Wicked takes the story of The Wizard of Oz and turns it on its head. It tells the classic story from the perspective of the (not so) Wicked Witch of the west, Elphaba, and her her unlikely friendship with Glinda, the good witch of the north. Their friendship struggles through their opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, their reactions to the Wizard’s corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba’s public fall from grace.

The plot is set mostly before Dorothy’s arrival from Kansas, and includes several references to well-known scenes and dialogue in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz as a backstory. You will finally understand why the Lion is so cowardly, how the tin man came to have no heart, where the ruby slippers came from and grow to love and understand the magical characters of Oz better than ever before!

elphabaIt is rumoured that the original Broadway leads Kristin Chenoweth (Glinda) and Idina Menzel (Elphaba) will reprise their roles for the big screen adaptation, with Joel Grey returning to the role of the Wizard.

Kristin Chenowweth was quizzed about the idea of Wicked: the Movie in Nov ‘08
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”Yes, I do think it will be made. I think – you know, there’s something going on right now where everyone’s hearing that there’s going to be a movie. You know, there will be a movie. But I believe – and I could be wrong, but I believe it will be years before we see it as a movie, because – you know, Universal will really want to make sure that they suck it dry, so to speak in all the theaters. And if you look at movies like Chicago and Phantom of the Opera those were 20, 25 years after the fact. And I could see, definitely, me playing Madame Morrible at that point. But I hope they really do it soon, so that I’m young enough to play Glinda.”
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Lucky for us fans, we may not have to wait 20 years at all, as it is apparently already in production now, set to be released in 2010!

Rumour has it, that Marc Platt (producer of Broadway show) and David Stone will produce the screen adaptation for Universal, with Winnie Holzman penning the script.