Everyone laughed at her for looking different, but she didn’t let it break her. Instead, she proved them all wrong, showing them that she was stronger than their words and they never saw it coming.

‘SPOILER ALERT’

In the land of Oz, citizens of a town called Munchkinland hear rumors of the death of a wicked witch. After a while, a lady named Galinda arrives in a bubble and confirms to everyone that the Wicked Witch of the West is really dead. They all look happy about this, and after they rejoice by dancing around, a girl asks Galinda why wickedness happens.

Galinda says it’s a good question, and that it often confuses people because no one is sure whether people are born wicked or if they have wickedness thrust upon them. Just then, Galinda narrates the story of how the wicked witch’s mom had an affair with a salesman despite being married to the Governor of Munchkinland, Thropp. This affair got the witch’s mom pregnant, but Thropp always believed the baby was his.

On the day of her delivery, Thropp looks disappointed to see that his wife has given birth to a baby with green skin. As he tells the nurses to take the baby away, she cries loudly, and the small objects in the room suddenly fly to the ceiling. Thropp is shocked by this, but he still insists that he doesn’t want to see his daughter, who is named Elphaba.

As her nanny, Dulcibear, takes her out of the room, she stares at Elphaba and says she’ll take care of her. Following this, Dulcibear decides to raise Elphaba as she grows older. One day, while Elphaba is reading a book, Dulcibear tells her to watch her little sister, Nessarose, while she goes to attend to their dad, who is calling her.

Elphaba looks happy about this, and she gives Nessarose a flower, after which she asks if she would like to see something amazing. As Nessarose says she wants to, Elphaba shows her a page from her book and narrates the story of how the Wonderful Wizard of Oz came to their land in a balloon and built a city made of emeralds because he loved them. Elphaba then tells Nessarose that if someone gets to meet the Wizard of Oz, he can grant their heart desires.

Almost immediately, some kids show up near the house and begin to insult Elphaba for the way she looks. Nessarose cries as she hears them, and Elphaba gets pissed. She then stands up and lifts some stones with her power before throwing them at the kids.

Just then, Thropp comes outside and sees Nessarose crying. He blames Elphaba and says that she has likely done something to her sister, and this leaves her disappointed. As he eventually heads back inside with Nessarose, Dulcibear tells Elphaba that Thropp shouldn’t have talked to her like that, but she still looks sad.

Back in the present, Galinda decides to return to Emerald City after sharing the news of the witch’s death. Before she leaves, one of the villagers asks if it’s true that she and the witch were friends. Galinda says they were and that their paths crossed when they were at Shiz University.

Following this, Galinda remembers how they met and narrates the story to the villagers. Many years earlier, Elphaba arrives at Shiz University with Thropp to drop off Nessarose, who will be a new student there. Galinda also happens to be one of the new students at the school, and as she sees Elphaba, she looks frightened. Elphaba jokingly asks if there’s something wrong with her, but Galinda says she just looks different. Elphaba then mentions that she has always been green, and Galinda says she’s sorry that Elphaba has to live with such a problem.

She adds that she plans to major in sorcery, and that if Elphaba ever wants to change how she looks, she can be of help to her. Galinda’s friends, Shenshen and Pfannee, seem to be proud of Galinda for being kind, but Elphaba finds it insulting. She also says it’s weird that Galinda would offer to help someone she doesn’t know with a skillset she doesn’t have.

Before Galinda can defend herself, Thropp brings Nessarose to the scene in a wheelchair and tells Elphaba to stop trying to draw unnecessary attention to herself. He then gives Nessarose a pair of silver shoes that belonged to his late wife. As he leaves to put the gift in her suitcase, Elphaba says she’s really excited that her sister is going to embark on a new adventure at Shiz.

Nessarose says she’ll miss her, but Elphaba mentions that she’ll probably be having too much fun to even remember her. Shortly after, all the new students are told to enter the school premises. As Nessarose goes inside alone, Thropp tells Elphaba to follow her to make sure she’s well settled in because he can’t risk anything happening to her.

Elphaba says that Nessarose won’t like her being there because she prefers to do things on her own, but Thropp insists that she does as she’s told. Following this, she goes into the school and sees the Shiz President introducing the students to the head of the school’s history department, Dr. Dillamond, and the dean of sorcery studies, Madame Morrible. Everyone cheers for the professors, but they all seem more amazed to see Madame Morrible.

