5 Jewish Facts About Wicked

Wicked offers a thrilling prequel to The Wizard of Oz, describing how the Wicked Witch of the West - named Elphaba in the musical - rose to power and how she gained her fearsome reputation as an evil sorcerer.  Along the way, Wicked is rife with Jewish references and images.

Here are five Jewish facts about the hit musical and new film adaptation of Wicked.

1. Wicked The Musical originated as a book about the dangers of fascism.

The musical adaptation of Wicked is based on the 1995 best-selling novel Wicked by children’s book author Gregory Maguire.  It tells the story of a society sliding into fascism, where sentient, speaking animals are being demonized by humans and other human-like creatures.

Maguire hoped that his book - and the three sequels he wrote to Wicked - would give children courage to stand up against hate and prejudice.  In an interview Maguire said, “We can choose to ignore the problems, which is the most common way human beings have of severing themselves from the pain of fecklessness, or we can say we’re going to fight as hard as we can, and we’re going to lose. Or we can say it’s all beyond us, no one person can change the history of the Holocaust…” Maguire has explained that Wicked is his way of letting kids know that they could stand up for what is right, even when doing so is difficult, and not be so quick to judge and demonize others.

He has explicitly said that his book refers to dictators like Hitler, who demonized and oppressed marginalized groups like Jews.

2. Wicked echoes 1930s antisemitism.

Watching the new film adaptation of Wicked, that primarily takes place in Shiz University where Elphaba and her best friend Glinda become roommates, I couldn’t help but think of my grandmother’s stories about leaving the University of Vienna in the 1930s where Jewish faculty and students were subject to years of rising abuse and vilification.  After years of increasing antisemitism and the widespread demonization of Jews, the University of Vienna fired all Jewish teachers and expelled all Jewish students in April, 1938.

The films echoes this anti-Jewish history.

Dr. Dillamond

In some of the movie’s most chilling scenes, students watch as their history professor, a magical, gentle speaking goat named Dr. Dillamond, is persecuted for being a non-human.  First he has to contend with cruel anti-animal graffiti.  No students other than Elphaba try to stand up for his rights. Eventually, Nazi-like soldiers storm into his classroom and tell him that animals are no longer allowed to teach.  Elphaba has a terrifying premonition of Dr. Dillamond being imprisoned later in a cage. The implication seems clear: it’s easy to demonize people, as Jews were demonized in Nazi Europe, and it’s difficult - though crucial - for us all to stand up for others’ rights.

3. Composer Stephen Schwartz drew on his Jewish heritage for Wicked.

Wicked’s fabulous music and script were written by Jewish composers Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman.  Schwartz, who also wrote the music for the hit Prince of Egypt, drew on his Jewish heritage when he created the character Elphaba. Born with green skin, Elphaba grows up to be a kind, moral person who cares for her paraplegic younger sister and who sticks up for her persecuted teacher Dr. Dillamond.

Even though she is kind, brilliant, and giving, Elphaba is hated by virtually everyone who sees her. People turn away from her green skin in disgust and laugh and mock her mercilessly. Even Glinda hates Elphaba at first, only gradually becoming aware that her green-skinned roommate is a wonderful person as the movie progresses. Schwartz notes that Elphaba’s difference - and the fact that she is hated for being different - echoes the Jewish experience.

Stephen Schwartz

“I think a lot of musical theater themes speak to Jewish audiences because in many instances musicals are about outsiders, striving to discover how they might fit in,” Schwartz has explained.  “Wicked…certainly resonates with many Jewish people’s experience.”  In today’s world, where Jews face rising antisemitism and are once more being demonized and seen as “other,” Elphaba’s green skin and the hatred and derision that evoke feel terribly timely and familiar.

4. Jewish actors, composers, and producers helped shepherd Wicked to the screen.

In addition to composers Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, a number of other Jewish film and musical professionals helped develop this hit movie. Wicked is produced by veteran film producer Marc Platt, who also produced the musical on Broadway.  (Marc Platt now has another claim to fame: his son is the Tony-award winning star Ben Platt.)

Wicked opened on Broadway in 2003 with Jewish singer Idina Menzel playing Elphaba. She and Kristin Chenoweth, who played Glinda in the original Broadway production, both have cameos in the new film version of the musical.  Other Jewish actors in the film include Jeff Goldblum, who plays the Wizard; Ethan Slater, who plays Boq Woodsman; and Andy Nyman, who plays Elphaba’s father Frexspar Thropp.

Idina Menzel playing Elphaba

In the original musical version, Idina Menzel’s stereotypically “Jewish” looks gave the show a power, highlighting the way that Jews have historically been marginalized and hated merely for being who they are. Watching the fantastic British actress Cynthia Erivo play Elphaba in the new film lends a new dimension to her character, linking the prejudice Elphaba experiences for being green to the hatred that so many Black people have similarly experienced because of the color of their skin.

5. Wicked can teach us to stand up for our Jewish identities.

Wicked showcases a beautiful, magical world with dark secrets at its heart. These include the fact that the Wizard of Oz - the land’s absolute ruler - is actually a sham. He’s consolidated his power through fomenting fear of minorities.  In one of the movie’s most memorable scenes, the Wizard tells Elphaba and Glinda: “The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy.”

The musical’s beauty lies in showing how Elphaba, with her innate goodness and morality, is able to stand up to evil.

Jewish actress Talia Suskauer played Elphaba on Broadway and has described how the musical helped shaper her thinking and give her the strength to stand up to antisemitism: “There’s a line in the show that says, ‘The people just need a really good enemy. They need a scapegoat.’ Throughout history, Jews have been designated as that scapegoat.  If there’s an issue, the Jews did it.  This happens time and time again - the Inquisition, the Crusades, the Holocaust - and that’s exactly what is happening here on the show.”

Talia Suskauer as Elphaba

Suskauer notes that when she was younger, she was “embarrassed” to draw attention to antisemitism, noting, “Someone would make a Jewish joke in school, and I would just laugh it off. Thinking about that makes me so ashamed because I should have said, ‘You’re being antisemitic, and that is hurtful and mean.’  Now, I can’t sit on it anymore. It’s getting to the point where people are being targeted because they’re Jewish, that it’s very scary.  I have to use my platform and I will continue to use my platform.”

If Wicked inspires us to do anything other than sing its catchy tunes, it’s to stand up for what is right, to resist prejudice in all its forms, and have the courage and pride to be your authentic self.