Wicked (musical)

• 1. Introduction

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  Wicked, the Broadway musical, became the first production to earn over US$5 million in a single week. That happened in the final week of 2024, more than two decades after the show first reached a stage. Its full title is Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz, and the word untold is the point. The musical takes the green-skinned villain of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and tells the story from her side. Beside her stands a cheerful, popular classmate who will one day be known as Glinda the Good. Their friendship is the spine of the evening. The questions that follow are practical ones. Who found the idea, and who stood in the way of it? How does a show that critics could not agree on turn into one of the most lucrative in theatre history? And what is tucked inside a score that sometimes behaves more like an opera than a musical? The answers begin with a vacation, a novel, and a film studio that already held the rights.

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• 2. From Novel to Stage

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  Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz first met the idea while on vacation, when he picked up Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. He saw a drama in it at once. The obstacle was that Maguire had already released the rights to Universal Pictures, which planned a live-action feature film.

  In 1998 Schwartz persuaded Maguire to release the rights for a stage production. He also made what he himself called an "impassioned plea" to Universal producer Marc Platt, asking to carry out his own vision of the adaptation. Platt was persuaded and signed on as a joint producer with Universal.

  Maguire's book is a political, social and ethical commentary set in Oz in the years around Dorothy's arrival. Its Elphaba is a misunderstood, smart and fiery girl with emerald-green skin. Its Galinda is the beautiful, blonde, popular girl. The novel does not flinch from adult material, including sexual assault, political unrest, infidelity, racism and the role of religion in society. It asks readers whether good intentions with bad results are the same as bad intentions with bad results.

  Fitting that sprawling plot into a script took a year. Schwartz worked out an outline with writer Winnie Holzman, while meeting Platt to tighten the structure. Their aim was an original stage piece, not a strict adaptation of Maguire's work.

  Holzman told Playbill what survived. She said it was Maguire's "brilliant idea to take this hated figure and tell things from her point of view, and to have the two witches be roommates in college." Everything about how their friendship grows, she added, is different onstage. Schwartz defended the departure by saying the team cared most about the bond between the two women and "how their characters lead them to completely different destinies."

  The list of changes is long. Fiyero turns up as the Scarecrow, and Elphaba survives to the end. Nessarose uses a wheelchair rather than being born without arms. Boq becomes the Tin Woodman instead of Nick Chopper, and he keeps a continuing love interest in Glinda. The book's years for Elphaba in the Vinkus are cut, and so is the birth of Liir. Fiyero has no wife and children. Doctor Dillamond is fired rather than murdered, and Madame Morrible goes to prison instead of dying.

  With the outline settled, the show needed a cast, and Schwartz already had one actress in mind for Glinda.

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• 3. The Story Onstage

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  The first scene shows the citizens of Oz celebrating the death of the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda the Good Witch appears to look back on the woman she once knew. Elphaba Thropp was born with green skin after her mother had an affair. Her father, the Governor of Munchkinland, disowned her.

  At Shiz University, Elphaba arrives with her younger sister Nessarose, who is paraplegic. Other students shun her for her skin and her sarcasm. Headmistress Madame Morrible puts her in a room with the popular Galinda Upland. Morrible sees magical promise in Elphaba and tutors her privately, which makes Galinda intensely jealous. Dr. Dillamond, the only animal professor at Shiz, warns Elphaba of a conspiracy to stop animals from speaking.

  A roguish prince named Fiyero starts at Shiz and throws a party. Galinda has given Elphaba an ugly hat as a practical joke, and when the crowd mocks Elphaba for wearing it, Galinda has a change of heart and dances with her. Back in their room Galinda gives Elphaba a makeover, and the two become friends. Then Dillamond is dismissed, and his replacement shows off a cage built to silence animals. Elphaba frees the lion cub inside and escapes with Fiyero.

  Morrible tells Elphaba that the Wizard of Oz wants to meet her, and Galinda goes along to the Emerald City. On the way she renames herself Glinda in honor of Dillamond, who had mispronounced her name that way. The Wizard turns out to be a mortal man. Morrible announces she is now his press secretary. Elphaba is tricked into giving his monkey servants painful wings, and she works out that he is behind the suppression of animals. Glinda will not follow her, and Elphaba flies off on an enchanted broom.