After she gives a speech, telling the students that she and her colleagues have the highest hopes for them, she instructs the school’s Headmistress, Miss Coddle, to show them where to find their dormitory designations and room assignments. Miss Coddle does just this, and as Madame Morrible is walking away from the auditorium, Galinda goes to meet her. She then mentions that she would like to join Madame Morrible’s sorcery seminar class, but the professor says she doesn’t usually take new students every semester unless someone special comes along.

Galinda tries to make a case for herself, but Madame Morrible just ignores her and walks away. Meanwhile, Miss Coddle sees Nessarose and recognizes her as the Governor’s daughter. As she talks about how Nessarose will enjoy her time at the school, Elphaba appears in front of them, and Miss Coddle looks terrified. Nessarose asks Elphaba why she’s still there, and she says their dad told her to ensure she’s well settled in. Miss Coddle says she can do that, but Nessarose mentions that she doesn’t want anyone’s help.

Miss Coddle doesn’t listen to her, and as she wheels Nessarose away, Elphaba gets pissed and uses her powers to lift some objects and throw them around until she gets back her sister. Everyone is shocked by this, but Nessarose looks embarrassed and wheels herself away from the scene. As Elphaba looks disappointed that she has ruined her sister’s first day at the new school, Madame Morrible shows up and takes responsibility for what happened, saying she did it to make the students understand that they need to expect the unexpected at Shiz.

It turns out that she actually saw what Elphaba did and was impressed, so she now wants to accept her as her only student. As she asks if anyone would like to be Elphaba’s roommate, Galinda gets close to Madame Morrible, and the professor assumes that she wants to volunteer to share a room with Elphaba. Madame Morrible then tells Elphaba to move in with Galinda, and the girls look shocked.

Before they say anything, she walks away and calls Elphaba to come with her. Galinda then hears Madame Morrible saying that she wants Elphaba to be her only student, and this makes her jealous. Elphaba thanks Madame Morrible for covering for her, but she says she’s not sure she can stay because her dad won’t like the idea.

Madame Morrible says she’ll speak to Thropp about it to make sure he agrees to let her stay. She also asks about Elphaba’s talent and when she discovered she could do magic. Elphaba says she’s not sure if it’s a talent because she can’t control it. Madame Morrible then mentions that if Elphaba is able to control her magic, she’ll take her to meet the Wizard of Oz and convince him to make her his Magic Grand Vizier. She adds that she has been waiting for years to meet someone with Elphaba’s talent, and that she’ll write a letter to the Wizard to inform him about her.

As she walks away, Elphaba looks very happy because she has always wanted to meet the Wizard so that he can change her skin color. After a while, Elphaba heads to her room and sees that Galinda has occupied nearly the whole place. Elphaba says it’s not fair, but Galinda mentions that she expected to be given a private suite.

She eventually shows Elphaba the small space she left for her, and she says she hopes her roommate will put in a good word for her with Madame Morrible. Elphaba doesn’t respond to this, but as she’s trying to clear her space, Galinda accuses her of being responsible for the chaos that happened earlier. Elphaba says it was Madame Morrible, but Galinda refuses to believe this.

She then asks how Elphaba was able to do it, but she doesn’t say anything. As she keeps disturbing her, Elphaba eventually shouts at her and says she doesn’t know. The room window gets shattered in the process, and Galinda looks amazed.

Despite this, though, the two girls don’t seem to like each other, and they start doing things separately. The next day, the girls head to Dr. Dillamond’s class along with some other students. During the class, Dillamond keeps referring to Galinda as Glinda, and she complains about this. As she mentions that Dillamond is the only professor who still fails to pronounce her name well, Elphaba defends him and says that he’s not like the others. Before they argue about it, Dillamond mentions that goats like him don’t have front upper teeth, and that’s why he’s unable to say Galinda’s name well.

After this, he talks about how he’s the only animal teacher in the school because people are currently rejecting animals. He adds that there was once a time when animals used to live freely with humans until they got blamed for a Great Drought that plagued the kingdom. As he continues his class, he turns the blackboard to the other side and sees that someone has written an insult about how animals should only be seen and not heard. Dillamond looks pissed and disappointed at this, and as he asks who wrote it, none of the students answers him. He then tells them to leave, but he mistakenly knocks down some things on his table.

