Wicked Musical

When the musical "Wicked" first landed on Broadway, the word on the street about it was not all that encouraging. Reviews during the tryout run in San Francisco of the show, which focuses on a Good Witch (Glinda) and a Wicked Witch (Elphaba) from the classic L. Frank Baum "Wizard of Oz" books, were just so-so. You may wonder what about this show defied critical opinion, and the overall odds, to become a long-running smash. (It's still on Broadway, where Pacific Northwest natives Megan Hilty and Shoshana Bean formerly played the lead roles.) First off, wicked broadway has become increasingly family-friendly in recent decades and Cheap wicked tickets are selling like hot cake. Some blockbuster Disney shows ("Beauty and the Beast," "The Lion King") led the way by becoming must-see pageants for the little ones. But those kids grew into middle-schoolers — that notoriously difficult-to-amuse and hard-to-please demographic, suspended between mid-childhood and adolescence. For girls of that uncertain age, at least, "Wicked" was a natural next step in theatergoing.