WHO ARE THESE WICKED CHARACTERS?

Alma Cuervo as Madame Morrible © 2005 Joan Marcus.

Is there anyone who doesn’t remember the end of The Wizard of Oz? Dorothy has accidentally “melted” the Wicked Witch of the West by dousing her with water. Glinda the Good Witch arrives in her magic bubble, happily confirming the death of the Wicked Witch. But what about before all that? That’s the story of WICKED, and so much happened before Dorothy dropped in! WICKED is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire and focuses on eight main characters from the book:

Elphaba/Elphie eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. Her name is a play on L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz, and she is the broody, brainy outsider who would love to be accepted. She’s green and thought of as wicked.

Glinda/Galinda is the pretty blond who becomes “Glinda the Good” Witch. She appears as a self-centered, pretentious goodie-goodie. Her real name is Galinda, but she changes it to Glinda after a favorite teacher (who was always mispronouncing it) mysteriously dies.

Madame Morrible is the headmistress at Shiz University with a commanding presence and a mysterious past. She becomes the press secretary to the Wizard of Oz, discovering and misusing her talents for propaganda. It is she who pronounces Elphaba wicked; she is considered the only classic villain in the musical.

The Wizard of Oz is really an old carnival huckster who blew into Oz in a hot air balloon, and is neither great nor powerful—as we all learned in the movie The Wizard of Oz. He is, however, a master manipulator and showman, and quite possibly has something to do with Elphaba’s skin color.

Dr. Dillamond is a professor at Shiz University and one of the kingdom’s Animals, specifically a goat with intellect and the power of speech. The mistreatment and oppression of talking Animals is clearly explored by and through this talking goat whom Elphaba befriends. He has trouble pronouncing Ga-linda, shortening her name to Glinda.

Fiyero is the handsome prince so necessary to tales of this sort. He is also a party-loving student at Shiz University. He starts out giving Galinda the nod, but then becomes friends with Elphaba and realizes there is more to life than partying, pleasure and popularity.

Nessarose is the younger sister of Elphaba but does not share her skin tone. She is an invalid, born with deformed legs, and is their father’s favorite. While at Shiz University she is taken with fellow Munchkin Boq, but her affections are unrequited.

Boq is an unusually tall Munchkin who comes to Shiz University, and falls for the prettiest, most popular girl in school, Galinda. Galinda has no interest in him, but Nessarose’s crush leads to a life-changing experience for him.