Wicked gay theme
4. But Are They Gay? A Gender non-conforming Take on Elphaba and Glinda
Questions eight and nine asked respondents to characterize the relationship between Gelphie, and asked if Wicked is a “queer” musical and how so, respectively. The brief answers are yes, most ship it, but whether it is a lgbtq+ musical was very up for debate. Among the six heterosexual respondents, for instance, four outright said that the show was not queer or that Glinda and Elphaba were not a couple, while one said she could see the potential and one said Gelphie is her OTP (one accurate pairing). Among gender non-conforming respondents, many saw the musical as not as gay as the guide, or not gay at all because characters who are canonically queer in the book are not discussed or erased. For instance, Gregory Maguire has confirmed that Elphaba and Glinda were in some type of relationship, so both are canonically bisexual, and Elphaba is hinted to be intersex. Other folks saw the show as definitely queer or the potential for it to be peruse as queer, awareness its need to insert the like triangle and build the show “family friendly” in the name of ticket sales, but “the way it is structured, the choices musically etc create it clear tha
Witchy gays, theater gays, witchy theater gays, gather round, for at last we have a full length Wicked trailerto obsess over for the next just-under-200 days until part one of the on-screen Wicked adaptation hits theaters. (Every time I remember it’s a two-part production, I do want to scream????? But, alas.) GAY WICKED TRAILER THOUGHTS, LET’S GO.
“Are people born wicked or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?” Ariana Grande’s Glinda muses in voiceover at the start of the trailer. I have watched the trailer half a dozen times already, and I each time, I am gobsmacked at just how much Ari has transformed…everything about herself for this role???? And, of course, Cynthia Erivo’s entrance as Elphaba is appropriately DRAMA. The click-clacking heels! The hair grab! The infinity glasses! And from the very start of the Glinda/Elphaba meet-cute, it’s clear Erivo and Grande have got chemistry, which is truly the most important thing to make a screen adaptation of this musical work. I don’t care about how fine or real the special effects, the magic, the flying gaze — give me simmering, sizzling chemistry between the leads!
What is the nature of evil?
This is the question that the much celebrated musical Wicked thrusts upon us – and it is no coincidence that the concept of evil is something that everyone in the LGBT community knowingly or unknowingly, has had to grapple with. Even today, there are those who explain us that by virtue of who we devote, we are damned, in other words, evil. When I came out in the 1980s, our redefinition of evil became an oft repeated slogan: the moral majority is neither.
But somehow the accusations never go away. As Gregory Maguire, readings/appearances of the novel that the play is based on -- Wicked: The Existence and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West -- writes, “It isn’t hard to locate evil in this world,” said the Witch. “Evil is always more easily imagined than good, somehow.”
Wicked, the musical, has been around for a while -- and has reached the mega-hit pinnacle of becoming a cliché. As I tell my students, a cliché is a word or phrase that is so overused that it is in demand of further definition. And my definition of
Musical review throwback: lgbtq+ coding in “Wicked”
“Wicked” is a sensational musical that explores the origin stories of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the South from “The Wizard of Oz.” Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, its protagonists Elphaba and Glinda navigate the highs and lows of their fierce, tumultuous relationship while trying to rescue Oz from the conniving Wizard.
Since it debuted on Broadway in 2004, “Wicked” has been hugely popular amongst the queer community. While the musical features no explicitly gender non-conforming characters, Maguire is openly gay and many media analysts have noted multiple elements of the show that assist as obvious metaphors for queerness.
Firstly, Elphaba and Glinda’s bond contains heavy homoerotic undertones. Although both women pursue intimate relationships with the charming prince Fiyero, most of the plot focuses on the connection between Elphaba and Glinda. Some critics view Elphaba and Glinda as bisexual or pansexual, while others argue that both women are coded as lesbians and their interest in Fiyero develops as a reaction to societal expectations and compulsory heterosexuality.
Rega