book, in more of a fluff way... So I wanted to try and find out what you guys thought if you've had the opportunity to experience both. Did you like the ending of the musical? Did you miss the politics? Did you like how they changed certain characters?

Discuss :)

Jen

I did it in the reverse... I saw the show on Broadway and THEN went to get the book and I didn't enjoy the book nearly as much as the show. I think that once I enjoyed the interpretation of the book, it was hard to go back to the original, know what I mean?

The book was much much darker than the show. And I liked the lightheartedness of the show over the darkness. To me, the show's lightness matched the movie's lightness (Wizard of Oz).

Deena