Are Wicked’s Glinda and Elphaba in love with each other? Here’s what OG author Gregory Maguire has to say…
Ever since Wicked debuted on Broadway in 2003—with Kristin Chenoweth as the original Glinda and Idina Menzel playing the original Elphaba Thropp—fans have debated whether or not the pair’s relationship is romantic or platonic. While the hit musical avoids making any explicit references to either Glinda or Elphaba being queer, the pair do kiss in the musical’s source material: the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which is based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation.
Since Wicked: Part One hit theatres in November, stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo have said that they think Glinda and Elphaba are both queer. (But more on that below) Then there are the non-stop viral memes and edits shipping “Gelphie” as a couple that have dominated social media feeds throughout the last couple of weeks.
Well, we now have the answer directly from the source: the author of the book on which the musical is based.
In a brand new interview with Them, Maguire was asked if he wrote “sapphic tension” between Glinda and Elphaba on purpose. Maguire replied: “That was intentional, and it was modest and restrained and refined in such a way that one could imagine that one of those two young women had felt more than the other and had not wanted to say it.”
He continued to say: “Or perhaps because a novelist can’t write every scene, perhaps when the lights were out and the novelist was out having a smoke in the back alley, the girls had sex in the bed on the way to the Emerald City. I wanted to propose this possibility, but I did not want to make a declarative statement.”
As mentioned above, Glinda and Elphaba actually do kiss in the original book. It happens just before they arrive in the Emerald City so there’s plenty of space for this imagined sex scene to happen.
As for what Grande and Erivo have said about the Gelphie theories, Grande said: “Glinda might be a little in the closet, but if there were time you never know. Give it a little more time. But it is just a true love and that transcends sexuality.”
Meanwhile, Erivo recently told Gay Times: “I think Elphie is [queer]. She goes wherever the wind goes, I think she loves Glinda. I think she loves love. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with celebrating the deep connection that the both have them have. It’s true love.”
Meanwhile, Original Glinda actress Chenoweth also echoed Grande’s remarks about Glinda on Instagram. She said: “I thought so too way back when.”
Gelphie forever!
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