Wicked Queer

Like any good former theater major (who played the Wicked Witch in high school) and queer, I yellow-brick-road-skipped my way to the cinematic frenzy that is the new Wicked film. For over 20 years since the Broadway debut, and if you’re a real fan, even longer, since the book release in 1995, the franchise and its homage to the original (Wizard of Oz film, 1939, novel by L. Frank Baum, 1900) has had a tornado-grip on the culture in countless ways.

One way is that queers of all ages have embodied the themes of embracing the different. Whether it’s giggles in theaters during the “Are you coming?!” line or the knowing tears while screaming “Defy Gravity” in cars and showers, the musical story of Wicked has long been adopted by the LGBTQIA+ community as one of pride, acceptance and rising above adversity.

In the new film, the roomie witches Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), who don’t like each other at first but sing a song called “What is This Feeling?” send us on a trip of more-than-friendship. They hold hands, they gaze, they cry, they Wednesday-Addams dance, they touch. In the book, they kiss, and Glinda lives in a castle with 100 women, so no one needs to imagine any of this. The movie takes the relationship further than the Broadway production did.

In the Out 100 cover story as Out's Icon of the Year honor, Erivo—who came out as queer in 2022—explained that Glinda and Elphaba share a “true love.”

“They fall in love with the person, not just the outside. When Glinda puts that flower in her hair and realizes that all she needs is this tiny thing that goes ‘good with green,’ it is not just Oh, look, she has a flower in her hair. It’s actually...I see you as beautiful as you are. The story of these two is really, really special. And I think that we underestimate the power of platonic love, true friendship, true love."

Grande agreed, saying in a recent interview that she thought the Good Witch “might be a little in the closet”—thrillingly for the theater masses, Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the role on Broadway, agreed, as gays gleefully found evidence to “ship” the apparently sapphic witches; nicknames like “Gelphaba” and “Elpha-bi” are around along with memes including one viral  interview in which Grande awkwardly fondles the finger of Erivo.

There’s more in the film besides thinly-veiled pink-closeted romance. There’s acting, singing, and dancing. Each of the witches is sort of in love with the hot Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey who provides a fabulous musical number in “Dancing Through Life.” Erivo is flawless as Elphaba; I agree with the Forbes review that she “is defiant and defensive but also emotionally raw, a young woman who has been spurned by everyone, including her father, but somehow carries on alone, wishing privately for a happy ending, while never expecting to find one.”

Did you know Elphaba’s name derives from author L. Frank Baum? There are a lot of cameos Easter eggs in the film too, from Broadway stars Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth to author Gregory Maguire. Jeff Goldblum is perfect as Oz; his performance is reminiscent of his work in the ill-fated but excellent KAOS as he says the timely fascist line “The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy.”

I also agree with Forbes reviewer Erik Kain that the film venue brings a new layer to the musical work:

“We not only get more scenes to establish Elphaba’s backstory and flesh out the world of Oz and Shiz University, but also more action set-pieces that would simply not be possible on a stage. Songs that were once confined to a theater can now be sung in sweeping fields or magical forests. Elphaba is no longer bound to impressive stage-flight tricks; now she soars above the towering green spires of the Emerald City, her black cloak billowing in the sunset sky.”

Back in 2018, Hayley St. James wrote a piece that was a foreshadowing of the queer portrayal in the film:
 
“Glinda may be the Good Witch and Elphaba may be the Wicked Witch, but their love for each other in their final scene together is truly heartbreakingly lovely. Yes, we know Elphaba loves Fiyero—in the show “As Long As You’re Mine” serves as their sensual and haunting love duet—but she also loves Glinda. Elphie is totes bisexual. It might be my pride-colored glasses tinting my opinions, but the last time I saw Wicked... I interpreted “For Good” as not just a gorgeous duet between friends but as two women revealing their love for each other… At the end of the day, I’ll always enjoy Wicked as a celebration of pride and activism, and women loving women.”

Even as her love interests include both a man and a woman in both the book, the musical and the film, the terms “Gelphaba,” Elpha-bi and other queer-coded terms have swirled around the witches, who hold hands often in the film, and kiss in the book, for many years. Passionate theater-goers, who often include LGTBQIA+ youth, identify with the “embracing otherness” themes in the work, whether it’s being shunned since it’s not easy being green, being cast out and caged for being an intelligent animal, or defying gravity when your individuality and lifestyle simply don’t match those of everyone surrounding you. It’ll be fascinating to see Part 2 of the musical next year and discover how far over the rainbow we’ll go.