 Wicked : The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman . It is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , an alternative telling of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum 's classic 1900 story , The Wonderful Wizard of Oz . The musical is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz ; its plot begins before and continues after Dorothy 's arrival in Oz from Kansas , and it includes several references to the 1939 film and Baum 's novel . Wicked tells the story of two unlikely friends , Elphaba ( the Wicked Witch of the West ) and Galinda , ( whose name later changes to Glinda the Good Witch ) who struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints , rivalry over the same love @-@ interest , reactions to the Wizard 's corrupt government and , ultimately , Elphaba 's public fall from grace . 
