![](\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2025%2F11%2F116025390.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Nobody\u2019s shocked that \u201cWicked: For Good\u201d is poised to be Queen of the Box Office this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the blockbuster sequel to a best picture Oscar nominee that grossed more than $700 million worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Success was so obvious that the Munchkins wouldn\u2019t even bother to come out, come out and sing a happy song about it.<\/p>\n But, 22 years since Elphaba first defied gravity onstage, what many forget is that \u201cWicked\u201d the musical didn\u2019t start off as a surefire juggernaut that was destined to gross $6 billion.<\/p>\n Its yellow brick road was full of hazards from the very start.<\/p>\n Back in 2003, during the \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d riff\u2019s tryout in San Francisco, Calif., the musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman was ripped by critics.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDing, dong, the witch\u2019s prognosis is uncertain at this stage of \u2018Wicked\u2019,\u201d sniped Variety<\/a>, then the most important out-of-town review.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem lies less in the production\u2026 than with a mediocre book, trite lyrics and largely generic music.\u201d<\/p>\n And your little dog, too!<\/p>\n At the time, The Post\u2019s Michael Riedel reported that out west, Schwartz and director Joe Mantello were at such a boiling point, the two stopped speaking to each other<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n You can imagine the fights.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you only had a heart!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you<\/em> only had a brain!\u201d<\/p>\n Producer David Stone chalked up the theatrical fisticuffs to \u201cnatural creative tension.\u201d<\/p>\n Schwartz, by the way, appears to have natural creative tension with a lot of his collaborators. He infamously butted heads with Bob Fosse during \u201cPippin,\u201d and, I\u2019m told, has with others since then.<\/p>\n \u201cSchwartz has power, and his his-way-or-the-highway attitude was definitely on display,\u201d a source said of his working style during the panned new Broadway show<\/a> \u201cThe Queen of Versailles.\u201d<\/p>\n But for \u201cWicked,\u201d he made necessary changes. Love interest Fiyero\u2019s song called \u201cWhich Way\u2019s the Party?\u201d (\u201cabysmal,\u201d said Variety) was scrapped and replaced with \u201cDancing Through Life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And the book was extensively rewritten by Holzman to make witchy Elphaba less of a womp-womp victim.<\/p>\n By September, the $14 million production had built a so-so $3 million advance in New York, and opened on Broadway to yet more critical shrugs.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is basically a kid\u2019s show with aspirations,\u201d wrote The Post\u2019s Clive Barnes in a 2 \u00bd-star review<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n