If you haven't seen Wicked the musical or Wicked the movie, this will contain spoilers from part 1 - so you've been warned!
I first saw Wicked a couple of weekends ago, and when I say 'first saw', I mean ever. Yes, I'm a not-so-closeted lover of musical theater, but for some reason, I never saw the play, read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, or heard the music.
And I have to say I feel like I got my first introduction to it at the perfect time in my life. I have a lot of thoughts about the entire story. But when the last musical act, Defying Gravity, came on at the end and the tears started flowing, the many thoughts turned into big feelings and I knew I needed to put it down on paper.
Oz is so very queer and it makes me so very happy.
I think it's pretty clear that Wicked, the Wizard of Oz, and all of Emerald City are very, very gay. As an out and proud woman happily married to my wife for over 6 years now, I know this. But what I was not prepared for watching Wicked for the first time was the massive amount of lesbian subtext and allegory. A lot of people believe Glinda and Elphaba to be in love. And Ariana Grande and Cynthia Eriva - who is also queer IRL BTW - even led credence to the characters' plausible queerness.
I have to say that my personal interpretation of their relationship is platonic, but Elphaba is absolutely giving butch energy and I am here for it. If you ship 'Gelphie', then that background and stream of belief certainly add deeper pain and beauty to what Elphaba ultimately has to do at the end of the film.
So all that said, let's get into why I found Defying Gravity so moving and powerful
Here's a recording of the full thing in case you're about to go looking for it:
And here are the full lyrics, which I'll also be referencing:
GLINDA
(spoken) Elphaba - why couldn't you have stayed calm for
once, instead of flying off the handle!
(sung) I hope you're happy!
I hope you're happy now
I hope you're happy how you
Hurt your cause forever
I hope you think you're clever!
ELPHABA
I hope you're happy
I hope you're happy, too
I hope you're proud how you
Would grovel in submission
To feed your own ambition
BOTH
So though I can't imagine how
I hope you're happy right now
GLINDA
(spoken) Elphie, listen to me. Just say you're sorry:
(sung) You can still be with the Wizard
What you've worked and waited for
You can have all you ever wanted:
ELPHABA
(spoken) I know:
(sung) But I don't want it -
No - I can't want it
Anymore:
Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by the rules
Of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!
It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!
GLINDA
Can't I make you understand?
You're having delusions of grandeur:
ELPHABA
I'm through accepting limits
''cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!
I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
And you can't pull me down:
(spoken) Glinda - come with me. Think of what we could
do: together.
(sung) Unlimited
Together we're unlimited
Together we'll be the greatest team
There's ever been
Glinda -
Dreams, the way we planned 'em
GLINDA
If we work in tandem:
BOTH
There's no fight we cannot win
Just you and I
Defying gravity
With you and I
Defying gravity
ELPHABA
They'll never bring us down!
(spoken) Well? Are you coming?
GLINDA
I hope you're happy
Now that you're choosing this
ELPHABA
(spoken) You too
(sung) I hope it brings you bliss
BOTH
I really hope you get it
And you don't live to regret it
I hope you're happy in the end
I hope you're happy, my friend:
ELPHABA
So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky!
As someone told me lately:
"Ev'ryone deserves the chance to fly!"
And if I'm flying solo
At least I'm flying free
To those who'd ground me
Take a message back from me
Tell them how I am
Defying gravity
I'm flying high
Defying gravity
And soon I'll match them in renown
And nobody in all of Oz
No Wizard that there is or was
Is ever gonna bring me down!
GLINDA
I hope you're happy!
CITIZENS OF OZ
Look at her, she's wicked!
Get her!
ELPHABA
Bring me down!
CITIZENS OF OZ
No one mourns the wicked
So we've got to bring her
ELPHABA
Ahhh!
CITIZENS OF OZ
Down!
Waking up to the truth of power.
Defying Gravity comes off the back of Elphaba and Glinda learning a terrible truth about Oz. The Wizard is behind the tragic oppression of animals (which besides being a literal commentary on how we treat animals, is also an allegory for how institutions suppress marginalized communities and call it good for them).
Elphaba realizes she is there to be used by the Wizard; to lend her power to the grimoire and enable him to act out these vicious deeds, that go to the very heart of everything Elphaba stands against.
Her beloved teacher and friend Madame Morrible has betrayed her. The Wizard wants to keep her as a prisoner doing his bidding. She's tricked into making the monkeys fly (permanently). Everything that Elphaba wakes up to 'flies' in the face of who she is; of her very soul.