  Years later, Act Two finds Elphaba branded the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda serving as the Wizard's spokesperson. Fiyero is now Captain of the Wizard's Guard. Nessarose governs Munchkinland and has stripped the Munchkins of their few rights so that Boq cannot leave her. Elphaba enchants her sister's silver shoes so she can walk. Nessarose then tries a love spell on Boq, mispronounces it, and shrinks his heart. Elphaba can only turn him into a tin man who needs no heart to live.

  The Wizard tries again to win Elphaba over, and even frees the monkeys, until she finds Dillamond caged and unable to speak. Glinda, hurt that Fiyero loves Elphaba, suggests spreading a rumor that Nessarose is in danger. Morrible and the Wizard decide a rumor is too weak and propose "a change in the weather." A tornado drops a house on Nessarose. Its occupant is Dorothy Gale, who then receives the silver shoes from Glinda.

  Fiyero is arrested and tortured for Elphaba's whereabouts. At Kiamo Ko castle she casts a spell to save him, presumes him dead, and finally accepts her reputation. Glinda realizes Morrible summoned the tornado. The two friends embrace for the last time. Dorothy throws a bucket of water over Elphaba, who seems to melt and leaves behind only her hat and a bottle of Green Elixir.

  Glinda shows the elixir to the Wizard, who recognizes it as his own. He is the man Elphaba's mother had the affair with, and so Elphaba's father. Glinda orders him out of Oz, takes charge, and has Morrible arrested. At Kiamo Ko, Fiyero, now a Scarecrow because of Elphaba's spell, meets Elphaba, who had faked her death. They leave Oz together, while Glinda tells everyone the Wicked Witch is dead and reluctantly joins the celebration.

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• 4. Cast, Clock and Costumes

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  Kristin Chenoweth was the actress Schwartz pictured while writing Glinda, and she joined the project during the developmental readings that shaped the book, lyrics and score. Stephanie J. Block played Elphaba in those workshops. Idina Menzel was cast in the role in late 2002, and Block would later lead the first national tour. Earlier that year the creators had recruited New York producer David Stone, who began planning the Broadway run.

  Joe Mantello came on as director and Wayne Cilento as choreographer. Designer Eugene Lee drew on W. W. Denslow's original illustrations for Baum's novels and on Maguire's idea of a story told through a giant clock. Costume designer Susan Hilferty chose a "twisted Edwardian" look and built more than 200 costumes. Lighting designer Kenneth Posner used more than 800 lights so that each of 54 distinct scenes and locations had "its own mood." By April 2003 the company was in rehearsals.

  The San Francisco tryout at the Curran Theatre began previews on the 28th of May 2003 and officially opened on the 10th of June. Audiences were generally positive. Critics admired the look and spectacle but disparaged the book, score and choreography. Dennis Harvey of Variety called it "sleekly directed" and "smartly cast" yet found the book "mediocre" and the lyrics "trite." Karen D'Souza of the San Jose Mercury News wrote that "style over substance is the real theme in this Emerald City."

  One criticism cut deep. Robert Hurwitt of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Menzel's Elphaba needed "a chance of holding her own alongside Chenoweth's gloriously, insidiously bubbly Glinda." The creators agreed that Elphaba had been overshadowed and set out to make her more prominent. Fiyero's entrance song, "Which Way is the Party?", was replaced by "Dancing Through Life." Other songs changed slightly, and parts of the book were rewritten.

  Holzman credited one decision above the rest. Schwartz had insisted on three months to rewrite between closing in San Francisco on the 29th of June and returning to rehearsal in New York. She said that time "is what made the show work." Schwartz added that the critical community had been, frankly, very helpful.

  Previews began at the Gershwin Theatre on the 8th of October 2003, and the official premiere followed on the 30th of October. Most of the team stayed, though Joel Grey now played the Wizard in place of Robert Morse.

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• 5. Hidden Melodies

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  The score of Wicked leans on leitmotifs, short themes that return in new settings, in a way that Schwartz's collaborators and critics compare to opera. Many musicals give each song fresh material. Here, a theme can turn ironic. When Glinda hands Elphaba a "ghastly" hat in "Dancing Through Life," the music quotes a tune from "What Is This Feeling?" heard a few scenes earlier.

  Elphaba's theme has the oldest roots. Schwartz first wrote its chord progression in 1971 for The Survival of St. Joan, on which he was musical director. In 2004 he said, "I always liked this tune a lot and I never could figure out what to do with it." Changing the instruments changes the mood. In the overture, brass and heavy percussion carry it, and Schwartz described the result as "like a giant shadow terrorizing you." In "As Long as You're Mine," piano and electric bass turn the same progression into a love duet. With new lyrics and a different bridge, it also forms the core of "No One Mourns the Wicked."

