Entertainment

A ‘Wicked’ Decade: How a Critically Trashed Musical Became a Long-Running Smash

Blockbuster

Ten years ago, ‘Wicked’ opened on Broadway. Here’s how a ‘popular’ good witch, a tortured green witch, and a legion of fans defied bad reviews—and gravity—to change Broadway.

articles/2013/10/30/a-wicked-decade-how-a-critically-trashed-musical-became-a-long-running-smash/131029-fallon-wicked-tease-embed_z1x3uc
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times, via Redux

What did critics think of the Broadway blockbuster Wicked when it opened in 2003?

articles/2013/10/30/a-wicked-decade-how-a-critically-trashed-musical-became-a-long-running-smash/131029-fallon-wicked-tease-embed_o6uxxu

An “overproduced, overblown, confusingly dark and laboriously ambitious jumble,” ruled Newsday. “The show’s twenty-two songs were written by Stephen Schwartz, and not one of them is memorable,” wrote

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