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‘Wicked: Part I’ Shows Us How Fascism Is Already On Its Way
A lot of your friends might be Glindas.
After I left the theater for the midnight showing of Wicked, dressed in green and wearing a floppy pink hat, the first thing I did upon getting home was cry. I cried so much because, like Cabaret and other musicals before it, its on-the-nose themes made me think about my own country and where we might be going.
Based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire title of the same name, Wicked is about the life of the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, referred to in this text as Elphaba. The book chronicles her life as she struggles against the authoritarian Wizard of Oz, a fascistic figure who scapegoats entire classes of people to stay in power, including, eventually, Elphaba herself.
It’s ultimately a tragic tale about how the winners of history can turn fighters for justice into villains.
The musical never abandoned this theme, but it does become less prominent, with the emotional core switching to Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship and the rise of Ozian authoritarianism becoming more of a B-plot. While Maguire’s original retelling had some flashy, risque elements, it’s undoubtedly more substantive than the musical. A large part of the book is about Elphaba’s activism — something the musical only briefly touches upon.
