Wicked

Wicked is a musical set in the Land of Oz that retells the familiar story through its two witches. They start out as rival students: Elphaba, green-skinned and sharp-tongued, and the popular Glinda. In time Oz will know one of them as its Wicked Witch and the other as Glinda the Good. The action runs up to and through Dorothy's visit, so familiar moments appear from a new angle.

Stephen Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics, Winnie Holzman wrote the book, and Joe Mantello directed. The source is Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, itself rooted in L. Frank Baum's 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The musical follows the novel loosely, with the friendship at its center.

This is the original Broadway production, not a revival. It opened at the Gershwin Theatre on October 30, 2003, won three Tony Awards in 2004 and had given 8,955 performances by October 11, 2026. As of October 2026, it is the fourth longest-running show in Broadway history, behind The Phantom of the Opera, the 1996 revival of Chicago and The Lion King.

The show begins at the end: the people of Oz are rejoicing because their Wicked Witch is dead. When Glinda appears before the crowd, the story rewinds to the Witch's early life. Elphaba was born green, and her father, Munchkinland's Governor, rejected her.

At Shiz University, where she arrives with her younger sister, Nessarose, Elphaba is shunned. Madame Morrible, the headmistress, puts her in a room with the popular Galinda Upland, then spots Elphaba's power and takes her on as a private student of sorcery. The roommates can't stand each other. Doctor Dillamond, the only Animal on the faculty, warns Elphaba that someone wants to stop Animals from talking.

A party thrown by the newly arrived Prince Fiyero changes things. After a prank goes wrong, Galinda ends up dancing with Elphaba, the rivals become friends, and Galinda takes on Elphaba's makeover. Soon after, Dillamond is dismissed. With Fiyero's help, Elphaba rescues a lion cub from a cage meant to silence Animals and realizes she has fallen for him.

By the time the two friends set out to meet the Wizard, Galinda has renamed herself Glinda in honor of Dillamond, who never said her name right. In the Emerald City, where Morrible now works as the Wizard's press secretary, the Wizard tricks Elphaba into giving his monkeys wings. She sees that he is a fraud and that the campaign against the Animals is his. Elphaba turns him down, Glinda chooses to stay, and Elphaba flies off on an enchanted broom, determined to fight him.

The second act picks up years later. Oz now calls Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda has become the regime's public face and is engaged to Fiyero, who is Captain of the Guard. Nessarose governs Munchkinland and has taken away the Munchkins' rights, and one of her spells goes badly wrong for Boq. Fiyero leaves with Elphaba, Glinda is crushed, and the Wizard and Morrible use a storm to lure the Witch into the open. A house falls on Nessarose, the friends fight over her shoes, which now belong to Dorothy, and Fiyero is captured.

Schwartz organized the score around a handful of motifs that return from song to song instead of giving every number a new tune. Elphaba's main theme comes from chords he wrote in 1971 as musical director of The Survival of St. Joan. Another recurring phrase, the Unlimited theme, borrows the first seven notes of "Over the Rainbow" as a tribute to Harold Arlen's songs for the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. Numbers to listen for:

• "The Wizard and I" is Elphaba's first song, shared with Morrible, once her power comes to light.
• "What Is This Feeling?" lets the new roommates spell out how much they dislike each other.
• "Popular" is Glinda's solo as the makeover gets under way.
• "Defying Gravity" ends the first act.
• "For Good" is the farewell duet for the two friends.

The album Wicked (Original Broadway Cast Recording) came out on Decca Broadway on December 16, 2003, with Stephen Oremus conducting. It was certified four times platinum in July 2025, with more than five million copies sold worldwide. "The Wicked Witch of the East" is the one major number it leaves out.

Lee took his visual cues from W. W. Denslow, illustrator of the first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and from Maguire's notion of an enormous clock as the frame for the tale. Hilferty designed more than 200 costumes in a twisted Edwardian style, and Posner's rig of more than 800 lights gives each of the 54 scenes and locations a look of its own.

As of October 2026, Keri René Fuller plays Elphaba and Emma Flynn plays Glinda; both started on March 3, 2026. Fuller had been the Elphaba standby; Flynn, who created Cher Horowitz in Clueless in the West End, made her Broadway debut. Ellen Harvey as Madame Morrible, Blake Hammond as the Wizard and Carl Man as Fiyero joined the same day, Hammond from the national tour and Man from London. Man is the first performer of Asian heritage to take the role on Broadway and the first to play Fiyero in both cities.

Also as of October 2026, Jenna Bainbridge plays Nessarose and Daniel Quadrino plays Boq, while William Youmans is back as Doctor Dillamond, the part he originated on Broadway in 2003.

Schwartz found Maguire's novel on vacation and saw a musical in it. Universal Pictures held an option on the book for a film, but in 1998 he talked Maguire into releasing the stage rights and brought in Marc Platt, a Universal producer, who signed on along with Universal and David Stone. During readings and workshops, Kristin Chenoweth came aboard as Glinda, and Idina Menzel was cast as Elphaba in late 2002.

The tryout ran at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco from its first preview on May 28 until June 29, 2003, with Menzel, Chenoweth, Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero and Robert Morse as the Wizard. The writers then spent about three months rewriting parts of the book, reworking songs and giving Elphaba more weight. In New York, Joel Grey took over as the Wizard. Previews began at the Gershwin on October 8, 2003, and the show had earned back its investment by December 21, 2004.

Box-office records followed: a record weekly gross for Broadway in the week ending January 1, 2006; the first musical to pass three million dollars in a week, at the end of 2013; and the first Broadway show to top five million in a single week, over the holidays in late 2024. In July 2017 its total gross overtook that of The Phantom of the Opera, leaving only The Lion King ahead. On April 11, 2023, its 7,486th performance carried it past the original run of Cats.

Broadway shut down for COVID-19 on March 12, 2020, and Wicked returned on September 14, 2021, led by Lindsay Pearce and Ginna Claire Mason, with Chenoweth speaking before the curtain. It marked 20 years on Broadway on October 30, 2023.

The first US national tour opened in Toronto on March 31, 2005, and kept going until March 15, 2015. The London production at the Apollo Victoria Theatre opened on September 27, 2006, and reached its 20th anniversary year in 2026.

Jon M. Chu directed the 2024 film Wicked, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in the two lead roles and a screenplay by Holzman and Dana Fox; a second film, Wicked: For Good, followed in November 2025. The first film won Academy Awards for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. As of January 2026, the two films ranked first and third at the box office among movies based on Broadway musicals.