There’s a story I like to tell about my first trip to Broadway. It was a high school trip to New York, barrelling through all the hits I’d never even heard of, let alone seen. But the highlight was definitely the show-stopping, Tony-winning reinvention that had all the more musically well-heeled among us giddy with excitement.

I hadn’t heard the songs. I didn’t know the story. But I was aware of the reputation of the musical often cited as the best of the 21st century.

So when we arrived at the show-stoppingest moment of all — wicked witch Elphaba lifting off the stage as she belted the lead track, , simultaneously wrapping up the pre- backstory that turned her wicked and communicating to the audience her cathartic self-acceptance just before the curtains closed — I was floored.

So floo

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