The Story Behind the Story of Wicked

If you thought discovering a story behind the great novel Wizard of Oz would be difficult (which is the basis for the play Wicked), think what Frank Baum had to do when he created The Wicked Witch, The Wizard of Oz or The Emerald City from thin air. Well, not completely out of thin air, says Conneticut author Evan I. Schwartz, who knows that the Wicked Witch as based on Baum’s mother in law, the Wizard on PT Barnum and the Emerald City on the World’s Fair - which can all be discovered and hashed out via Schwartz’s new book, “Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story.” Just as Gregory Maguire wrote the novel “Wicked,” which was turned into a Broadway spectacle when it first opened years ago and has continued to collect audiences from around the globe, patrons will undoubedtly eat up the story behind the original “Wizard of Oz.” Though Maguire’s story that follows along the same lines of the magic and mystery of the original may not exactly have been what Baum had in mind when he wrote the original piece, it’s been capturing audiences’ attention for years now as today’s biggest Broadway spectacle as Wicked tickets are avaliable today!

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