Wicked (Maguire novel) in the context of "Radicalization"

Wicked (known in full as Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz) is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is loosely adapted from Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which itself was based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation. Set in the Land of Oz before and after Dorothy Gale's arrival from Kansas, the musical explores the complex relationship between Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland — the future Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good, respectively — as they are tested by their contrasting perspectives, shared love interest, and reactions to the Wizard's corrupt rule, culminating in Elphaba's tragic fall.

Produced by Universal Stage Productions with producers Marc Platt, Jon B. Platt and David Stone, director Joe Mantello and choreographer Wayne Cilento, the original production of Wicked premiered on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre in October 2003, after completing pre-Broadway tryouts at San Francisco's Curran Theatre in May and June of that year. Its original stars included Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero, and Joel Grey as the Wizard. Despite mixed reviews, the production won three Tony Awards and seven Drama Desk Awards, while its original cast album received a Grammy Award.

Gregory Maguire (born June 9, 1954) is an American novelist. He is the author of Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and several dozen other novels for adults and children. Many of Maguire's adult novels are inspired by classic children's stories. Maguire published his first novel, The Lightning Time, in 1978. Wicked, published in 1995, was his first novel for adults. It was adapted into a popular Broadway musical in 2003, which was later adapted into a two-part musical film series with the first film released in 2024 and the second film released in 2025.

Elphaba Thropp (/ˈɛlfəbə ˈθrɒp/ ) is a fictional character created by Gregory Maguire as the protagonist of his 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. She also appears in the novel's musical theatre adaptation, as well as the musical's two-part film adaptation, Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (2025).

Elphaba is a reimagining of the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In Baum's novel, the Witch is unnamed and little is explained about her life; Maguire's Wicked creates a backstory for her and explores events in the Land of Oz through her perspective. Elphaba's name was formulated from the pronunciation of Baum's initials ("L.F.B."), while her appearance was modeled after Margaret Hamilton's portrayal of the Witch in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz: green-skinned, clad entirely in black, and wearing a tall peaked hat.

The Wicked Witch of the West is a character in the classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by the American author L. Frank Baum, who is the evil ruler of the Winkie Country, the western region in the Land of Oz. She is inadvertently killed by the child Dorothy Gale with a bucket of water. In Baum's subsequent Oz novels, the Wicked Witch of the West is referred to occasionally.

Margaret Hamilton played the role of the witch in the classic 1939 film based on Baum's novel. Hamilton's characterization introduced green skin, a feature repeated in later literary and dramatic representations, including Gregory Maguire's 1995 revisionist novel Wicked (as well as the novel's 2003 stage musical adaptation and subsequent two-part film adaptation), the 2013 film Oz the Great and Powerful, and the television series Once Upon a Time.