[kiwitechgirl]

I saw a production of The Witches of Eastwick today, which is a show I had not seen or heard before. Myself and several of the others in the group I was with commented that musically, we thought that Wicked has quite a few similarities to Witches - which, I should point out, predates Wicked by three years (premiered in July 2000 in London). There was a moment at the end of Act 1 where all three witches flew - and the song they sang as they flew could have been swapped out for Defying Gravity without making too much difference, and there was a definite For Good moment not long before the end of Act 2. I'm not accusing Schwartz of plagiarism, far from it, I just think it's interesting that two very different shows about witches have thematically quite similar musical motifs. Anybody else picked up on this?

[Salome]

I think ithe music in Witches of Eastwick is far superior to Wicked. but it does seem like Schwatz ripped off a few themes.

[Mumsytype]

Witches are supposed to fly.

It's a spectacular effect, so putting it at the end of the first act is dramatically sensible. The rather gooey 'best friends' scene is desirable to give the audience that sentimental 'oh but they're nice people really' feeling, to help them 'connect' with the characters.

I doubt there's any rip-off at all - just two minds coming to the same logical conclusion.

[nickhutson]

Both shows are done by the same orchestrator too of course.

Whilst both enjoyable scores, Wicked is a bit more complex musically. But - yes - the flying at the end of act one, the dance with the devil/dancing through life/the sentimentality of the show...

I think WOE as a lot funnier than Wicked... and certainly a lot more adult.

[KwaTheatre]

They are both about witches, so they are going to have similarities. I mean, how many vampire and werewolf movies have you seen when they didn't copy off eachother or seem extremely similar.

Though I do pick WoE, over Wicked, I don't think Mr. S, was really trying to copy.

[music is my life!!!]

I think they're both kinda similar, otherwise i probably wouldn't like them, cuz i have quite a narrow musical preference for shows. but, i don't think SS ripped off WoE composers, but may have heard the recording and was inspired by them.

Anyway the only real similarity between the 2 shows is the magic and the full orchestrial orchestration. SS got his inspiration from the novel of Wicked by G. McGuire - not from Witches, which is clearly aimed at a more mature audience. You wuldn't want 12 year olds singing "another night at darryl's" in any performance, but you could probably just about cope with "Popular", even though it's far more overdone, because the themes are different!

[Lilithia]

Random fact, the girl playing Nessarose in the Melbourne production was originally one of the three witches from the original production in Melbourne of "The Witches of Eastwick"... just wanted to mention this lol!!

[Musicat]

Yeah I definitely think they are musically similar. Darryl's songs kind of remind me of Fiyero's, and the witches' songs are quite similar to those in Wicked. Especially I Wish I May (great song) and Look At Me.

[Charlotte_Lucyx]

I disagree. Im actually listening to "I Wish I May" right now, and i dont think its similar at all! You know, Its softer, and more cheerful!