Hal Leonard has published the 120-page soft-back tome, which features 13 songs from one of the season's biggest hits. The book, with a suggested retail price of $17.95, also features several pages of color and black-and white photos — by photographer Joan Marcus — from the musical now playing Broadway's Gershwin Theatre. With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, the Wicked vocal selections include the music and lyrics for these songs: "No One Mourns the Wicked," "The Wizard and I," "What Is This Feeling?," "Dancing Through Life," "Popular," "I'm Not That Girl," "One Short Day," "Defying Gravity," "I Couldn't Be Happier," "Wonderful," "As Long As You're Mine," "No Good Deed" and "For Good."

The songbook also includes a note from composer Schwartz, who was Tony-nominated for his score: "Several decisions always have to be made in translating the score from a show into a book of vocal selections. In the case of Wicked, I found it trickier than usual, because many of the songs are structured to carry the story in the show, but out-of-context would be clearer and more effective to perform in a somewhat altered format. In the end, I chose to try to make the songs work for this medium, and thus to make changes in certain cases from the way they appear in the stage show and on the cast album. This entailed writing new lyrics in some instances ('No One Mourns the Wicked' and 'Defying Gravity'), providing new endings for some of the songs ('Dancing Through Life,' 'Defying Gravity,' 'Wonderful'), and eliminating interior chorus sections, intros, or other show-oriented material from several of the selections. . . "

With a score by Schwartz, a book by Winnie Holzman and direction by Joe Mantello, Wicked features choreography by Wayne Cilento and plays the Gershwin Theatre, 222 West 51st Street. The musical co-stars Tony Award winners Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel. Tickets are available by calling (212) 307-4100 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com.