Coming away from watching Wicked the movie (part 1) I chewed over the decision to break the film into two halves. As I’m also well into the second half of writing my next novel these thoughts have some relevance to fiction writers too.
The first part of Wicked contains the most crowd-pleasing songs, opening with ‘No-one Mourns the Wicked’, includes the frothy ‘Popular’ and ends with the barnstorming ‘Defying Gravity’. Most musicals I’ve seen have their best-known songs in the first half, from Phantom of the Opera to Rocky Horror Show. Introducing characters and setting the scene are splendid springboards for songs. There is more opportunity to be comedic before things turn more serious, as they often do.
When a musical is based on a great book, such as Les Miserables, or real events such as Evita or Hamilton the ending of the story is often downbeat. Closing numbers can’t be frothy if the lead characters are dead or disillusioned. Jesus Christ Superstar is a case in point.
In the second half there is less opportunity to introduce characters the audience will care about. The plot may twist but the stakes have been established and the writer is moving towards creating a satisfying conclusion rather than vanishing down side-avenues. In a musical there is a tendency to reprise early tunes, and although this adds continuity it reduces novelty. There is less scope to be different and fresh. I only recall ‘March of the Witch Hunters’ from the second half of the Wicked stage show and there is none of the fun and frivolity of the first half.
The 2024 movie is based on the stage musical, derived loosely from the surprisingly dark and complex novel by Gregory Maguire, a subversive take on the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and its source book by L Frank Baum. Its swipes at discrimination, gaslighting and authoritarian rulers is currently causing an anti-woke backlash. Anyone writing in canon is boxed in to an extent by both what has gone before, and public expectations. The story of Wizard of Oz is very well known, but the writers of Wicked part 2 have a lot of the Maguire novel to dip into that wasn’t used on stage. It is perhaps then no surprise that the creators are considering writing new songs for Part 2. A theatre audience will come back from the bar to watch the second half of a show they’re engaged with. It’s more of a challenge to ask movie-goers to return in a year or so and pay to see the bookend of a story containing reprise songs, fewer characters, increasingly dark storyline and lack of a bravura ending.
And lessons for the novelist? Just like the writer of a stage musical it’s exciting to write that beginning, to introduce characters, set the stakes and then develop the complexity. The second half can be more of a slog to write, but it’s not just a case of filling up the word count until you reach that denouement you’ve been planning for months. Allowing the plot to sag is rather like over-using a musical reprise and relying on your audience to just stick with it because they’ve bought the ticket. The three-quarter point can be the most demanding, when you want to start tying up the loose ends so as to produce a satisfying conclusion without giving the finale away.
The audience is there for the journey not just the destination.
Leave a Reply