The Wicked Witch of the West Was Originally Hitler?

The title of this blog post fittingly tells the story of how the author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire, came to write about the Wicked Witch of the West.  If you visit the Greg Maguire website, you can get to a question and answer page that was written by the author himself. Of the many fascinating things that he talks about, one that really sticks out is the inspiration for the novel Wicked.

Apparently, during the first Gulf War a British newspaper led with this banner:  “Sadam Hussein: The New Hitler?” The title,  mixed with a gruesome incident in england around the same time, had such an affect on the author that he decided he wanted to explore the nature of the origin of evil.  For a while Greg thought about writing about Hitler, but instead chose to write about the Wicked Witch of the West.

To get Wicked tickets, go to StubHub.com.

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