Wicked: The Grimmerie, a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Hit Broadway Musical by David Cote Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Wicked: The Grimmerie, a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Hit Broadway Musical
Book Review: Misleading description
Summary: 1 Stars
The description on Amazon clearly states that the book contains the libretto as well as the spells used in the show. The book does not. I understand that the original intention was to include these things, but they were dropped at the last minute. The description of the book was misleading. If I just wanted a book with pictures from the show I would buy a program and save myself the money. I gave the book one star because it is not the book that was advertised. The pictures may be nice, but without the libretto the book is fluff.Book Review: Wicked: The Grimmerie
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, after months of waiting (and a whole week early!). Wicked: The Grimmerie is here. Some may be wondering if they should buy this book, and I'm here to tell you.
The Good News: The cover and design of the book is amazing. The cover looks old and worn and is even padded. The intricate designs are textured and the book is nice and heavy and thick. The inside design is incredible. Each page (printed on very heavy paper) is made to look old, worn and stained and it's wonderful to look at. As for the actual contents... wow. The production photos are brilliantly printed and include photos from the following casts: Original Broadway Cast, 2nd Broadway Cast (Jennifer Laura Thompson and Joey McIntyre), Original Tour Cast (Stephanie J. Block and Kendra Kassebaum), and the 3rd Broadway Cast (Shoshana Bean and David Ayers). There are very few new photos but there are some. Most of them are from the tour cast (most of Kendra and some of Stephanie and one small one of Carole Kane). There are many interviews with every cast member and many from Gregory Maguire (writer of Wicked the novel) and Stephen Shwartz and Winnie Holtzman (writer of script). There is a step-by-step page of how Stephanie gets green before each show. They have a page dedicated to the dance Elphaba does in "Dancing Through Life" and they teach it to us step-by-step. They have many photos of props and sets and wigs, as well as original costume and set sketches. There is a handwritten page from the book and an early version of Defying Gravity. There is commentary on each song by Mr. Shwartz and this isn't even all of it. So much information to soak up!
The Wicked News: Unlike what some people are saying, the book DOES NOT INCLUDE THE FULL SCRIPT. There are bits of dialogue and a lot of it is summed up in a few sentences. (The Cornfield Scene is completely gone) They cut whole scenes (which is dumb, they are all spoiler free about it, even though they talk about the same parts in interviews). I was so hoping they would make a huge deal about the script and splash the libretto with tons of photos from each scene... It's very, very disappointing, yes. Very. But... ah, well. They also didn't include Elphaba's spells like they said they would. There is also a sad lack of production photos. There are so many wonderful photos and they don't use NEARLY as much as they should have... You should also know they don't include the 4th Broadway cast (Megan Hilty, Ben Vereen) or ANY of the Chicago cast (Ana Gastyer and Kate Reinders)... that really bites. The Chicago sit-down cast is only mentioned and that is a shame. If you are an Original Cast fan you may be slightly disappointed. Instead of using only the original cast photos (like the RENT "bible") they mix and match all the different casts. This would be fine except that if you are a big fan or the Chicago cast or the current Broadway cast (as of Fall 2005) you will be disappointed.
But over all, an AMAZING book. Buy it! It's a must for every Wicked fan. A MUST. This is also a wonderful gift.
Book Review: The good and the bad
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a HUGE fan of Wicked the musical and couldn't wait for this book to come out. When I finally got it, I was blown away by how cool the cover looked and at all the behind-the-scenes info (including the interviews with all the women who've played Elphaba). If you're getting the book for information on the genesis and success of the musical you can't do much better than this book. Unfortunately, there were hardly any new pictures, backstage or during the show, here to see. You could pretty much find any of them with ten minutes on Google, and with such a visually beautiful show as Wicked that was a major letdown for me. Also, the reviewer below is right- there is not a complete libretto here. Still, the design and production of The Grimmerie is very well done, but it just could have used a lot more rare pictures. Book Review: The Grimmerie Defies Gravity!
Summary: 5 Stars
Due to some cruel twist of fate, Megan Hilty, ben Vereen, and Rue McClanahan were not mentioned in the book. But aside from that I was just thrilled with the book. It is so beautiful and complette. I was especially happy that they included the dialouge embedded in the songs. This gave me a complete picture of the play's story (I've seen it once, but obviously it's nice to be reminded). While it didn't include a complete liberetto, it didn't say it did either, so I wasn't surprised. This book includes fun features such as the Elphaba or Glinda quiz, quotes from the cast, and beautiful color plates. I was happy with my purchase and think that any die-hard Wicked fan will enjoy the book. Book Review: No libretto
Summary: 1 Stars
I am a huge fan of this show as well as of Stephen Schwartz. I bought this book because I wanted the libretto of the musical. Everything I read before I ordered the book stated that it would contain the libretto. It does not. It contains the story to Wicked with large excerpts from the Holzman's book as well as the lyrics, but not the complete dialogue. Large portions of the script are reduced to a short descriptive paragraph. This book is not cheap, but I paid the price because I wanted the complete libretto. I feel like I was mislead.