As the other students leave, Elphaba stays back to help Dillamond pick up the items. He says she doesn’t have to do it, but she insists. As they then talk about having a similar interest in poppy flowers, Dillamond offers to be Elphaba’s friend since she has none yet, and she agrees. A while later, during Madame Morrible’s class, Elphaba fails to lift a coin on the table with her powers, and this leaves her frustrated. Madame Morrible tells her not to be bothered because controlling her powers will take some time.

She then asks about what happened at Dillamond’s class earlier, and Elphaba says it was bad for someone to write something like that. She adds that she wishes there was something she could do. As she talks about how pissed she is, it triggers her powers to work, and Madame Morrible looks impressed and says that she needs to keep practicing.

She also mentions that if Elphaba improves, she might take her to the Wizard herself. As Elphaba leaves the class, she sees Dillamond heading out of the school, so she secretly follows him. When he gets to his house, Dillamond talks to some fellow animals about the sudden disappearance of others like them.

He adds that some animals have lost their ability to talk, and it’s a cause for concern that people want to keep them silent. Suddenly, Elphaba makes a sound, and the animals realize that someone is around. After the others leave, Dillamond sees Elphaba and welcomes her into his house.

She then mentions that she heard what they were talking about, and she’s wondering if it can happen. Dillamond says it’s already happening, and Elphaba looks sad about it. She then mentions that someone has to tell the Wizard what’s happening, but Dillamond tells her not to tell anyone about the things she heard earlier.

After Elphaba leaves his house, she bumps into a Prince named Fiyero, who is riding his horse in the woods. He looks shocked to see the color of her skin, but as she walks away, he asks if he can at least give her a ride since they’re headed in the same direction. Interestingly, Elphaba just rejects his offer and walks back to the school.

In the morning, the students at the school are informed that Fiyero will be joining them as a new transfer student. As Galinda hears that he’s a Prince, she puts on her best dress and heads out to get Fiyero’s attention. After he notices her, he seems attracted to her, and she offers to give him a tour of the school.

While they’re in the library, Fiyero sees Elphaba and waves at her, but she ignores him. Fiyero then asks Galinda what the students do for fun, but she says there’s nothing like that at Shiz. Fiyero suggests going to a place called the Oztech Ballroom, but Galinda says it’s illegal for students to go there.

While they’re talking, a boy named Boq falls next to them, and Fiyero helps him up. Boq then says he heard what they were talking about, and that Shiz doesn’t allow students to go out to town after dark. Fiyero doesn’t seem to care about this, and as he mentions that schools teach the wrong lessons, he convinces all the students to come to a party at the Oztech Ballroom that night.

After this, Boq tells Galinda that he would like to dance with her at the party. Boq happens to have a crush on Galinda, but she doesn’t seem interested in him because she likes Fiyero. Instead of telling him that she likes someone else, Galinda tells Boq to ask Nessarose to follow him to the dance instead. As she mentions that she’ll consider him to be her hero if he does that, Boq says he’d do anything for her.

Just then, Boq goes to ask Nessarose to the dance, and she looks happy about this. Shortly after, Nessarose meets Elphaba and tells her that she’ll be going to the dance later that night. She adds that Galinda helped her get a date because Boq said she was the one who convinced him to ask her out. Elphaba tries to warn Nessarose about Galinda, but she tells her sister to be happy for her instead of trying to correct her. Elsewhere, Shenshen and Pfannee help Galinda pick the dress to wear to the party so she can impress Fiyero.

While looking around the room, Pfannee sees a black pointed hat and asks Galinda about it. She says that her grandmother made it, but it’s not something she would wear. She adds that she would’ve given it out to someone, but she doesn’t hate anyone that much. Pfannee and Shenshen suggest giving it to Elphaba, but Galinda says she can’t do that. Almost immediately, Elphaba enters the room, and Galinda’s friends leave.

Elphaba then thanks Galinda for what she did to help Nessarose get a date for the party. Galinda says it was nothing, and she also invites Elphaba to the party. Elphaba looks shocked, but Galinda says it wouldn’t make sense for her to be the only student who won’t be there. She then gives Elphaba the pointed hat and says that it suits her well. As Elphaba looks at the hat, she smiles and seems happy that Galinda is being nice to her.

