I thought I'd post a few thoughts about The Score and the Cast Recording of Wicked, which I have been listening to and enjoying immensely. Since his earliest efforts, composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz has sought to bring the sounds of popular contemporary music ("pop music") to the musical stage, and his efforts have been rewarded with considerable success, but the scope and quality of this current project is fairly breathtaking. It's always a treat to find something on the commercial Main Stem with such quality and inventiveness. Big kudos are due to orchestrator Bill Brohn too, who marshals a huge orchestra to great effect. A real treat.