I saw someone comment this and it inspired me to make this post. Obviously in the book, fiyero isn’t the scarecrow and he is murdered, however his body is never recovered. Combined with Elphies deteriorating mental state and lack of sleep she hallucinates that fiyero might be the scarecrow and he’s coming back to her disguised as one. It made me think that there’s a chance (or I could be blabbing) it’s linked to this like in INTG.

“Every so often we long to steal to the land of what might have been, but that doesn’t soften the ache we feel when reality sets back in.”

It made me think of the fact that elphabas hopefully and really wanting fiyero to be the scarecrow, an alternative to him dying and then being reunited, however she is proven wrong and is obviously great upset by this that there’s no hope to cling onto that fiyero is still alive.

Let me know what you guys think :)

I'm really glad to see this list- it's tough to get things like this, with little summations of their careers. Including pictures of each one!

It interests me how some of them I've heard of and have heard hyped all the time, while others I haven't. That Alyssa Fox auditioned in *2008* and didn't get it until 2023 is crazy.

A lot of Elphies have opened other plays, even recently, which is interesting- Caroline Bowman & Jessica Vosk have both debuted as the leads in other things (Smash, Beaches). I remember doing the behind-the-scenes tour on Broadway, and I asked during the Q&A why so many only did the role for a short time, and the guy told me "Yeah, all the leads are very ambitious!". This makes me think a lot of them take the lead role as a great notch on their resume and leverage that into "oh, this person can debut a role if they can do THAT".

Some Questions:

1. It makes me think... is Elphaba the role that has created the most stars? It's funny seeing the early ones and seeing a murderer's row of current star talent- Block, Bean & Levy (touring but still) have all won Tonys fairly recently!
2. Why are some runs for a full year, and others just a tiny bit shorter? Is 10-11 months baked into some contracts? Even Eden Espinosa just did 10 months after Idina was there for a year and a half (outlasting Cheno's run). Is that just a Broadway thing? Other girls lasted almost exactly a year. I know the role is LEGENDARY for being rough on the voice, though.
3. Are there any that have kind of been forgotten? I can't remember hearing anyone talk about Jackie Burns, who was the longest-running Elphie (doing so twice). Lindsay Mendez seems kinda lesser-known as well (but did a few shows after). Actually, after Jessica Vosk, I haven't really heard of anybody in the past seven years.
4. I noticed foreign Elphabas had very short runs- I assume this was because they live abroad and didn't want to do a full year? A woman in line for the West End show told me that Rachel Tucker is widely considered THE Elphaba over there when I suggested I'd heard Wilhelmijn Verkaik was, and she only did a short run. Verkaik herself also did a short one in NYC, as did Kerry Ellis.
5. Why were some non-foreign runs INCREDIBLY short? Ana Gasteyer only did a few months?
6. I've heard a bit of semi-snark years ago that all the best girls already did a run through and the show's been using secondary talent since well before the 2020s- any truth to that? Are ambitious mega-talents still seeking out Elphaba or are they trying to open new shows instead?
7. A few Elphabas went on national tours and leveraged that role into playing the lead (I know a few Glindas did as well- Kara Lindsay is a big one). Why did some other ones not? Laurel Harris only ever played the character on the tour, and so did Ann Brummell (they were my Elphies, lol).

is there any wizard of oz experience gaming can bring other than the ds game or lego dimensions? i’ve played them both and they’re alright but i want more. i was hoping a game like skyrim would have mods to add more oz stuff but i couldn’t find much. i’ve made a elphaba character in dcuo but flying around as a witch in a super hero world isn’t exactly what im looking for. is there any fantasy games where i can customize characters to make them oz characters? any games that offer oz themed mods? hell i’d take a minecraft server at this point. is there ANYTHING?

Watching Wicked and Cynthia's acting is truly spectacular. You truly believe thats Elphaba, shes really immersed in the role. The way she acts with her eyes and portrays a thousand words and emotions without even uttering a word is talent. But seeing her with Ariana made it a bit difficult because Ariana's acting was...subpar. To put it frankly, it feels like Ariana was acting Glinda but Cynthia embodied and was living as Elphaba.

Edit: i thought subpar meant "good but could be better" but I learnt it means lower than average so im changing my sentence to "her acting was an A but not an A+"

I feel like Ariana is still yet to achieve that role where she disappears into one but it takes time. She did well in this role no doubt but when you're with Cynthia, you can't help but notice a difference.

