Wicked author Gregory Maguire on the real meaning of the story that captivated the world

Before it was a Hollywood blockbuster, it was a megahit musical, and before that it was a 1995 novel. Author Gregory Maguire spoke to the BBC about the inspiration behind Wicked.

As a child, author Gregory Maguire regularly acted out scenes from the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz with his brother. They even changed the story and its perspective to entertain themselves. “The material was so flexible that it could be changed and still be recognizable,” Maguire told the BBC. Little did he know that these childhood games would one day be reflected in his life-changing novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Spoiler alert: This article contains plot spoilers for Wicked.

By the early 1990s, Maguire was an acclaimed children’s author, but “we got good reviews, but we didn’t get big sales,” he says. After working as a professor at Boston’s Simmons College Children’s Literature Research Center and later co-founding the non-profit educational charity Children’s Literature New England, Maguire wanted to try writing for adults. “I felt like I had to put everything I cared about into this book, because I probably wouldn’t write another book,” he says.

Maguire knew that the theme he wanted to explore in the novel was the nature of evil. What exactly does “evil” mean? Are we just characterizing a certain type of behavior? Are we assessing the decline and decay of someone’s moral fiber? Mr. Maguire knew that if he was going to win readers over, he needed to weave the subject matter into an “amazing conspiracy that would involve hundreds of thousands of people around the world,” he says.

That’s when Maguire remembered “The Wizard of Oz.” In particular, Margaret Hamilton’s portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West and her short stories interaction At the beginning of Victor Fleming’s film, he co-stars with Glinda, played by Billy Burke. “I thought, ‘They know each other. They’ve passed each other before. They went to school together!'” Creating the scenario made Maguire laugh out loud. “I thought it was very interesting, because it was a really good idea.”

Maguire’s guess turned out to be correct. Wicked is a revisionist exploration of both L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film adaptation, offering an extensive examination of the life of the Wicked Witch of the West. Maguire named her Elphaba, a play on the original author’s initials. In this book, you can see why Elphaba is considered a bad person. This is because Elphaba is forced to act in ways that are considered evil due to society’s perceptions and circumstances.

Born with green skin, she is often pointed at and laughed at. This prejudice makes her feel left out and alienated from others. When Elphaba learns that sentient, talking animals are trapped in this land, she approaches Oz and asks for help. However, Oz shrugs off her concerns and hopes that people will unite in the belief that talking animals are a common enemy. Elphaba goes into hiding and joins an underground organization to protect the animals. Oz uses propaganda to tell the nation that Elphaba is evil because she protects the weak, even though she is fighting for justice. She then reacts with understandable anger at her sister’s death and at Glinda for giving the family’s shoes to Dorothy.

Although not a bestseller when it was published in 1995, the book was a huge word-of-mouth hit, Maguire said. “Every year, it sold more than the year before. It was the very definition of a sleeper hit.” The book’s popularity grew even more when Stephen Schwartz decided to turn it into a musical. The musical version of Elphaba is more misunderstood and kinder than the increasingly dark and bitter version in the book. Wicked has been running in New York since October 30, 2003, making it the fourth longest-running Broadway show of all time.

Such success meant that a Hollywood film adaptation was inevitable. However, like the musical, the film Wicked (Part 1) deviates from the book in several ways, perhaps to make it more accessible to mainstream audiences. Rather than being entirely Elphaba’s (Cynthia Erivo) story, there is also Glinda’s (Ariana Grande) perspective, and the story revolves around their friendship. The movie takes place at Shiz University in the land of Oz, where Elphaba and Glinda are forced to share a room. Although they initially hate each other, they soon become friends and fall in love with the same handsome prince (Jonathan Bailey). But as they continue their research, they discover a sinister plot unfolding in the land of Oz, trying to send the country’s talking animals into hiding.

Dana Fox co-wrote the film winnie holtzmanstated that part of Wicked’s success was due to how Maguire twisted audience expectations. Before this book was published, everyone said, “The Green Witch is evil. We all know she’s evil. But when you ask people why she’s evil, you can’t answer.” I can’t do that,” Fox told the BBC. “The great thing about Maguire’s book is that he asked that very question.”

While Maguire was pondering these themes and the possibilities for a Wicked story, something happened that led him to think more deeply about the nature of evil. February 12, 1993, 2 years old james bulger He was murdered by two 10-year-old boys in Merseyside, England. As Maguire watched coverage of the tragedy unfold on television, people talked about the horrific crimes the boys had committed over shows and dinner. Maguire, who was living in London at the time, wondered, “Where did the decision to do what they did come from? Where did that capacity for evil come from?” As analysis of the murder continues, and intellectual debate continues over whether it was “caused by sociological, biochemical or psychological reasons,” Maguire said the atrocity was “not what he thought it was” about Wicked. He says he realized that he was having an impact on everything he did. “That sad, sad event was what helped me move on,” Maguire said.

Shortly after the book was published, Maguire said he learned that Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike had quoted it in an essay he wrote on the topic of evil. “The line he quotes from ‘Wicked’ in the article sums it all up: ‘It’s the nature of evil to keep secrets.'” And I found the most important sentence.” This is the consistent and comprehensive conclusion I drew. ”

Maguire claims he has never come up with a “unified theory” of evil. He believes that self-hatred is also a factor, saying, “The biological imperative to survive and not harm yourself is so strong that when you hate yourself enough to hate yourself, you end up hating the world instead of yourself.” This is because “it stings me.” The best summary of evil he ever read was written in Graham Greene’s novel The Power and the Glory. “He wrote that most evil is simply a lack of imagination.” Greene had written about how fascism arises, “People imagine what it’s like to be other people. Because you can’t,” Maguire said. In Wicked, Maguire depicts how the Wizard uses populism and propaganda to maintain control over Oz, and how he weaponizes these tools against different animals and Elphaba who disagree with him. There is.

“Wicked” remains important to Fox. Because “certain people continue to be marginalized in our society or demonized in order for others to gain power.” And Wicked’s continued resonance centers around Elphaba’s story of transitioning from feeling like she doesn’t belong and not wanting to belong. green skin Toward self-acceptance and self-love. “You don’t have to have green skin to know what it feels like. Everyone has felt that way about themselves at some point in their life,” says Fox. “There’s a little Elphaba inside of us. There’s a little Glinda inside of us. That deep empathy for these characters is why people have loved this show and this story for so long.”

‘Wicked’ will be released in the UK and US on November 22nd.