Ho ho; you know not what you've unleashed :D
Wicked! The Life and Times of the Witch of the West was a novel written by Gregory Maguire, uh, a few years back. It's pretty much an epic fanfic; it tells the backstory story of the witches of Oz: particularly Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, but also her sister Nessa, the Wicked Witch of the South; and friend Glinda, the Good Witch of the East (North in the movie).
As the title suggests, the novel follows the story of Elphaba, a girl born with green skin and an allergy to water (which ultimately leads to her demise at the hands of Dorothy and her bucket), who goes on to become the Wicked Witch known to all from the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The book uses many characters from L. F. Baum's original story; the Wizard himself, the Munchkin Boq, and of course Glinda the Good, but also introduces a massive cast of original characters; Fiyero, Madam Morrible and the ill-fated Dr. Dillamond - who, like the Cowardly Lion, is an animal capable of human speech and reasoning. These creatures are known as Animals (unlike the non-sentient animals), and Elphaba's dedication to them causes a huge turning point in the book.
The novel sold an absolute ton of copies and was very popular, probably due to a combination of the good writing and the twist on such a classic tale - and went on to gain the attention of a musical-writing team.
With a script by Winnie Holtzman, music written by Stephen Schwartz (who also did the music for Disney's Pocahontas and Hunchback of Notre Dame) and lead actresses Idina Menzel (famous in theatre for her role of Maureen in Rent - another musical I can't recommend enough) and Kristin Chenoweth (a Tony-winning theatre actress, who went on to do loads of things in TV, including playing Olive in Pushing Daisies), the spectacular musical Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz opened on Broadway on 30th October 2005 (I only remember that because it's my birthday XD). The massive budget allowed for the show to be spectacular in every way, with detailed sets, costumes and special effects, and the musical was extremely successful, with shows opening in Australia, Chicago, London and more.
The musical is much more accessible than the book; children of all ages can see and love the musical, while the book is quite obviously aimed at adults. Not only were the heavy themes of sex, religion, social class, death and terrorism removed from the musical version, the plot also underwent significant changes. As could be expected from the title changing from the book's "Life and Times of the Witch of the West" to "The Untold Story of the Witches (in the plural) of Oz", the musical focuses on both Elphaba and Glinda (compared to the book focusing almost exclusively on Elphaba), beginning with their time together at Shiz University and following on through to Elphaba's spiral into "wickedness" and Glinda's ascent to "goodness".
A quick (hurr hurr) recap of Act 1 of the musical:
At Shiz, popular Galinda is forced to share a room with the green, socially inept Elphaba, and the two hate each other from the moment they meet. After a kind act from Elphaba and a cruel-turned-kind one from Galinda, the two become tentative friends, even when Galinda starts dating Fiyero, a rich prince from a far-off corner of Oz who Elphaba initially detests but eventually respects.
After their teacher, the Goat Dr. Dillamond, is removed from his job because he is an Animal, Elphaba decided to go to see the Wizard and tell him about the injustice. Glinda (who changed her name from Galinda to honour Dillamond) tags along and after travelling to the Emerald City and meeting the Wizard, they realize all is not well in Oz.
In the most epic musical sequence ever, Elphaba decides to leave to go and fight against the Wizard's unfair rule, inviting Glinda to join her, but Glinda can't bring herself to leave everything behind. I won’t detail Act 2 for fear of massive spoilers X3
Which version is better? It's heard for me to say; I love both for different reasons. I listen to the Wicked soundtrack almost constantly, and I've seen the show twice now and have been mesmerised from start to finish. However, there's no denying the richer, better plot of the book, not to mention the advantage that it can be enjoyed anywhere - while seeing the musical will set you back at least £25 and lasts for only about three hours.
And there you have it; the story behind Wicked in a (rather massive) nutshell. I hope you enjoyed my rambling, because this has to be one of the most huge messages I’ve ever written XD
Wicked! The Life and Times of the Witch of the West was a novel written by Gregory Maguire, uh, a few years back. It's pretty much an epic fanfic; it tells the backstory story of the witches of Oz: particularly Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, but also her sister Nessa, the Wicked Witch of the South; and friend Glinda, the Good Witch of the East (North in the movie).
As the title suggests, the novel follows the story of Elphaba, a girl born with green skin and an allergy to water (which ultimately leads to her demise at the hands of Dorothy and her bucket), who goes on to become the Wicked Witch known to all from the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The book uses many characters from L. F. Baum's original story; the Wizard himself, the Munchkin Boq, and of course Glinda the Good, but also introduces a massive cast of original characters; Fiyero, Madam Morrible and the ill-fated Dr. Dillamond - who, like the Cowardly Lion, is an animal capable of human speech and reasoning. These creatures are known as Animals (unlike the non-sentient animals), and Elphaba's dedication to them causes a huge turning point in the book.
The novel sold an absolute ton of copies and was very popular, probably due to a combination of the good writing and the twist on such a classic tale - and went on to gain the attention of a musical-writing team.
With a script by Winnie Holtzman, music written by Stephen Schwartz (who also did the music for Disney's Pocahontas and Hunchback of Notre Dame) and lead actresses Idina Menzel (famous in theatre for her role of Maureen in Rent - another musical I can't recommend enough) and Kristin Chenoweth (a Tony-winning theatre actress, who went on to do loads of things in TV, including playing Olive in Pushing Daisies), the spectacular musical Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz opened on Broadway on 30th October 2005 (I only remember that because it's my birthday XD). The massive budget allowed for the show to be spectacular in every way, with detailed sets, costumes and special effects, and the musical was extremely successful, with shows opening in Australia, Chicago, London and more.
The musical is much more accessible than the book; children of all ages can see and love the musical, while the book is quite obviously aimed at adults. Not only were the heavy themes of sex, religion, social class, death and terrorism removed from the musical version, the plot also underwent significant changes. As could be expected from the title changing from the book's "Life and Times of the Witch of the West" to "The Untold Story of the Witches (in the plural) of Oz", the musical focuses on both Elphaba and Glinda (compared to the book focusing almost exclusively on Elphaba), beginning with their time together at Shiz University and following on through to Elphaba's spiral into "wickedness" and Glinda's ascent to "goodness".
A quick (hurr hurr) recap of Act 1 of the musical:
At Shiz, popular Galinda is forced to share a room with the green, socially inept Elphaba, and the two hate each other from the moment they meet. After a kind act from Elphaba and a cruel-turned-kind one from Galinda, the two become tentative friends, even when Galinda starts dating Fiyero, a rich prince from a far-off corner of Oz who Elphaba initially detests but eventually respects.
After their teacher, the Goat Dr. Dillamond, is removed from his job because he is an Animal, Elphaba decided to go to see the Wizard and tell him about the injustice. Glinda (who changed her name from Galinda to honour Dillamond) tags along and after travelling to the Emerald City and meeting the Wizard, they realize all is not well in Oz.
In the most epic musical sequence ever, Elphaba decides to leave to go and fight against the Wizard's unfair rule, inviting Glinda to join her, but Glinda can't bring herself to leave everything behind. I won’t detail Act 2 for fear of massive spoilers X3
Which version is better? It's heard for me to say; I love both for different reasons. I listen to the Wicked soundtrack almost constantly, and I've seen the show twice now and have been mesmerised from start to finish. However, there's no denying the richer, better plot of the book, not to mention the advantage that it can be enjoyed anywhere - while seeing the musical will set you back at least £25 and lasts for only about three hours.
And there you have it; the story behind Wicked in a (rather massive) nutshell. I hope you enjoyed my rambling, because this has to be one of the most huge messages I’ve ever written XD
