Wicked

is a global phenomenon with a stage play and box office blockbuster film, and now, a new prequel book attempts to tie it more closely to the L. Frank Baum novels that inspired it. While Wicked has been a hit show on the West End and Broadway since 2003, the show has recently gotten an even bigger audience thanks to the magic of cinema. With Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the musical into a feature film, the story is now available to a much larger audience.

However, in order to understand the depth of the lore behind Wicked, it’s worth looking at the books that inspired it. L. Frank Baum wrote a series of novels depicting the world of Oz between 1900 and 1920, the relationships between its inhabitants, and featuring characters like the Wicked Witch of the West. But Wicked attempts to provide a history for the Wicked Witch, and highlights how she experienced a tragic sequence of events that led to her turning against the people of Oz. And now, a new novel by Gregory Maguire expands that narrative even further.

Gregory Maguire’s New Wicked Prequel Attempts To Connect The Book & Musical

Gregory Maguire’s Elphie Novel Expands The Wicked Lore

Elphie: A Wicked Childhood is a new prequel novel to Wicked that strives to tie the story together in a more cohesive and complete way. After all, the movie takes a lot of liberties with the Baum books, and it features an intense, but brief backstory for Elphaba. But in Maguire’s novel, there are clear attempts to draw connections and set up the details about the Witch that will help to further define the character. This includes Elphie singing frequently, which does happen in the original books, though to a much lesser extent.

It also provides a foundation for Elphaba gaining her magic powers, and sets up details like The Dress, and establishing Melena Thropp’s lurid past in order to make her more like the version seen in the musical adaptation who cheats on the Mayor and gives birth to young Elphaba. But among all these efforts to correct the timeline, and bring everything into focus, the prequel novel also begins to create further complications.

Elphie Winds Up Contradicting Both Versions Of Wicked

In An Attempt To Connect The Stories, Both Become More Murky

Elphie makes major changes to the backstory of Melena in terms of her actions, her motivations, and her general demeanor, which appear to contradict the musical. For instance, rather than being a general party animal who enjoys drinking and makes poor decisions, the book sets her up as a generally unfaithful and promiscuous wife, who does not need any alcohol to make poor choices.

It also introduces entirely new realms of existence, such as Quadling Country, which is nowhere to be seen in either the original books or the musical. There are also aspects of Elphaba’s character and her sister Nessarose which make them appear to be at odds with the musical. For Nessa, she appears to have limited use of her legs as a young girl, which is not the case in the musical. And for Elphaba, her first words, and indeed her ability to speak at all are thrown into question with their depictions in the novel.

Gregory Maguire’s New Book Was Never Going To Fully Align The Two Stories

The Connection Has Never Been Perfect, The Prequel Novel Could Only Do So Much

Despite this, the effort to make a connected narrative that tries to bridge the gap at all is a valiant effort. The original books have been around for over a century, and they have a well-established history. When Maguire took the source material and made the first novelization, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, in 1995, the story took a few more years to actually blow up and find an audience. The musical, on the other hand, arrived relatively recently, and it has already made some significant leaps and bounds from the source material in an effort to make the musical as exciting and self-contained as possible. So, connecting these two stories, which may share common names, themes, and places, is an inherently Herculean task.

Maguire does a lot to resolve the two narratives, but it’s also evident that he is interested in creating another great story which can stand in its own right. Had the novel made more concessions to the first book or the musical, it may have tied it more closely to the source material, but it also could have detracted from the story being delivered within its own pages. Ultimately, Elphie: A Wicked Childhood had to make bold choices about what to keep, and what to cut in terms of both the Wicked musical, and the source texts, and the result stands out as a worthy entry into the larger narrative.