Theater: Which Witch Was Wicked?

An upended retelling of The Wizard of Oz blows a whirlwind of fresh air onto Broadway

No one mourns the wicked," goes one big number in the new Broadway musical Wicked. But in this shrewd and enjoyable retelling of the Wizard of Oz story from the witches' point of view, they get something better: understanding. Turns out that Elphaba, better known to us as the Wicked Witch of the West, was born green, and that caused her to be shunned by the popular kids at school. The most popular of them all is Glinda, a perky prom queen used to getting her own way. The two become unlikely friends. But things go awry when Elphaba finds herself...

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