#combining canons

Now of course I don't really think they fit together. In the world of Wicked, Oz is real, and the RSC Wizard of Oz is a separate entity. But if you wanted to imagine that Wicked was also Dorothy's dream, then Kansas scenes a little more like the RSC script would be fitting.

In the RSC Wizard of Oz, the roles of Auntie Em and Glinda are written to be played by the same actress. This is foreshadowed when Auntie Em tells Dorothy that they couldn't go against the sheriff's order to let Miss Gulch take Toto: "What did you expect me to do? Wave a wand and make it disappear?" Also, unlike in the movie, the three farmhands – counterparts to the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, are also present during the scene with Miss Gulch, and in fact Hickory (the Tin Man's counterpart) stops Toto from escaping. Then after Miss Gulch leaves, there's an added scene where Dorothy angrily lashes out, first at Auntie Em, then at each of the farmhands, telling Hickory in particular that he's the worst of all and that she hates him. (To which he responds that she's breaking his heart – foreshadowing.)

So wouldn't it make sense for this version of Dorothy to dream Wicked? Glinda corresponds to Auntie Em, which explains why she chooses popularity, conformity, and following the Wizard over doing what's right – yet at the same time she sincerely loves Elphaba and redeems herself in the end, because even though Dorothy is mad at her aunt, she still loves her. Since she's also mad at the farmhands, this explains why Fiyero, Boq, and Brrr are all decidedly more flawed than the original Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, and because she's especially mad at Hickory, Boq comes across as the worst of the three. As for Miss Gulch, I think in this version she corresponds more to Nessarose than to Elphaba. The RSC version of Miss Gulch does more victim-playing when she comes for Toto than in the movie, and exaggerates the pain of the bite on her leg to milk for sympathy – hence Nessarose's wheelchair and the excessive pity she gets for it. Then who is Elphaba? Well, I think in this dream, Elphaba would represent Dorothy herself. The Dorothy who appears in Wicked is one aspect of her – the sweet, innocent little girl who just wants to go home – but Elphaba represents her deeper layers. Her feelings of being a misunderstood, unappreciated misfit, her longing for a better life (hence Elphaba's "Unlimited" motif that sounds like "Over the Rainbow"), her desperation to protect Toto (hence Elphaba's fight to save the Animals), and all her anger and longing to rebel.

Then again, I'm old enough remember the '90s national tour of the RSC Wizard of Oz, with Mickey Rooney as the Wizard and with a succession of different female celebrities (Roseanne Barr, Eartha Kitt, Liliane Montevecchi, and Jo Anne Worley) as the Witch of the West. As I mentioned in another post recently, this production had Miss Gulch wear an early 1900s bicycle suit with knickerbocker pants, which made her look more like a bold and brash "modern woman" (by 1900 standards) and less like a fussy old church lady than in the movie. Of course when Eartha Kitt played the role, she was also black, which would have made her stand out even more in a Kansas farm town of that era. So while she's still mean, maybe this version of Miss Gulch has a reason for her bitterness: i.e. that she's been shunned by the conservative farm community for being too different and too progressive.

And maybe Dorothy realizes this on some level, so in her dream, she combines her with her own pain and anger to create Elphaba.