"For the first time I feel ... Wicked"

I have fallen in love with the score from Wicked. Makes sense that it's only happening now, since it took me three years post-publication to read and fall in love with the book.

Seriously though.

The Wizard and I is fucking brilliant. Catchy, tuneful, driving, character-building, and a dream-song. And Schwartz -- right, Clay? I haven't mis-attributed something written by an assistant lyricist? Schwartz so cleverly plants the "everyone thinks I'm horrible and evil and worthless but there IS something special in me and I will work so hard that no one will be able to NOT see it" seeds of over-achievement.

When I meet the wizard
Once I prove my worth
...
He'll say to me, "I see who you truly are -
A girl of whom I can rely!"
And that's how we'll begin
The Wizard and I

Once I'm with the Wizard
My whole life will change
'Cuz once you're with the Wizard
No one thinks you're strange!
No father is not proud of you,
No sister acts ashamed
And all of Oz has to love you
When by the Wizard, you're acclaimed
And this gift or this curse I have inside
Maybe at last, I'll know why
When we are hand in hand -
The Wizard and I!

And then, of course, the prophecy is so heart-breaking that it makes us want to take this prickly, hard-to-love girl who is so full of dreams and possibility and wonder, and wrap her up in a fluffy blanket and feed her soup and protect her from the world.

My future is unlimited
And I've just had a vision
Almost like a prophecy
I know - it sounds truly crazy
And true, the vision's hazy
But I swear, someday there'll be
A celebration throughout Oz
That's all to do with me!

If there's one song that would be a sales pitch for the show, that's the one I'd choose.

Then, of course, there's the I'm Not That Girl reprise into As Long As You're Mine, for which reason I've ordered the book of saxophone solos and am dedicating a significant chunk of my staycation to mastering these scant pages. I have never heard a single piece of music so masterfully move from the sweetest spot of the human vocal range to the most mellow, mournful fifth of the alto sax. It's so pure and seamless, it takes a full three beats to realize that there's an interplay of voices at all rather than just lush remixing. I can't wait to learn how to play this.

Although I'm sure my neighbors are sick of listening to it already.

First published at NYC to the Nines