Elphaba

Elphaba Thropp is the name given to the Wicked Witch of the West in ' by Gregory Maguire, as well as in the Broadway adaptation, Wicked. In the original L. Frank Baum book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the witch is unnamed and we know little about her life. Elphaba is modeled after the witch as she is shown in the 1939 classic movie The Wizard of Oz: Green-skinned, clad entirely in black, and wearing a tall peaked hat. Maguire formulated the name out of L. Frank Baum's name. L. Frank Baum became El-pha-ba. In both adaptations, Elphaba is also called by several nicknames including Elphie, Fabala, and Fae.

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Elphaba was born with green skin to parents Frex (in the book, a minister; in the musical, the governor of Munchkinland) and Melena. In the book, she has a disabled younger sister, Nessarose, who grows up to become the Wicked Witch of the East, and a younger brother, Shell. While the musical displays Nessarose as a prominent character, it makes no reference to Shell. Because of her condition, Elphaba is shunned by her father, who instead gives all of his love and attention to Nessarose. Regardless, Elphaba is very close to and protective of her sister. In the novel, Elphaba is eventually accompanied by a boy named Liir (see Son of a Witch) who is believed to be her son. The assumed father of Liir is Fiyero, who had an affair with Elphaba earlier.

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In both the book and musical, Elphaba is a misunderstood and unfairly loathed young woman who becomes a revolutionary and falls in love with the Winkie prince Fiyero. She also forms an unlikely friendship with Galinda, the girl who would eventually be known as Glinda the Good. While the exact incidents of her life as presented in the two works are quite different from each other, they both show that Elphaba is not, in fact, as "wicked" as she has always been portrayed. In the musical, Elphaba does not really die, but rather is assisted by Dorothy in a faked death. In the book, Elphaba does die from Dorothy's water, but the death is accidental. It is later revealed in both works that Elphaba was the illegitimate daughter of The Wizard of Oz.

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In the Broadway musical, the character of Elphaba was first played by Idina Menzel (shown above), who won the Tony award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for the role. After she left the show, Shoshana Bean replaced her. On the musical's first national tour, Elphaba was first played by Stephanie J. Block, and in the permanent Chicago run of the show, she was played by Ana Gasteyer (of Saturday Night Live fame).

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Wicked Witch of the West: The Wicked Witch of the West (or simply The Wicked Witch) is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum in his children's books. The character also figures prominently in the classic 1939 movie based on Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In these works, The Wic...

Gregory Maguire: Gregory Maguire is an American author. He is the author of the novels ', Son of a Witch, Lost, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and Mirror, Mirror for adults. In addition, he is also the author of many other books geared toward children. Maguire often uses existing literature as a basis for his w...

Broadway: Broadway commonly refers to:...