For almost the first decade of its existence, Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West was like a precious little secret treasure held dearly by those in the know. Fans of the novel tended to be simultaneously both incredibly protective of who they shared the existence of this extraordinary book with and eager for it to find a much larger readership. And then the musical version hit Broadway and everything changed. After the wildly successful opening year on Broadway suddenly the secret was out and everybody knew that the Wicked Witch had a name: Elphaba.
Except that Maguire’s book and the glossy musical crafted from it are two completely and utterly different things. This seems to be a mark of the author’s existence. Maguire had been a very successful writer of children’s fiction before he blew the minds of adults with his imaginative repurposing of the legendary tale of the Wicked Witch and the little girl from Kansas who kills her. It is not going too far to say that musical based on Maguire’s book is as different from the source material as the novel itself is from the classic 1939 MGM musical starring Judy Garland. In that film which was for so many people of a certain age an annual event in its single yearly airing on CBS sometime in March, the Wicked Witch is without question the villain. She is a delight to watch as long as you are not a small child whom she terrifies, but she lacks depth and context. Maguire did something with her character that was astonishing: he not only filled in the gaps, but he made her a tragic hero. And the novel, make no mistake, is a tragedy.
Many—if not most—of those original fans of novel in that precious first decade when it remains a glorious secret treasure are not also fans of the musical which alters the story so significantly as to present a happy ending. All those who readers who dreamed of a play or a film or a miniseries based on the book can effectively said to be shocked at how things turned out; even those who do embrace both versions. What Maguire launched in 1995 with the publication of this novel could never have been imagined by even the most hardcore of its original fans. In addition to the musical, Maguire has himself produced as of 2021 three sequels: Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz. While none of those—or, indeed, any of Maguire’s other reworkings of classic tales—have quite caught fire quite like Wicked, they are all now essential reading for anyone interested in what has solidified into a bona fide genre all by itself: the reinvention of a familiar story as seen from a different perspective that casts new light on old assumptions about characters who have proven to be more than mere stereotypes.
Wicked has since become an iconic part of the American literary scene although it must be admitted that most of the merchandise that sells in heavy volume is related to the musical rather than the original source. As of the fall of 2021, however, there remained one part of the entertainment industry which Elphaba had still failed to conquer. Despite multiple announcements indicating production might soon be starting, there is still no film adaptation of either the book version or the musical version.
