Like many other musical theatre fans, I have been eagerly awaiting the release of the Wicked movie, an adaptation of the musical of the same name (itself an adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel ‘Wicked; the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West’, which itself derives from 1939 MGM film the ‘Wizard of Oz’, a retelling of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel ‘the Wonderful Wizard of Oz’). Despite being originally confirmed in 2016, the new Universal two-part movie, due to delays from the pandemic and other influences, was not released until 22 November this year. Although the musical may seem a redeeming of a classic childhood villain, it is actually, in all its many readaptations, a dense political allegory which explores themes of propaganda, liberalism, exploitation and the pursuit of power while fundamentally trying to ask the question ‘Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?’.
‘Wicked’ explores the backstory (act 1) and retelling (act 2) of the ‘Wicked witch of the West’ (named Elphaba in the musical after the initials of Oz’s initial creator L. F. B) in the ‘Wizard of Oz’. From their initially toxic meeting at Shiz university, Elphaba, a social outcast, gradually forms an unlikely friendship with popular Galinda (later Glinda the Good Witch). Together, discovering the deceit of the Wizard the end of Act 1 (in the infamous ‘defying gravity’) sees Elphaba become a villainised political outcast for attempting to fight against the corruption of Oz beginning the perception of her as ‘Wicked’. Act 2, seeks to explore the plot of ‘the Wizard of Oz’ from this lens of Elphaba being only a villain in the public’s perception of her.
The land of Oz began its origins in L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel ‘the Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, a thinly veiled allegory of conflicts over Bimetalism, and was later adapted into the infamous 1939 MGM film ‘the Wizard of OZ’ starring Judy Garland as the young innocent ‘Dorothy’ and Margaret Hamilton as the villainous ‘Wicked witch of the west’. Having become a cultural phenomenon through its yearly reshowing, the film’s characters became embedded in the public’s mind no more than in the novelist Gregory Maguire. In August 1990, Iraq armed forced invaded Kuwait leading to the capture of Western hostages. After Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi TV smiling and talking with hostages, Western media responded in outrage with some declaring it ‘the most sickening thing ever seen’ and newspaper headlines suggesting Hussain to be the ‘next Hitler’. It is articles like this, and the murder of James Bulger at the hands of two pre-teen boys in Merseyside in 1993, which led Maguire to question where evil, and a want to fight it, comes from and ‘How can I be so persuaded to justify military action by this one little word?’, the word in this case being ‘Hitler’. These questions led a revisitation of the unquestioned villainy of the wicked witch of the west of L. Frank Baum’s story of the power of deception.
Maguire’s take on Oz and its surrounding world of fascist political control soon captured the interest of composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. Although book writer Winnie Holtzman reframes Maguires dark Ozian fantasy into a more-hopeful story of unlikely female friendship and fighting against discrimination, the stage adaptation does not escape this trend of political influence. This is particularly prevalent in the character of the ‘Wizard’, who is influenced by both the 42nd and 43rd presidents of the USA, Bill Clinton and George. W Bush. When first writing the musical’s book (all spoken parts of the script) the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was breaking, shaping the Wizard’s character into a man of inherent weakness like Clinton – the Wizard’s weakness is his lack of magical powers and Clinton’s his multiple affairs. However, the Wizard’s more cynical character side, is also related to George. W Bush, particularly his control in the US ‘war on terror’ (beginning after the attack on the world trade centre on 11 September 2001) and the total power of surveillance of American citizens provided in the Patriot Act. Indeed, the Musical’s book makes implicit references to the politics of the Bush administration in its references to ‘unelected officials’ by Nessarose (many considered Bush to be a ‘president-select’ due to the closeness of the Bush v Gore election in Florida) and ‘regime changes’ by Glinda (a reference to the Iraq Liberation act 1998 and US removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq).
Not only was the creation of ‘Wicked’ influenced by the political conflicts of the time but the characters and land of Oz are themselves portrayals of ideas of classism, propaganda, the distortion of truth in gaining power and the tension between the radicalism and liberalism. Maguire uses the contrast of Animals (capitalised and speaking) and animals (non-capitalised and non-speaking) as a reflection of capitalism class-based society where some beings are placed above the other, in this case Animals are treated like humans. However the breakdown of this system seen in the Wizard’s arrest of Doctor Diliman (the goat teacher at Shiz university) depicts how the privileges provided to the upper-classes can easily be taken away and indeed the image of Animals ‘los[ing] their powers of speech’ suggests the dehumanisation in order to undermine and take control of certain groups of society, such as by the Nazi party in 1939. Furthermore, the ’Wicked’ story is one of the mediocre minds (the Wizard and Madame Morrible) that, through the distortion of truth, and suppression of political opponents, are able to manipulate their way into great power as well as ideas of unification in hatred; ‘the best way to bring folks together is to give them a really good enemy’ evoked through the false messaging created, by the Wizard and Morrible, about Elphaba which provokes her Ozian poor reception; ‘This distortion! This repulsion! This Wicked Witch!’. Finally, through Elphaba’s position as a counter-force and its juxtaposition to Glinda’s want to create change within the Wizard’s corrupt regime, the musical explores different methods of seeking change (within or without the system). An idea seen throughout the 20th century and present day, between suffragettes and suffragists, liberals and leftists and more topically between extreme eco-activists (such as members of ‘Just Stop Oil’) and those who fight climate change through methods such as recycling or using electric cars.
Now, as the musical movie is released, how will the story’s function as a political allegory be adapted? Will the nature of its two-part release, having a total runtime of double the stage adaptation, allow for the film to explore in greater detail the corruption of the Wizard’s Oz? Surely in a time where social media has made societal hate and divisions run increasingly deeper and questions of inherent human goodness are becoming only more prevalent, the story that explores ‘wickedness’ must fit and adapt to these new debates.