Shortly after, she goes to meet Madame Morrible to ask for a favor. Later that night, at the party, Boq can’t stop staring at Galinda while she’s dancing with Fiyero. He then tells Nessarose that he has something to confess to her. Nessarose asks if he’s concerned that his date is in a wheelchair, but Boq says he’s not. Since Galinda seems to be happy with someone else, Boq decides against telling Nessarose that he doesn’t like her as much as she thinks.

He then says she’s beautiful, and Nessarose looks extremely happy while singing that they deserve each other. Shortly after, Madame Morrible arrives at the party to give Galinda a training wand. Galinda is shocked by this, and she thanks Madame Morrible for having faith in her and making her one of her students. Madame Morrible says she has no faith in Galinda, and that it was Elphaba who told her to accept her roommate as a student. She adds that Galinda can thank Elphaba herself because she just arrived at the party.

Just then, Elphaba walks in with the pointed hat, and everyone looks at her strangely. As she notices that they’re making fun of her hat, she looks embarrassed and takes it off. She then starts dancing weirdly, and as the students laugh at her, Galinda looks sad and decides to join her. As they dance together, all the students eventually join them, and Elphaba looks happy that Galinda stood up for her. When they arrive home, they talk about how much fun they had at the party.

As they now seem more comfortable being around each other, Galinda suggests that they both share something no one knows about them. Galinda starts by saying that she plans to marry Fiyero even though he hasn’t asked her out yet. Elphaba initially refuses to say anything, but she eventually mentions that her dad hates her, and she believes he has a good reason for it.

Galinda asks what she means, and Elphaba says that after she was born with green skin, Thropp tried to prevent the same thing from happening when her mom got pregnant with Nessarose. During the pregnancy, Thropp forced his wife to chew milkflowers, and this caused her to have a premature delivery, which led to her death and resulted in Nessarose being born with a disability. Galinda looks sad to hear this, and she says it was the milkflower’s fault and not Elphaba’s.

The next day, as the students arrive for Dillamond’s class, Elphaba gives him some poppy flowers, but he just tells her to go to her seat. After all the students are seated, Dillamond mentions that he’ll no longer be a professor at Shiz because animals aren’t allowed to teach anymore. As he tries to explain what happened, Miss Coddle brings some guards to the classroom to take Dillamond away.

While he’s being dragged, Dillamond tells the students that they’ve not been told the full story of what’s happening. After he’s taken away, Elphaba asks the students if they’ll just sit down and do nothing, but Coddle tells her to also return to her seat. She then mentions that their new professor, Nikidik, has prepared a presentation for them.

Almost immediately, Nikidik enters the classroom and shows the students a lion cub inside a cage. He then mentions that the cage is an innovation meant to prevent animals from learning to speak. Elphaba doesn’t like this because the cub looks scared in the cage, but Nikidik rules it out as anything serious.

Elphaba looks disappointed and tells Galinda and Fiyero that they have to do something. As Fiyero asks what they could possibly do, Elphaba angrily hits the poppy flowers on the table and says they have to do something. Suddenly, the poppy flowers start spinning, and as the dust fills the room, everyone falls asleep except Elphaba and Fiyero. As he asks what just happened, Elphaba says she doesn’t know what she did. Before she says anything else, he carries the cub out of the cage and tells Elphaba that they need to get it to safety.

After they leave the school, Madame Morrible enters the classroom and sees everyone asleep. As she realizes that Elphaba had something to do with it, she smiles and goes to her office to write a letter to the Wizard of Oz. Back in the woods, Elphaba allows the cub to drink some water, and Fiyero jokes that she’s always causing a commotion. After a while, he asks why he was the only one her powers didn’t affect. Instead of responding to this, Elphaba sees a scratch on his face and helps him clean the blood on it.

It then turns out that she’s actually attracted to him, and he also feels the same way. Almost immediately, Fiyero suggests taking the cub farther away to safety, and Elphaba agrees. As he leaves, Elphaba looks sad because she knows that they might never be together even though she likes him. The next day, Elphaba receives an invitation from the Wizard of Oz, who wants her to come to Emerald City to meet him. Madame Morrible looks happy for her, and she says that Elphaba will have to prove herself to him.