  The second motif is called the "Unlimited" theme. It is not a titled song, but it surfaces as an interlude in several numbers. Its melody uses the first seven notes of "Over the Rainbow," a tribute to Harold Arlen, who wrote the score for the 1939 film. Schwartz called it an inside joke and noted that a claim of theft would only begin at the eighth note. He also disguised it with a different rhythm and harmony, and mostly set it in a minor key.

  The one place it turns major is "The Wicked Witch of the East," at the moment Elphaba uses her powers to let her sister walk. By contrast, "Defying Gravity" is written primarily in D-flat major.

  Universal Music released the original Broadway cast recording on the 16th of December 2003. Stephen Oremus arranged the music, conducted, and served as musical director, alongside arranger James Lynn Abbott, with orchestrations by William David Brohn. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2005, went platinum on the 30th of November 2006 and double platinum on the 8th of November 2010.

  A fifth-anniversary edition came out on the 28th of October 2008. Its bonus disc includes "Making Good," the song later replaced by "The Wizard and I," sung by Block with Schwartz at the piano. Kerry Ellis sings "I'm Not That Girl" with Brian May on guitar, and LeAnn Rimes and Delta Goodrem sing "For Good."

  A Japanese cast album, released on the 23rd of July 2008, is the only one to include Glinda's finale dialogue. A Polish recording followed on the 15th of February 2026, the first album from a non-replica production.

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• 6. Critics and Crowds

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  Ben Brantley of the New York Times loved the Broadway production but panned the show itself. He called it a "sermon" that "so overplays its hand that it seriously dilutes its power," with a "generic" score. He thought Glinda such a showy part that audiences root for her over the "surprisingly colorless" Elphaba, who is only "nominally" the hero.

  Other voices were warmer. Richard Zoglin of Time wrote, "If every musical had a brain, a heart and the courage of Wicked, Broadway really would be a magical place." Elysa Gardner of USA Today called it "the most complete, and completely satisfying, new musical I've come across in a long time." Chenoweth and Menzel earned praise nearly everywhere.

  Schwartz answered the split in a 2006 interview with The Arizona Republic. "Reviews are reviews," he said, adding that the critics were divided but the audience was not, "and that's what counts." Word of mouth spread fast, and the box office followed.

  The West End opening drew a slightly more upbeat response. Most critics enjoyed the lavish spectacle and the powerhouse leads, but some found it overblown or preachy. Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph called it "at times... a bit of a mess," yet praised Holzman's script and called Posner's lighting "magical." Michael Billington of The Guardian gave three stars and said it felt "more like a piece of industrial product than something that genuinely touches the heart or mind." Paul Taylor of The Independent found it "overblown and empty." A review of a Chinese production in the Shanghai Review of Books was very favorable.

  At the 2004 Tony Awards, the show earned ten nominations, including Best Musical, Book and Original Score. Both Menzel and Chenoweth were nominated for Best Actress. Menzel won, and the production also took Best Scenic Design and Best Costume Design. It lost Best Book, Original Score and Best Musical to Avenue Q. The Drama Desk Awards were kinder, naming it Outstanding Musical among other honors.

  The West End production later won the Audience Award for Most Popular Show at the Olivier Awards in 2010 and 2015. The original Australian production won six Helpmann Awards. Entertainment Weekly named it Best Musical of the Decade, and Variety called it "a cultural phenomenon." The same magazine ranked Elphaba 79th on its list of the 100 greatest characters of the past 20 years.

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• 7. Records and Road Shows

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  With a $14 million capitalization, the Broadway production took 15 months to break even, repaying its investment by the 21st of December 2004. In its first year it grossed more than $56 million. In the week ending the 1st of January 2006 it took $1,610,934, beating the weekly record held by The Producers. It then kept breaking its own mark, reaching $2,086,135 for the week ending the 29th of November 2009 and $2.7 million in the first week of 2012. In the last weekend of 2013 it became the first musical to gross $3 million in a week.

  By 2016 Wicked had passed $1 billion in total Broadway revenue, joining The Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King as the only shows to do so. In 2017 it overtook The Phantom of the Opera to become Broadway's second-highest grossing musical. It has broken the Gershwin Theatre's house record twenty times and welcomed its 5 millionth audience member on the 29th of September 2010. On the 11th of April 2023 its 7,486th performance passed Cats as the fourth-longest-running Broadway show.