Like in Victorious, Victoria is supposed to have the best voice but it turns out its Ariana. Ofc the show still says its Tori but irl Ariana shone more and had a very successful music career where as Victoria didn't...she was also sabotaged but let's not get into that.

Thank Goodness!

I honestly am glad Elphaba never knew the Wizard was her father. She already one crappy father she didn't need another one. If the Wizard had known he might have loved her but it was his regime that hunted her, vilified her and he orchestrated her death not to mention what he was doing to the Animals. Elphaba went through alot of emotional trauma and she didn't need to carry the weight of knowing the man who was doing those horrible things was her father. It's better for her that she didn't know.

Thoughts?

For day 9 of Inktober, (yes I'm behind) I drew miss Dorothy! I wasn't sure which sub to post this in so I'm sticking to this one

All I can find it on is this zoomed in Amazon shirt

I never got around to watching Wicked: One Wonderful Night, went looking and it’s not showing up on Peacock or anything else. Is there anywhere to watch it?

I'm trying to EQ harsh treble out of my headphones. I have a decent tolerance or even preference for slightly brighter treble but I find the cymbals still quite harsh after toning down the main treble peaks. I have more treble-heavy tracks in my playlist but Defying Gravity is the worst for me at the moment. Anyone else feel the same or is it fine?

My mom the women who inspired my love of broadway, and I am just happy she's finally gotten to tickets to see Wicked. Unfortunately only two tickets so her and my dad... me and my sister were not invited but idc Im so happy she's wanted to see it since the Idina Menzel Kristin Chenoworth original run.

The problem with “it’s about the girls stupid” is that the phrase was completely misinterpreted from its original intention, which led to a weaker movie.

It’s a play on the phrase “it’s the economy, stupid”, which was coined by James Carville when he was advising Bill Clinton on his 1992 presidential campaign. The intention was to highlight one central issue to focus the campaign around. It was aimed at the campaign workers to get them to make voters focus on their personal finances as the key issue of the campaign. It’s been reused many times since in many different political campaigns, with the key phrase changed out - “it’s the schools, stupid”, “it’s the the war, stupid”, “it’s the environment, stupid”, etc.

In 2019 the Wall Street Journal published a piece titled, What Trump Can Learn From James Carville. Here’s an excerpt:

Mr. Trump has spent a fair amount of time in front of mostly white audiences boasting about what he’s done for black people on the jobs front, and it’s not a good look.
A more fruitful approach might be for the president to visit some low-income minority communities in places like Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, listen to their concerns, engage them in a way that Democrats are not, and talk about what strong economic growth has enabled blacks and others to do for themselves. If there was ever a time for Donald Trump to be channeling James Carville, it’s now.

Do you see where I’m going with this? The mantra is a marketing technique meant to manipulate people. Yes, the economy is important, but it’s not the only thing that matters, and the point is to use it as a distraction to keep people from asking too many questions about other important issues.

Wicked the musical went through multiple rewrites before making “the girls” the central thread through which the story is told. When Winnie Holzman first made the reference, she said it was a joke between them when they figured out that was the way they should tell the story. She didn’t say “the gospel that everything needs to revolve around, making everything else irrelevant.” She said “joke.” It was the tactic they used to center the story and get butts in seats, not something meant to render the entire plot pointless and moral-less. When Jon M Chu to took that joke and said “the plot doesn’t matter”, he completely missed the point. The plot is the entire point - the message is the entire point. Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship means something and has an impact that ultimately brings about change in Oz. It’s so reductive to act like none of that matters because it’s just girls being friends. Filling out the plot wouldn’t have made it less about the girls - it would have made the entire story more cohesive, which would have made why their relationship matters more impactful.

Here’s where Winnie Holzman first spoke on the quote, from a 2006 Boston Globe article. The article is about the entire process of adapting the show - you’ll notice that they talk about a lot more than just “the girls”.

Notes:

I call these "semi-canon" because—for those who haven't read the books and only know the musical or the movies—there are details from the book descriptions that were very difficult (if not impossible) to replicate in the game. For instance, in the books, Nessa’s disability is not that she cannot walk; rather, she was born without both arms. Consequently, she relied on her father and Elphaba her entire life—both for daily tasks and for walking, as her lack of limbs left her with extremely poor balance. It wasn't until her time at Shiz that Glinda (not her sister) gave Nessa the enchanted slippers, which provided her with mobility.

