The big change to Nessarose's character in Wicked vs the musical

This huge change to Nessarose in Wicked: For Good is completely different from the musical

Elphaba makes a different choice in the movie

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Wicked: For Good has surprised many – widely regarded as the worse of the two film adaptations, the sequel has still been hyped nonetheless.

It’s been a a year since the first film adaptation of the Tony-winning musical Wicked, based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Now, Wicked: For Good follows a storyline similar to the musical’s second act. The sequel charts Elphaba and Glinda’s transformation into the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good, giving fans the closure they’ve waited for – along with several changes created specifically for the film.

However, there are a few changes that fans of the musical will have noticed, including the huge difference to the storyline of Nessarose in Wicked: For Good.

Nessarose doesn’t ever walk in the film, unlike the musical

In the stage version, the silver slippers Nessarose inherits are enchanted so whoever wears them can stand and walk. She begs Elphaba to cast the spell, singing about wanting to “kick up my heels”. Thanks to the spell, Nessarose is able to walk for a brief time in the usical.

But the film takes a different route. Instead of showing Nessarose asking for her disability to be “fixed”, her wish is tied to the feeling of “floating on air” she had when she danced with Boq at Ozdust. Elphaba recreates that moment with magic before Nessarose returns to her wheelchair.

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The change is widely viewed as a deliberate choice to avoid portraying Nessarose’s disability as something that can be temporarily ‘fixed’ through magic.

Marissa Bode, who plays Elphaba’s disabled sister, explained the meaning behind the flying scene and how this perspective fits the heart of the story more closely: “I think with a song like Defying Gravity, where one of the lyrics is ‘Everyone deserves a chance to fly,’ to me, that’s not just physically flying. It’s also metaphorically and feeling like you’re on top of the world or feeling like you do finally have control of your life in some way and flying on that high.”

Melissa said: “I really hope my casting sets precedent. It’s just navigating a world and a system we have not been acknowledged in as we should be.”

She added that the change to the Nessarose storyline in Wicked was one of her first conversations with director Jon M Chu, who told her the rewrite was made to avoid the moment feeling like a “fixing one”.

“You don’t have to be fixed,” Melissa said, “but you can be powerful.”

Featured image via YouTube

This huge change to Nessarose in Wicked: For Good is completely different from the musical

Nessarose doesn’t ever walk in the film, unlike the musical

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