THIS year’s most anticipated blockbuster Wicked has enchanted the world with its superstar cast and captivating plot.
But behind the massively popular movie musical is a dark and disturbingly novel that will shock millions as it includes rape, racism, bestiality, cannibalism, orgies and even child murder.
Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz was first published in 1995 by Gregory Maguire but it wasn’t until eight years later that it was given a major overhaul to become the palatable musical, which launched on Broadway.
However, after reading the book, The Sun can reveal all the shocking twists and turns that have been all but airbrushed out of the squeaky-clean theatre and cinematic versions.
It stars pop sensation Ariana Grande and British actress Cynthia Erivo and has been given a PG rating, citing only “mild threat and discrimination.”
And it is already proving to be a blockbuster smash, taking almost double the takings of Gladiator II at the US box office after they were both released in the US on Friday.
The novel was conceived as a prequel to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, which is a firm family favourite – but the book is anything but.
One TikToker who recently read the book, Eryn Kieffer, said: “Trigger warning for everything. If you can think of it, it’s in here.
“My main thing is it’s not for kids. It’s really, truly not for children. The musical is completely fine for kids. I would not say this book is at all.”
It centres around Cynthia’s character Elphaba – named after the initials of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L Frank Baum – whose mere entrance into the book is steeped in scandal.
While the movie suggests her green skin colour as the result of her mum drinking green alcohol before sex, the original reason is far darker.
Instead, Elphaba’s mother Melena is given a green date rape substance and is sexually assaulted by a stranger.
Once she is born, her mum hates her so much that she has numerous thoughts of murdering her and then spends years abusing and neglecting her.
At one point she tells the baby: “Shall we go walk by the edge of the lake today and maybe you’ll drown?
“Maybe we’ll go out in a boat and tip over.”
Even the midwives who deliver the tot – and discuss at length whether she is a “hermaphrodite” – are disgusted by her and speak about killing her before the baby bites one of their fingers off.
In a strange twist, her mum has another affair with a man who eventually forms a throuple with her and her minister husband.
But even away from the main plot, there are a slew of offensive and shocking scenes.
I would say within the first 10 to 20 per cent, my jaw was on the floor multiple times. I wasn’t expecting it to be so… graphic
Content creator Sara Ribeiro
In the first few pages, a religious minister is skewered, cooked on a spit-roast and eaten.
Then in descriptions too explicit to detail, a mother and daughter are described having sex with a man at the same time in a bizarre puppet show.
Later, another character is explained as having skin “the colour of s***” in a vile racist remark.
Like the musical and film, much of the story happens when Elphaba has grown up and goes to Shiz University where she meets Galinda, whose name later changes to Glinda, played by Ariana in the movie.
However, while the blockbuster sees them take a trip to a tame dance, the book shows students visiting a sordid BDSM sex club.
In one passage, a dwarf is strapped to a tiger while it performs a sex act on a naked woman, as people sit around and watch.
And while there are no mentions of sex in the film, Elphaba herself engages in racy scenes in the original book.
At one point, she and love interest Fiyero give each other sensual massages with oil before it says she “took him deeper in than ever before.”
That’s despite the fact Fiyero – who in the film is played by Jonathan Bailey – was a child groom who was married off at the age of seven.
Now people are starting to rediscover the book and are gobsmacked at what they’re reading.
Content creator, Sara Ribeiro, said she loved the theatre show and has spent years listening to the soundtrack but couldn’t believe what she was reading when she picked up the book this year.
She explained: “It ended up being a lot darker than I thought. I would say within the first 10 to 20 per cent, my jaw was on the floor multiple times. I wasn’t expecting it to be so… graphic.”
(PG) 160mins – 4/5 stars
THIS Wizard Of Oz origins movie proves there is no place like the cinema.
If you want to be carried up and away to another reality, where animals talk, brightly dressed citizens dance in the streets and student sorcerers sing like angels, then get a ticket for this musical.
Wicked, based on the hit stage show, is far too monumental to be viewed on the small screen.
Emerald City towers magnificently, a Hogwarts-style university enchants at every turn and the final scene pulls you this way and that like a tornado.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo seem born for the roles of Glinda Upland and Elphaba Thropp respectively.
Their stage, acting and musical CVs made them obvious choices, but it’s their emotional warmth for the characters which will keep you bewitched.
The film tells the story of how Glinda became the young Good Witch of the North and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West.
The pink-obsessed and privileged Glinda is like something out of Mean Girls, but in Ariana’s hands she remains likeable when she could be annoying.
Cynthia bristles with the daily injustice faced by Elphaba, who is shunned for being green, and the oppressed animals.
The anger that is perfectly contrasted with Glinda’s blissful ignorance.
If any of that sounds a bit serious, don’t worry, it is not.
Director Jon M Chu, whose films include Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights, handles everything with a deft comic touch.
There are plenty of knowing winks from the cast, with Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey excelling in this as the playboy prince Fiyero Tigelaar.
Adding to the fun are Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz and Michelle Yeoh as Elphaba’s magic lecturer Madame Morrible.
Unfortunately, in an effort to fulfil the heart’s desire of studio executives to make as much money from this as possible, Wicked will come in two parts.
This first one is two hours and 40 minutes, which is about as long as the entire stage show.
If the theatre version could fit every key scene into that time, I’m sure the film could have as well.
Wicked ends at a satisfying point in the story, which won’t compel you to see part two next November.
But there is little chance of audiences not wanting to come back for more.
One reader on review website thestorygraph.com said: “I have sympathy for the writers of the musical, who had to take this source material and turn it into a musical with a happy ending.”
Despite the vast changes, which were made to turn it into a hit stage show that has now been running for more than two decades, author Gregory Maguire said he was happy with the results.
American composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz pitched him the idea of transforming the book into a musical on a walk a few years after it was published.
Gregory recalled: “I came home and I said to myself, ‘I’m going to let this happen, I don’t care about the money. This is far more in line with why I wrote the book than the movie scripts I’ve read so far about Wicked.’”
Referring to Stephen and the scriptwriter, he continued: “I’m very happy with the way Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz chose to tell the story.
“It made efficient, economic, and narrative sense for them to make the story choices that they chose to do, and I applaud it completely. The play is a little less subtle than the novel in some ways.”
However, things could have been very different for the movie adaptation.
He revealed Demi Moore first showed an interest in bringing it to the big screen without songs, although plans fell through.
Speaking in 2020, he said: “When the book was published it almost immediately got optioned by Demi Moore and a production company she ran, which had a relationship with Universal, and there was a chance for it to be a big-budget film almost right away, but the film never quite crystallised.”
Now with the release of the movie, Wicked has become a phenomenon.
There are more than 60 brand collaborations across the world with Lego, Starbucks, Crocs, Gap, Samsung and many more – all erasing the story’s dodgy origins.
Next November, Wicked: Part 2 will be released to tie-in the two-parter, following the cliffhanger at the end of Part 1.
But don’t expect to see any of the sex, drugs and chaos of the book in that film, either.