  In January 2011 the Broadway, London and North American touring productions all set weekly records at once. The first national tour, which the producers called the "Emerald City Tour," began in Toronto on the 31st of March 2005. It ended at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles on the 15th of March 2015 after 4,160 performances. A second tour, the "Munchkinland Tour," began on the 12th of March 2009 in Fort Myers, Florida, and marked its 5,000th performance on the 30th of July 2022.

  Chicago surprised even the producers. David Stone told Variety, "we thought it the Chicago production would run 18 months," but sales stayed so strong that a second road show was created and Chicago kept its run. By June 2007 it had played to more than 2 million people and grossed over $200 million. It closed on the 25th of January 2009 after 1,500 performances. The Los Angeles run grossed over $145 million and drew more than 1.8 million patrons.

  The London production began previews at the Apollo Victoria Theatre on the 7th of September 2006. Kerry Ellis became the first British actress to play Elphaba in January 2007. In the week beginning the 27th of December 2010 it grossed £1,002,885, the highest single-week figure in West End history, with more than 20,000 people attending nine performances. On the 1st of November 2025 it reached its 7,407th performance and became the ninth-longest-running show in West End history.

  In Melbourne, pre-sales sold 24,750 tickets in three hours. During that run, Rob Guest, who played the Wizard, died of a stroke, and Bert Newton took over. In Sydney, Amanda Harrison left the role of Elphaba through illness, and Jemma Rix and Pippa Grandison shared it before Rix became sole lead. Floods in Queensland delayed the Brisbane opening by two weeks.

  The musical has also been staged in Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Spain and many other places. In Mexico City in 2013, Danna Paola made her stage debut at 18 as the youngest Elphaba. In The Hague, Willemijn Verkaik became the first actress to play Elphaba in two languages. A Brazilian production of 2016 used the largest stage the show had yet been mounted on. A remount that opened in Riyadh in December 2025 later toured Bahrain, Dubai and Mumbai, the first time Wicked had been seen in the Middle East and India.

  The pandemic paused it all. Broadway halted on the 12th of March 2020 and returned on the 14th of September 2021, with Chenoweth giving a speech before the curtain. A Seoul production had already opened in February 2021 as the first Wicked performance anywhere after the shutdown.

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• 8. Beyond the Stage

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  Discussion of a Wicked film began in 2004, and the road to the screen was long. In July 2010 the directors under consideration included J. J. Abrams, James Mangold, Ryan Murphy and Rob Marshall. By 2012 Universal had Stephen Daldry attached, with Holzman writing the script. In 2018 the studio put the film on hold and gave its release date to Cats, which became a box office bomb. A second hold came in April 2020 as the pandemic reshuffled release dates, and Daldry left that October.

  Jon M. Chu signed on to direct in February 2021. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were cast as Glinda and Elphaba that November, and Jonathan Bailey was confirmed as Fiyero a year later. In April 2022 it was announced the story would be told in two films. Chu explained that it "became impossible to wrestle the story of 'Wicked' into a single film without doing some real damage to it."

  The first part opened on the 22nd of November 2024 with Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard and extended cameos by Menzel and Chenoweth. It had the highest worldwide opening weekend for a film based on a stage musical since Les Misérables in 2012. It went on to become the highest-grossing musical film adaptation of all time. At the 97th Academy Awards it earned ten nominations, including Best Picture, and won two, for Production Design and Costume Design. The second part, Wicked: For Good, followed on the 21st of November 2025.

  The stage show has its own tributes. NBC aired A Very Wicked Halloween on the 29th of October 2018 to mark 15 years on Broadway, hosted by Menzel and Chenoweth, with Grande among the performers. PBS aired a Wicked concert on the 29th of August 2021, with Erivo among the guests. Backstage, a ninety-minute tour called Behind the Emerald Curtain shows fans the props, masks and costumes. Elphaba's green skin takes 40 pots of water-based MAC Chromacake landscape green makeup each year.

  Parody and homage followed. In July 2013 the StarKid Productions musical Twisted retold Aladdin from the viewpoint of Jafar at Chicago's Greenhouse Theatre. In November 2014 Wicked Frozen opened in New York, mocking both Wicked and Frozen. On television, Rachel and Kurt sing "Defying Gravity" in the Glee episode "Wheels." The Book of Mormon nods to it in "You and Me (But Mostly Me)." Critics also compared Frozen's "Let It Go" to "Defying Gravity," and the singer of that Oscar-winning song was Idina Menzel, the original Elphaba.

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