I first saw Wicked on stage at the Pantages in Los Angeles in college with a group of other theater students. From that moment on, I was a fan of the pink and green girls. The story was gripping, the characters complex, the music heart-wrenching and funny. Since then, I’ve seen the show twice more and listened to the soundtrack countless times. The Wizard and I is my song of choice at karaoke.

Like most Wicked fans, I felt simultaneously beside myself with excitement and terrified when the film version was announced. This could either be the most brilliant movie musical since Les Miserables or a travesty of one of the best modern stage musicals to grace the streets of Broadway.

Well, opening day finally arrived, and I am pleased to tell you that the film far exceeded my expectations.

Ariana Grande certainly had the vocal range to play soprano Glinda—even hitting notes well above her predecessor. Her acting was also surprisingly well-done as she made this iconic character her own.

But my favorite moments were when Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba started to sing some of my favorite Broadway songs in her rich and warm mezzo voice. The rest of the supporting cast was equally well chosen and a delight to see and hear.

Wicked may have been gracing stages all over the world for more than twenty years, but for many people who don’t follow Broadway, this story is new. For the past week, film reviews have been primarily singing the praises of this new-to-the-masses story of two unlikely friends—the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good from The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Yet some Christian reviewers have harshly condemned the story as woke and relativist. But is there any truth to such claims?

Christians may be predisposed to dislike Wicked because the original play is a reimagined villain story, often compared to later films like Disney’s Maleficent (2014) or Cruella (2021). I admit that I greatly disliked Maleficent (and therefore chose not to see Cruella at all) since it distorted the original story in order to make the villain the victim and the once-good parents evil.

Wicked very loosely fits into this genre, but does so in a way that is far less offensive because its villain has not greatly changed from the 1939 film. Perhaps instead of trying to make good look bad and bad look good, the book’s author, Gregory Maguire,¹ merely used Glinda and Elphaba as the necessary opposing forces in a fascinating cultural commentary on power structures and oppression of vulnerable minorities.

The film’s main themes are twofold: First, the difficulties of friendship when the world around you is intent on tearing you apart, and second, choosing power and popularity over the well-being of an oppressed and vulnerable minority group—namely talking animals.

Thanks to the leftist leanings of the film’s cast and crew, it wasn’t difficult for believers to imagine this story was really a commentary on the oppression of “the LGBTQ community.” Nor is that view something new. Just as people who struggle with same-sex or “transgenderism” deeply related to similar themes in the Harry Potter series, they have long felt a kinship with Elphaba and her desire to save the talking animals.

Yet we must recall that J.K. Rowling insisted that her books had been misunderstood by fans. She never meant them to support the idea that “transgender” individuals are innocent victims of persecution. Just because someone is or feels persecuted, that real or perceived mistreatment does not by itself affirm their moral position. This is actually a logical fallacy known as affirming the consequent.

We as Christians should be careful to analyze a story for what it is and not what fans make it to be. We can agree and even celebrate Wicked’s message that harming weak and vulnerable people to prop up a corrupt political regime is evil. The Bible explicitly teaches against such practices and instead emphasizes the importance of caring for the widow and the orphan. This is the beauty of Christ’s upside-down kingdom where the first is last and the last is first, where God uses the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Although Wicked is still an imperfect secular story, there is much truth and goodness to glean from its elaborate plot, relatable characters, and quirky lyrics.