[Jeenyus]

Some time ago I went to see Musicals in Ahoy ( A show of al kinds of musical highlights) and Maaike Boerdam (dutch singer) sang Defying Gravity in Dutch: Bezwaar de zwaartekracht. how weird that sounds!!!!

a few days later I read on the internet that the Director of Stage Holding had a meeting with swartz for bringing wicked to Holland

First of all I wil say JIPPIE on the other hand that they wil have to change the translation of Defying Gravity cause it realy sucked in dutch lol.

Big Plus by the time they wil start i'm graduatet of fashion school and can work at wicked's costume department hahaha LOL

[what_the_heck013]

That's very neat.

The Dutch translations of musicals are interesting. Annie and Cats, for example.

[Pounce]

The only dutch musical I've seen is Ja zuster, nee zuster which translates to Yes Nurse No Nurse. Not bad, but not a great musical either. It has one song about a Greek widower the purpose of which to the story, I have no idea.

Wicked is ok, but it will be interesting to see if it takes off in London. My guess is that it will not be as popular in London as New York. It's also expensive to produce so I wonder if the Dutch market can support it? Plus, to have some appreciation of the show, the audience must have some knowledge of The Wizard of Oz so if foreign audiences don't know it, it probably won't do well.

[Jeenyus]

yes the dutch are familier with the wizord of oz, we just have the premiere of the wiz, and there for stageholding maby can affort it we just had the lion king, cabaret, cats is comming AGAIN, aida and many more broadway productions
i think it would work here

[Pounce]

[Jeenyus]

actually they rebuild the circus theater just for the lion king to fit al the sets and the animal parade during the first act

[Pounce]

[Jeenyus]

the theater is property of joop van den enden/ stage holding ( and 2 other investers) so i don't think the goverment did anything

[Elin]

the audience must have some knowledge of The Wizard of Oz so if foreign audiences don't know it

The story is known all over the world.

[rabymon10]

that's a big assumption!!

my French, and my German housemate, and all of his friends have never even heard of TWOO. one of the first things i ever asked them when they moved in, was whether or not they had heard or seen it, because it is one of my favourite movies. even after watching bits of it, and listening to the music, they still can't say that they've heard of it back home.

europe is certainly not as westernised as you'd think, as they value their own culture before others. the current status of cultural assimilation in Berlin is a good example of this. particularly in Germany, they prefer to make their own musicals, rather than bring over franchises. they have their own fairytales - heck, most of our fairytales are based off theirs!

JAI

[Jeenyus]

i can assure you that a lot of people here in holland know the story trust me!!!

[Timmy_Wishes he was Quast]

Spoke to Stephen Schwartz in London after Wicked on Friday and he was on his way to Holland on Saturday...so putting 2 and 2 together and making six...or you can do that yourselves! LOL

[Pounce]

[rabymon10]

europe has rather 'helped' define what is Western. now, western society has gone off on its own tangent, and has morphed into something else, quite unique.

and yes, it is true that those musicals have had runs in Germany, but most of those productions, particularly Cats, has been localised for the audience. Shows like STEX, Aida, TLK, and POTO don't necessarily require some kind of cultural understanding, or rely on refering to particular sources to create maximum enjoyment.

the issue at hand is that to get the most out of Wicked (particularly in the second act), it is necessary to be somewhat aquainted with The Wizard of Oz, which is something that most of Europe does not have. that's one of the strong playing cards with the show- why it is so well received by audiences in the US, because it fills those little gaps in a well loved story, and makes it something else.

in conclusion, it would most probably be changed a bit to suit those audiences more, and to make it even clearer. this has already taken place in the London production, because while TWOO is still popular in the UK, it's not quite as popular as in the US. and so , changes such as Glinda waving and yelling 'Goodbye Dorothy!' are there to make it clearer that yes, it is now entering the period where TWOO is taking place, and yes, she is saying goodbye to Dorothy, this little girl who we have grown to love, but is instead seen as an annoyance to the likeable characters such as Elphaba, in the show.

i hope this clears up any confusion pertaining to my post.

[Jeenyus]

oke i understand what you are saying now, for i thought you meant that we don't know at all the story but for that waving dorothy away part i have a good example as well
the other day i was at school and i showed my friend some pics from wicked and told her in red lines how the story goes, then she said i think it's stupid that they made her green it's so typical she's a witch so lets make here green so i said but that's the whole point of the story it's about why they connect green skin to beeing a witch not the other way around
the story tells us why, but then again she hasn't seen the musical

do i make any sense???

[Jeenyus]

I just want to quote something that was on the official wicked site of london

[Pounce]

[rabymon10]

yeah, i don't get it either.

but on another note, it has now been confirmed that it will open in Germany before the end of 2007.

[Belle]

I guess he's referring to the dark political themes of demonising a section of society to unite people against a common enemy, and of rejection for being different... both negative themes which seem to be growing worse with time. He's suggesting the relevance of these themes is helping sell the book and the musical, so he's making money from his negative but accurate observations.

[rabymon10]

makes sense now.

[Pounce]

Yeah, I think Belle's explanation probably is what Maguire intended. But I think Maguire is wrong because I really don't think the times are any more relevant to the book's themes.

[Belle]

I think I disagree with him, because I don't think it's the dark political themes that sell the musical, certainly, and to an extend the book. I read it because I was intrigued by the concept of seeing the "other" story behind the Wizard of Oz, as long as that story is good it could have been any themes.

I think the musical sells more on the music, the characters and moral of friendship rather than the political themes. So he needsn't be despondant about it!