Elphaba doesn’t think she’s ready, but Madame Morrible says she’s sure that her student will do well. A while later, a train arrives from Emerald City to take Elphaba to meet the Wizard. Before she leaves, Galinda goes to meet Elphaba to say goodbye. Elphaba then asks about Fiyero, and Galinda says he has been acting strangely since the day Dillamond was sent away from the school. As she wonders if Fiyero liked Dillamond that much, he shows up to say goodbye to Elphaba.

He then says he has been thinking a lot about the day they helped the cub. Elphaba says she has also been thinking about it, and as Galinda wonders what’s going on between them, she mentions that she misses Dillamond and wants to take a stand for him. Just then, she calls all the students and announces that she wants to change her name to Glinda in honor of Dillamond.

After a while, Elphaba joins the train to Emerald City, but before it leaves, she tells Galinda to come with her. Galinda doesn’t think she would be allowed in because Elphaba got only one invitation, but her friend tells her not to worry about it. Following this, they leave for Emerald City together, and when they arrive, they look amazed by how beautiful the city looks.

They also watch a play about the Wizard of Oz, which tells the story of how he fulfilled the prophecy to become the only person able to read a book of spells called the Grimmerie. After a while, one of the Wizard’s monkey guards takes them into his castle. As they enter, they see a giant robot that asks who they are.

Elphaba looks scared and nearly runs away, but Galinda holds her back. After she then mentions her name, the Wizard comes out to introduce himself to them. He looks quite happy to see Elphaba, but he says he wasn’t expecting Galinda. She then mentions that she’s Elphaba’s friend, and that they’ve both been looking forward to meeting him.

Shortly after, the Wizard shows them his design for a new city called the Oz of Tomorrow. He then gives Elphaba a figurine of herself, and she happily accepts it. As she looks at it, she says it’s green, and the Wizard asks if it’s what she wants him to change about her. Elphaba thinks about it for a while, but she says she’d prefer if he helped the animals because something bad is happening to them. The Wizard says he likes her request, and that he was hoping she would want to save the animals because he believes everyone deserves a chance.

Shortly after, Madame Morrible arrives at the castle and says she couldn’t afford to miss Elphaba’s big moment. Just then, the leader of the Wizard’s monkey guards, Chistery, removes the piece of cloth covering the Grimmerie. Elphaba and Galinda are shocked to see it, and they walk toward it.

Madame Morrible then mentions that Elphaba doesn’t need to pressure herself to read it yet, but she says she wants to try. Surprisingly, the Grimmerie opens when Elphaba goes close to it, and Madame Morrible and the Wizard look shocked. The Wizard then asks Madame Morrible for the spell she’d like Elphaba to try first.

Madame Morrible says they’ve been working on levitation in their classes, and the Wizard then calls Elphaba’s attention and tells her about how Chistery likes watching birds. Suddenly, the words in the Grimmerie start glowing, and Madame Morrible tells Elphaba that it’s fine if she doesn’t know how to read it because the book is written in a lost language of spells. Before she says anything else, Elphaba starts reading the words fluently, and this leaves Madame Morrible shocked.

After she’s done reading the spell, Chistery suddenly starts moving around in pain. Elphaba wonders what’s wrong, but Madame Morrible says it’s just a transition process. Just then, Chistery painfully sprouts wings and flies to the ceiling. The Wizard looks impressed by this, and Galinda also hails her friend and says she did it.

As Chistery falls to the ground, Elphaba looks scared and tells Madame Morrible that she would like to reverse what she just did. Madame Morrible then says that spells from the Grimmerie can never be reversed. Elphaba is shocked to hear this, but as she walks out to the hallway, she sees that all the monkey guards have sprouted wings and are now struggling to fly.

Elphaba cannot believe what she has done, but Madame Morrible looks happy and says that the flying monkeys will make good spies. Elphaba looks shocked to hear this, and as she walks away, the Wizard tells her that what Madame Morrible meant to say is that the monkeys will be scouts who will help them monitor any suspicious animal activity in the kingdom. Elphaba doesn’t get why they would want this, but she eventually realizes that the Wizard is behind the recent hate for the animals.