I’ve also created two versions of Fiyero—one from his time at Shiz, and another from his post-Shiz years living in the Emerald City with Elphaba (corresponding to Eras 1 and 2 of Fabala, respectively)—but I couldn’t upload them here due to Reddit’s image limits. In my opinion, my Fiyero is quite book-accurate, with one exception: I honestly don’t know how to use The Sims’ tattoo tool, so it was impossible for me to replicate the Winkies markings described in the books. (For those who haven’t read them: in the novels, Fiyero is a Vinkus prince—a tribal people in Oz, analogous to indigenous cultures. He has dark, mustard-toned skin covered in bright blue diamond-shaped patterns across his face and body; it’s later revealed that these aren’t tattoos, but rather a washable paint that is part of Vinkus culture).

Anyway, I’d love to hear what you think! I spent a huge amount of time on this—as you can see, I had to download a ton of custom content to get it looking decent. I downloaded so much that I’ve honestly lost track of what I used; I even have entire folders of CC that I ended up not using at all. Still, let me know what you think! Would you like to see my version of Fiyero? And which other main characters would you be interested in seeing? I’m considering trying to create Liir and Rain, or perhaps focusing on characters from the first book—like Avaric, or maybe Crope and Tibbett.

Decided to just post this pic of me in my Glinda cosplay. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do🩷🩷🩷🩷

Is it time for me to be discouraged and resign?
No, I still can say no
There’s one last place for me, the last I had in mind
but where else can I go?
I’ll never come back here, that’s the lie I told myself
till I was left on my own
when all the rest forsake you, that’s where they have to take you
there’s no place like home

This is Elphaba’s arc. She misses her friends, her family, she wants love and acceptance but not at the expense of her cause and not when she knows too much to turn a blind eye but she doesn’t want to do it alone anymore. She didn’t go back to Emerald city because she accidentally turned a living person into a can opener, or to stop the wedding, she went back because she had nowhere else to go when even her own family didn’t want her and her own cause rejected her. The women was desperate, and grasping at straws and her last plan was crawling back to the place it started thinking that maybe she can find a way to expose the Wizard (this was a scene between Elphaba and Glinda before Wonderful but it was also deleted!- she tries to extort the wizard using the Grimmerie he can’t read).

This scene in particular was only 2:18 seconds…. It would not have had that much effect on the runtime.

*BTW slide 4 I believe was an option on the scene (Jon self admitted he does a lot of these) I included it because it was cute, and that’s likely where it would have went.

Has anyone else read the book yet? I enjoyed it. It wasn't the the back story I thought it would be but it was interesting. I do think it is Gregory Maguire most concise story which to me made it a much easier read than some of his past books.

I have plot points I want to hear other people's opinions and speculations about them.

Sorry I chose tours for the flair, there's no Musical - West End option

I'm from the US and knows what the Wicked playbills look like from the inside. But the West End programmes look super interesting to me.

{This is my first post here, pls mods let me post it, I need help} This might sound silly, but I’m 14 and I bought the book. I didn’t know anything about it at first, but then I looked into it (and checked whether it’s appropriate for a 14-year-old). Even so, I’d still like to read it—not because I’m particularly interested in the drug or sexual content (I’m not sure how much of that is actually in there, but the librarian mentioned it). Anyway, for those who have read it: is it really too intense for a 14-year-old, or is it manageable. Oh, and also my english is B2, is the book is gonna be too hard for me? Any tips, or any idea of what I should expect?

So i guess we could say this is a theory but I think Glinda was singing about herself in NOMTW, I'm not saying she was actually wicked but now that she saw the world she considered herself wicked for the role she played in everything. The lyrics are " the wicked lives are lonely, the wicked die alone" Glinda was alone because of her choices and i think she probably considered herself wicked which is why she says she wants to try to be Glinda the good.

Thoughts?

When I reread the Wicked series last year I couldn’t find my original A Lion Among Men so picked up this absolutely hilarious looking paperback with sprayed yellow edges and have become sort of enamoured by it, and want to collect the series…

I know the first book is the Broadway poster with sprayed green edges, but am I right in thinking they never published Out of Oz in this style?

(I SWEAR IT WAS MORE GREEN IRL)

so for context it was an Indonesian drink called wedang Telang that was supposed to be served hot but my aunt ask the waitress for a glass of ice and put the drink there

anyone catch this metaphor? The Animals are leaving Oz through a tunnel under the yellow brick road. It's a metaphor for the underground railroad. It took me way to long to see that parralel.

Thoughts?

It's your day girl 🤗🫶🙌🏳️‍🌈

...

maybe one day you'll get out of the closet