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ELPHABA: Unlimited, together, we're unlimited Together we'll be the greatest team there's ever been Glinda, dreams the way we planned 'em
GLINDA: If we work in tandem
BOTH: There's no fight we cannot win Just you and I, defying gravity With you and I, defying gravity
ELPHABA: They'll never bring us down
-Stephen Schwartz, Wicked1
A great deal of wisdom resides in conventions: nothing less than the premises of an age, the cultural arrangements that enable communication, coexistence, and self-awareness.
-Susan McClary, Conventional Wisdom2
In act 1, scene 1 of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (1943), Curly, the cowboy, and Laurey, the farm girl-the musical's principals-sing to each other in alternating verses, "Don't throw bouquets at me / Don't please my folks too much," and "Don't praise my charm too much / Don't look so vain with me." To the characters, the duet is meant to express their incompatibility, as each worries (and sings) that "people will say we're in love."3 To the audience, however, the song conveys what Curly and Laurey don't yet realize: that they are, of course, already in love. This "hypothetical love song" early in the musical propels the characters through a series of conflicts and misunderstandings that ultimately lead to their marriage. Near the end of Oklahoma!, the couple reprises one verse of the song together and then leads the ensemble into a celebratory rendition of the musical's title song. This kind of duet, in which two characters who are (or who will be) in love deny it or avoid it or disagree, argue, or claim to hate each other, was, even in 1943, a recognizable, conventional song-type in musical theatre.
Sixty years later, in act 1, scene 1 of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's Wicked (2003), Elphaba, the smart, green-skinned outcast, and Glinda, the popular blond, sing to each other in alternating lines, "What is this feeling so sudden and new?" / "I felt the moment I laid eyes on you" / "My pulse is rushing" / "My head is reeling" / "My face is flushing"; and then in unison, "What is this feeling?" The audience might think the pair is singing a queer love song until they get to the punch line, and it turns out that "this feeling"...