Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth - Wicked (2003 Original Broadway Cast)
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.24 You Save: $10.74 (57%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $7.50 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Wicked (2003 Original Broadway Cast)
Free Music Review: Wicked is OZSOME!
Hit: 5 Stars
OK, time to sink my teeth into trying to put my love for WICKED into words. I first heard this amazing piece of Broadway during a school play rehearsal, waiting for my cue. I had the songs memorized in an hour flat and begged my friends to sing them with me in the dressing rooms. Since then I have made myself purchase both the CD and the book that inspired it. Now, I talk about this beautiful piece of history to anyone that will listen. My friends have taken to simply calling me Glinda, because of my perfection of Chenoweth's sweet funny style.
Idina Menzel, who originated her Bway career in Jonathan Larson's RENT, uses her strong powerhouse vocal capabilities to her well deserved advantage, particularly in the stunning "Defying Gravity." Another favorie graced by her presence is the wistful "The Wizard and I" After these two numbers, Chenoweth steals the scene with "Popular" and "Thank Goodness."
Chenoweth sparkles alongside Menzel in several well placed duets , such as "Defying Gravity", One Short Day", and the heartwerming "for Good." They work amazingly well together and are as sure and confident in their respective roles as if they were tailor made for them.
The characters of The Wizard (Joel Grey) and the brainless Fiyero (Norbert Leo Butz) are understated, but present as the icing to the melodious cake Menzel and Chenoweth have baked. The Wizard's numbers are endearingly scatterbrained and realistically human. Fiyero plays a stunningly well done part as the lover of both Galinda and Elphaba at one point or another. His "Dancing through Life" blew me away as he took shape as a disinterested schoolboy. And "As Long as Your Mine", showcases both Menzel and Butz at the top of their form.
This album has only strength and absolutely NO bad songs or sloppy vocal performances. I find myself humming it as I go down a street and the only time it leaves my discman is if I'm in my room.
The orchestrations are "Wonderful" and the vocals, particularly the two leads, "Defy Gravity".
Now stop reading my review and go spend "one Short Day" in the Emerald City.
Free Music Review: Wicked is 5 Stars
The soundtrack is great!!!! I haven't seen the play yet, but I'm going to, and I've read the book. It's so addicting!! I can't stand not listening to it!1. No One Mourns the Wicked- A very good beginning. Kristen Chenoweth sounds really good.
2. Dear Old Shiz- A nice song, but kind of boring; I usually skip it
3. The Wizard and I- A really good song. The part Carole Shelley sings is boring, but doesn't last very long. Idina Menzel sounds great, like in all her other songs.
4. What Is This Feeling?- A very lively song and fun to listen to. Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel sound great together.
5. Something Bad- It has important information for the story, but as a song, it's rather pointless. I usually skip it.
6. Dancing Through Life- Another lively song (for most of the time). I really like it.
7. Popular- Very funny. Kristen Chenoweth is perfect for it.
8. I'm Not That Girl- Another nice song (but I listen to this one).
9. One Short Day- Lively (again). I really like the main tune.
10. A Sentimental Man- Boring and short. I always skip it.
11. Defying Gravity- Amazing!!! I fell in love with it immediatly! Ya gotta love it!!!! It's impossible not to!
12. Thank Goodness- A good song. A few parts are boring, but the rest is good.
13. Wonderful- It starts out slow and boring, but then it gets more lively.
14. I'm Not The Girl (Reprise)- Very Short (0:50)
15. As Long As Your Mine- A beautiful love song! I always really like listening to it.
16. No Good Deed- A very cool song.
17. March of the Witch Hunters- Kind of cool, but kind of boring.
18. For Good- A beautiful duet with Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel.
19. Finale- Most of it's pretty except the end (a repeat of No One Mourns the Wicked).
This CD has a few songs that you might want to skip, but all the other songs make up for them. If you don't have Wicked, you definitly should buy it. Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth are amazing together (too bad Kristin Chenoweth already left the show). To wrap it up, this CD is amazing!!!!!!
Free Music Review: This is wicked!
Hit: 5 Stars
I was skeptical when I first heard the concept of Wicked. I was never a "Wizard of Oz" fan, however, I questioned how this would twist around the old classic. But then I heard the music...
It didn't take me long to see the power behind the now hit musical. I recieved the soundtrack for Christmas this year, and was blown away by not only the music, but by the pipes of Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel. They are both incredibly talented singers and harmonize with each other so well that you can almost HEAR a bond between the two of them. I had heard Chenoweth before in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and in Disney's production of "Annie", but I was never all that impressed with her until now. Her bubbly and decreasingly snobby impersonation of Galinda is nothing short of hilarious, but her voice is amazing as well. Her voice communicates her character's emotion so that we can almost see what's happening onstage, even if we've never actually seen the stage production before. "Popular", her leading song, makes me chuckle everytime, but it still has an amount of musical depth like all of the other songs.
