You’re most likely aware by now of the phenomenon which is Wicked, having gone from one of the earlier published fanfics to Broadway phenomenon to current box office smash.
So if you’re wondering about that journey, Wicked: The Real Story mostly has you covered. Why mostly? Well, you won’t hear anything about the new film version – despite the timing of this documentary being obviously designed to profit from that film – and the doc’s structure means the topics it does cover are given a fairly shallow treatment.
I’ll explain. In 90 minutes, the documentary moves from: the life of Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum; the reception, impact, and some literary analysis of his first and subsequent Oz books; the many stage and screen adaptations of Oz that appeared in the 1900s, 10s, 20s and 30s; the pre-production, production, and aftermath of the famous 1939 film version…
All of this means that we’re more than halfway through this brief documentary before we even get on to the writing of the book, Wicked. The film sort of perks up at this point; its focus is narrower, and the key people involved in the book and musical – author Gregory Maguire and composer Stephen Schwartz – are both alive, and available to give quite extensive interviews on their inspirations, et cetera. This is all good stuff, valuable to fans, and feels like it could easily have stretched to ninety minutes in its own right, especially if the film were given some spotlight – it isn’t the main topic here, and that’s both fine and appropriate, but it’s obviously part of the overall phenomenon.