AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

With the election behind us, and properly concluded, we now speed into the holidays. I've got a pile of CDs from throughout the year, and a bunch of recently released ones that I've been listening to, and will be listening to, just in time for a holiday gift guide. The same goes for books – biographies and some theater-related titles.

One disc and one book are perfectly tied together and I sort of thought I'd do a bit of a preview with them. The CD is Wicked: The 5th Anniversary Special Edition, a two-disc set that's been released to coincide with the anniversary of this Tony Award-winning show's opening on Broadway in 2003.

This anniversary release from Decca Broadway, features not only one disc with the original cast recording that came out just as the show was opening, it also features a second eight-track bonus CD. It's this disc which will most likely attract the show's fans and collectors. Here, one finds LeAnn Rimes and Delta Goodrem delivering “For Good,” in a track produced by legendary Phil Ramone. There's also a pop version of “I’m Not That Girl,” by current Wicked star Kelly Ellis, this one produced by the iconic Brian May of Queen. This latter track is just one of three that Ellis recorded on a single in the U.K. and will have fans salivating for the other two, with its extraordinary electric guitar riffs and Ellis' nearly pyrotechnic vocals. Also in the rock vein is Idina Menzel's terrific dance remix of "Defying Gravity"

Perhaps most notable on the Wicked bonus disc is a nifty rarity: “Making Good,” a song that was included in early drafts the show, and captured on record here for the first time. This track features Stephanie J. Block, accompanied by composer Stephen Schwartz on piano. The balance of the disc contains four tracks of songs from foreign cast recordings. Two of them are from the German cast recording ("No Good Deed," "As Long as You're Mine") and two come from the Japanese cast recording ("Dancing Through Life," "Popular"). These really are only for rabid fans of the show while the other four really are great for musical fans in general.

The good news on the bonus material is that it's all (with the exception of one track) available on iTunes as individual downloads. This means that listeners will not have the snazzy two-disc set on their shelves, and it is a handsome package, with two booklets which include a new essay by Schwartz, newly released photos and a swell timeline for the show, but in these difficult economic times, the iTunes option could be appealing.

Now as I've been listening to Wicked, I've also been reading Carol de Giere's "Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked," which comes from Applause Theatre & Cinema Books.

This is a comprehensive biography of the composer-lyricist who's also responsible for such shows as Godspell and Pippin. I've only gotten up to the point where Schwartz is about to begin work on the troubled musical The Baker's Wife, but I have been consistently impressed so far with De Giere's research, and the obvious access she's had to Schwartz. The book is filled with fascinating insights and quotes – even about such things as his collaboration with Leonard Bernstein on "The Mass" which opened the Kennedy Center.

The book weighs in at nearly 550 pages – about half of which are devoted to Wicked, I'll do a fuller review in the not so distant future, but figured this was an apt moment to mention that the book "Defying Gravity" seems well worth checking out.

---- Andy Propst