 Elements of the book were rewritten while several songs underwent minor transformations . This included the excision of " Which Way is the Party ? " , the introductory song to the character Fiyero , which was subsequently replaced by " Dancing Through Life " in Schwartz 's fear that the former failed to be a clear " statement of Fiyero 's philosophy of life " . In addition , there was concern that Menzel 's Elphaba " got a little overshadowed " by Chenoweth 's Glinda . San Francisco Chronicle critic Robert Hurwitt wrote , " Menzel 's brightly intense Elphaba the Wicked Witch [ needs ] a chance of holding her own alongside Chenoweth 's gloriously , insidiously bubbly Glinda " , so the creative team set about making her character " more prominent " . On the subject of the Broadway revisions , Schwartz recalled , " It was clear there was work to be done and revisions to be made in the book and the score . The critical community was , frankly , very helpful to us . We learned a lot from the reviews , which were honest and constructive in the aggregate , unlike New York , where the critics make up their minds before they come to the theatre . " On October 30 , 2003 , the musical opened on Broadway . 