The Wizard says that giving the people a common enemy to hate has always been a good strategy to maintain peace, and Madame Morrible also mentions that their plan will benefit Elphaba. As she then asks why they didn’t make the spies themselves, she brings the Grimmerie to the Wizard and tells him to read it. Interestingly, he’s unable to do this, and Elphaba realizes that he has no real power and has been lying to the people of Oz.

She looks hurt by this, but Madame Morrible tells her to think of her future. Galinda tells Elphaba to listen to them, and the Wizard says there’s a future where they’ll all get to live in Emerald City together. Galinda looks happy about this, but Elphaba refuses to work with them to continue deceiving the people and mutilating the animals.

As she storms out of the castle, Madame Morrible tells Galinda that if she wants to do herself any good, she needs to bring Elphaba back. Galinda quickly runs to find Elphaba, and Madame Morrible goes to tell the flying monkeys to make sure she doesn’t leave the city if they still want to see their families. The Wizard also alerts his guards that there’s a fugitive in the city that must be found.

The monkeys eventually find Elphaba, but as she tries to run away, Galinda shows up and tells her that she needs to come back and do what the Wizard wants. Elphaba doesn’t listen to her, and she runs away to enter a hot air balloon. Galinda also follows her, but as some guards show up in the room, Elphaba quickly tries to move the balloon out of the castle, but it eventually gets damaged.

They both leave the balloon unhurt, and as they get to another room, Galinda tells Elphaba that she needs to calm down and listen to what Madame Morrible and the Wizard have to say. Elphaba says she’ll never do that, and she mentions that she’s not surprised Galinda is on their side because she’s only interested in feeding her ambition. Galinda denies this, but as they keep arguing, they hear an announcement from Madame Morrible, who tells everyone in the city to beware of Elphaba because she’s evil.

She adds that Elphaba’s green skin is a manifestation of her twisted nature, and that she’s responsible for the mutilation of the monkeys. As Madame Morrible ends the announcement by calling her a wicked witch, Elphaba looks sad and disappointed. Galinda then holds her hands and says that she can go back to apologize for what happened.

She adds that Elphaba can still be with the wizard and have everything she wants, but she says she’s not interested. She also mentions that she’s tired of playing by someone else’s rules, and it’s time for her to trust her instincts. As she walks up to the top of the building, she notices that the guards are still looking for her, so she brings out the Grimmerie and reads a spell to see if she can grow wings.

While she’s at it, Galinda tells her to stop and says that she might not be as powerful as she thinks. Suddenly, a broom flies toward Elphaba, and she looks shocked. After Elphaba grabs it, she tells Galinda to come with her because they could achieve so much together.

Galinda notices that Elphaba is trembling, and she wraps a black cloth around her friend’s body. Following this, Galinda says she hopes Elphaba is happy with her choice to run away from Emerald City. Elphaba also says the same to her, and as the guards enter the room, they run outside together.

Unfortunately, Galinda is grabbed by the guards, and Elphaba tells them to leave her alone, but they don’t listen. Before they also catch her, she jumps out of a window and starts falling to the ground. Suddenly, she thinks about her childhood trauma and sees her younger self in a mirror. As she tries to touch the mirror, the broom starts working, and Elphaba uses it to fly back to the castle to try to save Galinda. The guards still don’t release her, and she flies away just before the monkeys attack her.

Elsewhere, Thropp hears Madame Morrible’s announcement and suffers a heart attack while Nessarose is in his office. Fiyero also rides his horse and leaves the school. Meanwhile, Madame Morrible tells the guards to leave Galinda alone, and as they do this, she hugs her.

Shortly after, Elphaba appears in the sky again and says that no one in the land of Oz will be able to bring her down. She destroys the lights in the city as she says this, and the Wizard looks worried. Just then, Madame Morrible takes Galinda back into the castle, and Elphaba flies away toward the west.

From Elphaba’s story so far, it turns out that she isn’t really the Wicked Witch everyone believes her to be. Madame Morrible and the Wizard of Oz happen to be the evil characters in this story, and they wanted Elphaba to help them maltreat the animals in the kingdom. Elphaba refused to do this, and she ended up stealing the Grimmerie before running away from the kingdom. But do you think Elphaba’s decision to turn her back on the land of Oz is justified? And Do you feel Galinda was also more interested in impressing Madame Morrible than in supporting her friend?

Wicked 2024.