Theatrical Adaptation

Happy vs. Sad

The Happiness of the Witch seemed to be the goal of the play. If you noticed she seemed a lot less crazy at the end of the play as opposed to how she was at the end of the book. At the end of the book she was driven crazy by Dorothy, in "The Witch shrieked in panic, in disbelief. That even now the world should twist so, offending her once again: Elphaba, who had endured Sarima's refusal to forgive, now begged by a gibbering child for the same mercy always denied her? How could you give such a thing out of you own hollowness?" (Maguire 402). Which actually shows two differences between the book and the play, first off this whole scene with Dorothy never really happens in the play; Elphaba just regards Dorothy as a minor annoyance. Elphaba doesn't go anywhere near crazy, she seems controlled all throughout the play. In fact the only thing that is not controlled is her magic, which the Witch (besides being able to read the Grimmerie) has no natural talent for, in the book at least. In the play she seems a bit like Rogue from X-men she doesn't know how to control her powers, she needs help to learn how. And the times she does display the powers early in the play just come out in bursts.
Also in the play, Glinda is a very bad witch in that, she can't really do any magic at all. Whereas in the book she is an expert at magic. Also Bog is much more evil in the play, also is nessarose's love interest in that she wants him, and he doesn't want her at all. So taking Elphaba's book, she does the spell on Bog to turn him into the Tin Woodman. While Nessarose did cause the Tin Woodman to come about ( The Nick Chopper sequence where she takes a women's Animals to enchant an ax to cut off his limbs one by one), there was no connection to Bog at all. In fact she seemed too busy to get a man, that and her deformity was far worse in the book than in the play. In the play she was only confined to a wheelchair, in the book she has no arms. Also she seems very good at magic, as opposed to Elphaba.
Elphaba also never really goes through the whole terrorist phase and lives in the emerald city. In fact the whole romance between her and Fiyero is a happy ending. He doesn't Die, he becomes the Scarecrow!!! Yeah, Cop out ending for everyone!!!! In the book the closest she come to this is when her insane mind lets her belief this and then her logical mind steps in after she sees that fiyero is not in there it's only straw.
So basically if you want happy see the play, if you want an insane and slightly depressing character study, read the book.

posted by IPDB @ 9:28 AM