The Wizard and I

"The Wizard and I" is a musical number from the hit musical Wicked. It is primarily a solo number for the character of Elphaba, serving as her "I Want" song, though the character Madame Morrible also sings in the introduction to the song.

"The Wizard and I"
Song by Carole Shelley and Idina Menzel
from the album Wicked
Released	December 16, 2003
Recorded	November 10, 2003
Genre	Show tunes
Label	Decca Broadway
Songwriter(s)	Stephen Schwartz

Context

The song is performed in the beginning of the first act of the musical. In it, Madame Morrible tells Elphaba of her talents, and tells her that she will arrange a meeting with the Wizard. This begins Elphaba's desire to be accepted despite of her skin color, with the aid of the Wizard, whom she still believes to be genuine, and able to help her with all the discrimination she has been dealing with. Elphaba also sings about redeeming herself in her father, Frexspar's, and her sister Nessarose's eyes. Also, Elphaba dreams about becoming a new person, not on the outside, but doing great deeds in league with the Wizard, and forming Oz's "favorite team."

Music

"The Wizard and I" features the "Unlimited" theme present throughout the musical. In this piece, Elphaba prophesizes a celebration throughout Oz regarding her, though she does not know it regards her "death" at the end of the musical, after being "melted" by Dorothy, which Elphaba ironically sings about in saying that she is "so happy I could melt." She also imagines that "when people see me [Elphaba] they will scream" from love, not fear. Toward the song’s climax, she declares that she will be the center of a “celebration throughout Oz” that occurs in the show’s opening. Another notable characteristic of the song is the numerous times that the word "good" appears in the libretto.

The beginning of the song features many elements of the song "Making Good," which was cut from the final drafts of the musical.

The original German recording of this song, "Der Zauberer und ich", is sung by Dutch actress, Willemijn Verkaik. She sings this song in three languages - German, Dutch and English. In an interview, Verkaik said that for her, "The Wizard and I" is the hardest song for her to sing in the English productions. This is not the case for the German and Dutch productions, where "No Good Deed" was considerably harder.

Other versions

John Barrowman has a reworking of the song for his self-titled album John Barrowman titled "The Doctor and I", which is an exclusive bonus track on iTunes. Ariana Grande, who will play Glinda in the two-part film adaptation of the musical, performed the song on the 2018 TV special A Very Wicked Halloween.

It will appear in Part One of the upcoming two-part film adaptation of the musical, set for release on November 22, 2024, sung by Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible.