Trivia / Wicked

For the books see here. For the first part of the film adaptation, see here.

Play

• Corpsing:
  • Quite frequent during "Popular". Whoever is playing Elphaba will more than likely crack up at Galinda's antics. But either one is likely to lose it when the other does "Toss, toss!". Although this works in-story too, since the song is all about the characters breaking through their enmity and loathing to become genuine friends.
  • Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth seemed to avert this - until Kristin’s final show... when Kristin pulls a curve ball on Idina and pulls out a book that Glinda has apparently written called “how to be Popular” and starts using it in the song. Idina finally can’t take it anymore and, not breaking character, absolutely cracks up cackling.
• Creator Backlash: After originating the role, Norbert Leo Butz has gone on to say he believes he was miscast as Fiyero.
• Cut Song:
  • "Making Good" was replaced in the final cut by "The Wizard and I" - a recording of it is included on the 5 year anniversary album. The original song in place of "Dancing Through Life" was called "Which Way's The Party" (lyrics also at the same link); that one has not been released in any official form (however, both the sheet music and a soundboard recording of the workshop and tryout performances have since been leaked).
  • The song "The Wicked Witch of the East" is in the musical, but not in any of the sound tracks. This is because the lyrics are interspersed with a lot of dialog, and because it contains spoilers that were not yet common knowledge when the cast recording was released in 2003. Still, you can find videos of the song on YouTube.
  • "No Good Deed" originally had a Dark Reprise of the Unlimited verse that also appears in "The Wizard and I", "Defying Gravity", and "For Good", (it went "unlimited... the damage is unlimited") that got snipped from it because it was decided having the verse show up four times was overkill.
• Development Hell: A movie adaptation of the musical has been in various stages of development since shortly after the musical debuted. At one point it was scheduled for 2019 only to be delayed until 2021 in favor of Cats. Then in early 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic lead to it being delayed indefinitely so Sing 2 could take the 2021 date. As of November 2021 the project finally appears to have started moving forward as Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were cast as, respectively, Elphaba and Glinda, and Jon M. Chu signed on as director.
• Fandom Life Cycle: Stage 5 for the musical. It's one of the most popular Broadway musicals worldwide and has a steady flow of fan-works.
• On-Set Injury
  • Original Elphaba Idina Menzel suffered an accident during her third-to-last performance on January 8, 2005, when the trapdoor for the melting scene partially descended without her, causing her to misstep and break her ribs. She did, however, make a surprise appearance during the final scene before the curtain call for what would have been her final performance.
  • Stephanie J Block, who was the original Elphaba on the First National Tour, injured herself during the dress rehearsal where Elphaba flies in on a wire and broke ribs. This forced the production to push back previews and had then Broadway principal Kristy Cates open the production for the first few weeks of performances.
• Real-Life Relative: For a time, Taye Diggs played Fiyiero opposite his then-wife Idina Menzel.
• Role Reprise: Quite a rare occurrence with Wicked. Some examples of this trope include:
  • Idina Menzel, the original Broadway Elphaba, reprised her role in the Original London Company.
  • Mark Curry, the 10th Anniversary London Wizard, returned to the role in late 2022. Five months later, he was joined by Alexia Khadime, who originally played Elphaba from 2008-2009 and was also the first black British actress to play Elphaba.
  • Stephanie J Block read the role of Elphaba in the workshop production of the musical before Idina Menzel joined the cast. Block returned to originate the role for the 1st National Tour.
  • William Youmans, the original Doctor Dillamond, is currently reprising his role in the 2022-23 Broadway production.
• Recursive Adaptation: The upcoming film adaptation will be a movie based on a Broadway musical based on a novel based on a movie based on a Broadway musical based on a novel. At minimum.
• What Could Have Been
  • The musical was originally scripted to end with a scene with Elphaba having taken with refuge with the animals and trying to help Doctor Dillamond, but being unable to. Though Schwartz liked the scene, it was chopped because it was felt the play was suffering from too many endings.
  • At another point in the show's development, Doctor Dillamond wasn't Spared by the Adaptation, but simply died differently, committing offstage suicide by jumping off a bridge after he was fired from Shiz. In this version, Galinda changed her name to Glinda not just in solidarity with him, but to honor his memory, and she announced her name change at his funeral.
  • Elphaba was originally much less of a Deadpan Snarker. But during the show's San Francisco previews, the creative team realized that audiences preferred Glinda because she had all the funny lines, so they gave Elphaba her own sense of humor too.
  • There were originally many more direct references in the script to The Wizard of Oz. However, the musical was financially supported by Universal Stage Productions, not MGM or Warner Bros.., so the lawyers put the kibosh on pretty much everything blatant. About the only ones of these that survived were the "lemons and melons and pears" bit and the "no place like home" gag.
• Word of Gay: Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel have said that they believe if things had gone differently, Glinda and Elphaba could have fallen in love. The same was said by some other cast members and Gregory Maguire.