Wicked tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba Thropp (later the Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda Upland (later Glinda the Good Witch), whose friendship struggles through their opposing personalities, viewpoints, same love interest, reactions to the Wonderful Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, ...

Wicked is innovative, original (or as original as a semi-spinoff can get) and riddled with “underlying meaning”. Sure, Wicked tells the story of what happened “before Dorothy dropped in” and runs somewhat parallel to the events of The Wizard of Oz, but is a stand-alone story that blows its predecessor out of the water.

Whilst the heart-warming stage version of The Wizard of Oz stays true to the book's vision of a magical land filled with lovable characters, Wicked provides an intriguing counterpoint in that its heroine is the supposedly Wicked Witch of the West from the original book and musical.

Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, telling the "true story" of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, and her school days when she first befriended popular girl, G(a)linda.

This represents, again, how the main focus of The Wizard of Oz is on the people of America. Further into this interpretation, according to Littlefield, The Wicked Witch of the West is a representation of the Great Plains, and how hard it was for Americans to make a living there.

…the evil witch's sister, the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton), vows to kill Dorothy in order to avenge her sister and retrieve the powerful ruby slippers.

Wicked: The story famously centers on the Wicked Witch of the West, named Elphaba, whose sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, is named Nessarose. As in the 1939 movie-musical, there is only one other witch in Wicked. She is initially named Galinda, though she later shortens this to Glinda.

• So, four Witches?
• Glinda – Glinda is a good witch who rules over a peaceful kingdom of simple, kind folk.
• Evanora – A witch to be feared, Evanora is Theodora's over-protective sister.
• Theodora – Theodora is a beautiful, naive witch who is protected by her powerful sister Evanora.

They are different in setting, characters, and theme. There are more settings in the book than in the play, and the ones that are similar in the book and play are described very differently, like the Emerald City and Elphaba's lair.

in wicked the musical all we ever see of Dorothy is her silhouette. this was to avoid copyright. and to avoid comparisons to the mgm musical in early trial runs of wicked. they did have Dorothy on stage and then they changed it and I thought that was a good move.

There are some dark and scary moments that could frighten smaller children, such as the powerful Oz head, or the flying monkeys. The “melting” scene has a new take and is behind a curtain. The show lasts 2 hours and 45 minutes with an intermission and may be too long for restless smaller children.

The happy ending where the Wicked Witch of the West gets to run away with her love, was nice. A big change from the melting green mess we all remember from the film! The character of Fiyero was not as cliché as I first expected.