Broadway Shows

This very entertaining if dangerously overstuffed musical tells the "true story" about how poor misunderstood Elphaba (Shoshanna Bean) became the Wicked Witch of the West, and how she and good witch Galinda (Jennifer Laura Thompson) were once best friends. Because it's this dynamic that gives the show its heart and soul, the production might actually have benefited from a little less spectacle. And while Stephen Schwartz's score is not up to the standards of his classics like Pippin or Godspell, it nonetheless includes such fine numbers as "Defying Gravity" and "For Good." Indeed, Wicked is a good show, just not a great one.