'He Really Did That': People Can't Cope With The Author Of 'Wicked's' Seriously Brutal Reason For Giving Elphaba The Last Name 'Thropp'

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14-02-2025

It's fair to say that Wicked has been having a bit of a moment in recent months, entirely thanks to the movie adaptation that was released back in November, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Prior to the film, the story was perhaps best known for its stage show, which you may be surprised to learn isn't its actual origin.
In fact, Wicked's roots actually trace back to a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire called Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which was, in turn, inspired by the 1900 L. Frank Baum book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and its famous 1939 film adaptation.
Just eight years after Maguire's book was released, his now-iconic story about Glinda and Elphaba made its transition to the stage, debuting in San Francisco in 2003.
Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth famously originated the lead roles in the show, and they continued to lead the cast when Wicked transferred to New York City's iconic Broadway later that same year.
And while Idina, Cynthia, Kristin, and Ariana undeniably know almost everything there is to know about the beloved characters that they've brought to life on both stage and screen, nobody knows more than the man who first developed these characters way back in the '90s.
Luckily for us, Gregory took part in a "Writing Wicked" panel at BroadwayCon on Sunday, where he generously shared some insight into his process when writing the book. Gregory was joined by Winnie Holzman, who wrote the script for the stage adaptation of Wicked and co-wrote the two movies.
In footage shared by the Broadway Maven, Gregory was asked how he came to write the Wizard Of Oz spin-off, and he revealed that it was largely due to the annual television airing of the 1939 film being the only movie he and his family watched growing up.
He recalled acting the movie out with his siblings the next day, and he 'started inventing with the story' at age 6.
Winnie later detailed changing Glinda's last name when she adapted Gregory's book because he had given her 'a long name' in the novel, and she wanted something 'a little shorter' like Elphaba, whose last name is Thropp. She offered the fun fact that she settled on 'Upland' for Glinda in tribute to Gregory, who confirmed that he has lived at 'three different addresses' with 'Upland' in the street name.
Returning the favor, Gregory explained why he chose 'Thropp' to be Elphaba's last name. He told the crowd: 'Nobody has ever asked me where Elphaba's last name comes from, her name is Elphaba Thropp.'
Universal Pictures / Via youtube.com
'Like 'Elphaba,' I didn't want it to be a pretty name,' Gregory went on. 'First and last name, I did not want it to be elegant and synonymous and sensuous: Elphaba Thropp, [it's] slapstick.'
He deadpanned: ''Thropp' is the sound that a house makes when it falls on your sister.'
This is, of course, a reference to Elphaba's sister Nessarose's death in the story, and the brutal reality of Gregory's thought process left Wicked fans absolutely gagged when his quote surfaced on X. Reacting to a viral Wicked Update account tweet about what the author had said, one person wrote: 'i just thropped to my knees.'
'he's so real for that,' another replied. One more popular response reads: 'Dark humoured, camp king.'
'After you read the Wicked books and think, 'Who could write such a WEIRD, deep, political, eccentric thing?' and then look up Gregory Maguire, it all makes sense,' somebody else remarked.
Another simply wrote: 'He did that. He really did that.' One more quipped: 'I'm screaming that's so sick.'
But Gregory isn't all sass, and he also got serious as he reflected on the deeper philosophy behind Wicked while sharing the impact he hoped his book and the musical would have on audiences. He said: 'The place that you arrive at the end of the musical is the identical place that I wanted people to arrive in the end of my novel, which was a lump in the throat and a reminder that what literature — whether it be theater, whether it be novels — brings us to is a reminder of how little time we have to do good with our lives.'
'We must cherish the ones we love,' he went on. 'We must say it out loud; we must protect one another; and we must do our work while we have the spirit.'