By Lindy Abbott
Many wholesome, God-fearing folks didn‘t need to look deeper. The title of the wildly popular musical ensured that those who could never associate with anyone wicked (much less dare to imagine they could be wicked) wouldn‘t give this worthy musical a second glance. Thankfully, I‘m over my do-not-open-the-cover, fearful days of classifying things quickly as good and evil. Wicked: The Untold Stories of the Witches of Oz was warmheartedly wonderful; I‘m so grateful I took my young teen daughter to share this experience of musical art with me. The musical is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, a parallel novel to L.
Frank Baum‘s classic novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Wicked debuted in 2003 and by the end of 2012 it had played for 4,123 performances. When this musical production toured for two years from January 2011 to the last week of 2012, my daughter and I caught its appearance in Nashville, TN. I must confess that about a decade ago while homeschooling I began to read Baum‘s classic to my three little children. I was into the story a page or two when my middle child asked, ―Why are we reading a story about a witch?‖A little taken back by my prophet-minded son, I stopped to ask myself the same question (―Why am I reading a story about a witch to my young, innocent children?‖). Without a good reason to explain why, I closed the book and moved on to the next book.