Elphaba refuses to acquiesce to the heinous actions and farce she's been put into by those in power. But waking up to that is not just infuriating. It's heartbreaking. Her mentor, her idol; they've both lied to her, misled her, and wrapped themselves in an echo chamber feeding their mutual egos and shared lust for power.
But that's not the worst part.
Elphaba and Glinda see the truth in how different they are.
Glinda and Elphaba react in opposite ways to learning the truth about Oz:
GLINDA
(spoken) Elphie, listen to me. Just say you're sorry:
(sung) You can still be with the Wizard
What you've worked and waited for
You can have all you ever wanted:
ELPHABA
(spoken) I know:
(sung) But I don't want it -
No - I can't want it
Anymore:
Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by the rules
Of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes: and leap!
It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!
GLINDA
Can't I make you understand?
You're having delusions of grandeur:
ELPHABA
I'm through accepting limits
''cause someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I'll never know!
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!
I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
And you can't pull me down:
(spoken) Glinda - come with me. Think of what we could
do: together.
Elphaba and Glinda's friendship is over.
Regardless of whether you think Glinda and Elphaba are in love or not, the song marks the end of their relationship—certainly, the end of their friendship, if not of something that had the potential to be more.
It's that sad question Elphaba asks Glinda: "Well? Are you coming?" There's a pause and we know the answer already.
And then we get that beautiful transition, that mutual expression that tears your heart in two:
GLINDA
I hope you're happy
Now that you're choosing this
ELPHABA
(spoken) You too
(sung) I hope it brings you bliss
BOTH
I really hope you get it
And you don't live to regret it
I hope you're happy in the end
I hope you're happy, my friend
Elphaba chooses herself.
In the span of one song, Elphaba sees her dreams get torn asunder and loses her best friend. Glinda, who many rightfully (IMO) argue is the villain of the story, is full of fear and decides not to act against authority in that fear.
Elphaba is fundamentally brave, and courageous, and refuses to sacrifice her authenticity. She chooses herself. Moreover, she chooses herself when everyone else rejects her.
She sings:
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost!
I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
And you can't pull me down:
Elphaba wants love, she wants to fit in. But suddenly she finds that the cost is too high. She discovers the love is conditional.
And it's not in Elphaba's DNA to back down.
She's seen the ugly truth of who Glinda is, which breaks her heart; of how her world works, which is like a knife through her very core. And what does she do?
She defies gravity.
This is more than rage, although there is an ample amount of that and it's breathtaking to behold. One of my favorite scenes is actually the end of the song when Elphaba is on her broom and is looking right at the Wizard (played by the incomparable Jeff Goldbum), whose face goes pale and eyes bulge out in fear as she belts out:
So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky!
As someone told me lately:
"Ev'ryone deserves the chance to fly!"
And if I'm flying solo
At least I'm flying free
To those who'd ground me
Take a message back from me
Tell them how I am
Defying gravity
I'm flying high
Defying gravity
And soon I'll match them in renown
And nobody in all of Oz
No Wizard that there is or was
Is ever gonna bring me down!
That's a line in the sand and, I don't know about you, but it's the kind of energy I'm bringing more of into my own life.
And right before that in the scene, Elphaba is trying to protect Glinda from the guards who finally break into the tower they've barricaded themselves in. She says:
No, leave her alone! She hasn't done anything wrong. I'm the one you want. I'm the one you want. It's me!
And then there's this moment she sings it again:
It's me
Almost like she is saying it to herself, saying it for the first time out loud: I am choosing to be true to myself. I am choosing me. It's me. And if that means being a villain in your story, then so be it.
There's something so moving about a woman who is discarded by those she thought loved her, but who then chooses to stand up and love herself. We all know women who have done it. Perhaps we have even been those women.
When society fails us, when we are at our lowest, the Elphabas within rise up and say:
So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky!
We won't back down or turn away. We won't kneel or acquiesce to be liked or "loved", sacrificing what we know is right and know to be true in the process. Because it's the spark of truth and the flame of justice that we're here to fan, protect, and keep alive. It starts inside our souls but ignites everyone else who shares our ideals of what is right.
For Elphaba, that's protecting the animals.
Elphaba is a hero and what she suffers, and how she comes out of it, is exactly the inspiration I am taking into 2025.
I hope you are too!
Long live the wicked witch of the west.
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