However, the star vehicle of this soundtrack is none other than Idina Menzel. Only one word can describe her voice...POWER. The second half of Defying Gravity was the first part of this musical that I had ever heard, and that was all it took for me to put the CD on my Christmas list. She can belt out notes like I've never heard before. It only takes one listen of "The Wizard and I", "Defying Gravity", or "No Good Deed" see this. Sometimes I'll just put the soundtrack in and listen to 30 seconds or so of one of her songs just to hear her sing. Menzel's voice just has that extra ummph that you can feel in your very bones.
Don't miss out on this exceptional production that will leave you stunned by the power, drama, and depth of Steven Schwartz's music. It's like a cross between the Broadway of the 50's and the world of rock that we know today. It's perfect for just about anyone who appriciates musicals. You'd be crazy not to make it part of your collection.
Free Music Review: Wicked Soars (eventually)
Hit: 5 Stars
I am a big fan of Gregory McQuires novels, 'Wicked' and 'Confessions Of An Ugly Step-Sister' being by far the best. The way he looks at the questions of good and evil is a recurring theme. No one truely thinks they are evil, just misunderstood. And 'Good' people (bible-waving happy clappers, et al) are equally questionable. In reality everyone thinks their actions are justfied and for the best.
The news that 'Wicked' would be made into a musical floored me a little. I was eagerly awaiting the mega-bucks Hollwood adaptation that has been in the works for years with Demi Moore's production company. But a musical makes sense - Oz has always been a muscal world, and the medium it lends itself to colourful fantasy. Plus the characters can speak directly to the audience and tell us what they are thinking; hard to achieve in film.
Being in Australia I knew it would be years before we got to see 'Wicked' on stage, so ordered the cast recording from amazon. At first I wasn't a fan of the music. I thought it was a little too Disney, and once I discovered the composers credentials lay in 'Beauty And The Beast' and 'Poccahontas', I shuddered. Elphaba sounds more like Arial from 'The Little Mermaid' than the dark and deep creature created by McGuire. But credit to Stephen Schwartz, what seemed poppy and pretty on the surface soon turned out to have a very dark heart, which beautiflly reflects the themes. The songs get better and better on further listening, and the vocal performances are sensational, especially by Kristin Chenoweth (possibly the best name ever), who has a devilish sense of comic timing and manages the different faces of Glinda (sweet Valley Girl 'Clueless' to the operatic high As.) She is hilarious and a stand-out talent. She made this recording for me and I would hate to be another performer stepping into her role.
Beautifully scored and performed, packed full of humour, and wth a story line that has been even further developed by the remarkable Winnie Holtzman, 'Wicked' is a fully realized and magical experience. Now if it would just head Down Under...
Free Music Review: A fantastic musical that in no way resembles its source material
Hit: 5 Stars
This past Christmas, a friend with a bit of foresight gave me this recording, telling me that I couldn't be a "true theater kid" until I listened to it. Being at the time more into Blink-182 than Norbert Leo Butz, I doubted her words, but, upon listening to this album... and then Rent... and Avenue Q... and The Last Five Years, and so on, I can say that Wicked is without a doubt one of the best musicals I know of, due majorly to its cast members but also the music itself's quality.
If you're looking for subtlety, Wicked is not for you. But if you want overblown, soaring, bombastic SHOW TUNES, then buy it right now. There's a reason that a musical is currently in Amazon's top 20 sellers, and that is its pop sensibility, which makes the musical a true standout.
Looking at specific songs, there are the obvious standouts. My personal favorite, the hopeful and exuberant "The Wizard and I," the sweet, if unoriginal, "As Long As You're Mine," and of course the simply astonishing Act I finale, the indescribable "Defying Gravity." Whenever I feel like slamming doors, jumping up and down on my bed and screaming along with a "who needs you anyway?" song, I always head straight for "Defying Gravity."
And so it is an obvious conclusion to reach that the star of the show is the incomparable Idina Menzel. Surrounded by a cast of amazing talent, she still makes herself stand out. Costar Kristen Chenoweth is operatic, utterly convincing, and devestatingly hilarious, and Norbert Leo Butz as the love interest is used to great, if not enough, effect, in "Dancing Through Life" and the aforementioned "As Long As You're Mine." But Menzel's powerful and unique voice destroys all competition for the spotlight. Her husky pipes turn what would be a good recording into a stellar one. Built on the solid foundation of a plot, which is wholly unlike Gregory Maguire's also excellent book of the same name, the songs are allowed to soar into the stratosphere in a musical that redefines BIG. A must-buy, in my opinion, if only because of Ms. Menzel's amazing talent.