The Story of Wicked

The first act of Wicked begins in Oz long before Dorothy ever arrived. Forget the yellow brick road. Don’t try to imagine the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, or Scarecrow. Wicked is the nitty gritty truth behind the origin of the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba) and her seemingly perfect counterpart, Glinda the Good Witch.

The Wicked plot opens Act 1 when Elphaba and Glinda are still young witches at school. Being naturally green, smarter, and possessing a sharp sense of humor, Elphaba was never going to fit in with her girly classmates. The rift between Glinda and Elphaba is exacerbated when Glinda begins dating Fiyero, the romantic interest of Elphaba. In addition, Elphaba finds out that the Wizard of Emerald City is the man responsible for the loss of rights for Oz’s human-like animals. Outraged, Elphaba vows to fight the Wizard until he stops persecuting against the animals. She becomes an outcast in Oz as the Wizard begins spreading false rumors about her evil ways. Though she knows differently, Glinda never stands up for her former classmate and friend.

Act 2 opens to a troubled time in Oz. The Wizard is spreading more and more rumors about Elphaba and everyone is scared and ready to get rid of her. It’s into this environment of reactionary fear that Dorothy and her dog Toto stumbles. At this point, Elphaba has fled to a castle in Western Oz after a short lived reunion with Fiyero and a heated run in with the Wizard’s men. Eventually, Glinda decides that she is going to do the right thing and warn Elphaba about Dorothy and the assignment to kill her but Elphaba accepts her fate and steps up to face her destiny.

Wicked is ultimately about the misconstrued perception of certain people created when those people stand up for what they believe in. History has always told us that the Wicked Witch of the West is a bad person and deserved to die. Wicked the Musical asks us to consider the possibility of something different. There are two sides to every story and Wicked beautifully tells Elphaba’s side of this one.