Episode 130: No Rest For The Wicked

There's an important element to Wicked outside of the friendship between Elphaba and Galinda: Elphaba's sister, Nessarose. I found the disability representation to be strong, and in this episode, I discuss a few different points of Nessa's story.

Transcript

TRANSCRIPT OF “NO REST FOR THE WICKED”

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MALE VO [00:03]
This is Bad Attitudes.

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LAURA [00:20]
Hello, friends and strangers! Welcome to another episode of Bad Attitudes: An Uninspiring Podcast About Disability. I’m your host, Laura.

I asked y’all to vote on what the first episode should be and you unhelpfully left me with a three-way tie! Thanks for nothing. Hopefully you approve of my choice.

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As always, I want to remind you that disability is not a monolith. My experience as a disabled person is going to be different from the experiences of other disabled people. I am one voice for the disabled community, but I am not the only voice.

[02:09]
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I rang in 2025 by watching Wicked, and, frankly, I loved it. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I read the novel sometime in the mid-2000s and LOVED it. It quickly became one of my top 10 reads of all time. I saw the stage show in the mid-teens and was sorely disappointed. The changes from novel to stage show were drastic and, in my opinion, lowered the quality greatly. 

I think it’s a bit of a misnomer that the movie Wicked says it’s an adaptation of the novel, because, really, it’s an adaptation of the stage show. The stage show and the book are wildly different. If you haven’t read the book, you wouldn’t realize how political the story actually is, that Elphaba is a revolutionary from the beginning, and Galinda is even less palatable than the movie version. In the book, Galinda wouldn’t even consider dating Fiyero because he’s a dark-skinned Winkie. The relationship between Fiyero and Galinda doesn’t even exist in the novel.

I’m not here to talk about the differences between the book, the stage show, and the movie. Although I do highly recommend you read Gregory Maguire’s novel if you haven’t. If you have read the book, but haven’t seen the stage show or the movie, forget everything in the book when you do because it’s not going to be like that.

I want to focus on a somewhat minor character, that of Nessarose, Elphaba’s younger sister. In the film, Nessarose is a wheelchair user (in the book, she’s born without arms, just for reference), but we don’t see much of her. I think we’ll get more of her in the second film. However, I think some moments are worth discussing from the disabled perspective.

First, we have to acknowledge that Marissa Bode is the FIRST authentically disabled actress to play Nessarose. Took them long enough. The musical debuted in 2003, so it only took them TWENTY years to cast an ACTUAL wheelchair user.

Anyway.

Let’s start with Elphaba and Nessa’s father, Governor Thropp. The governor is an overly solicitous father to Nessa while all but ignoring Elphaba. He dotes on Nessa and lives in fear of anything happening to her, making her Elphaba’s responsibility when he’s not around. Not that he’s satisfied with Elphaba’s care of her younger sister. 

He does allow Nessa to enroll in Shiz University but Elphaba is given no such opportunity until, at the last moment, the governor panics at the idea of leaving Nessarose unsupervised. It’s not unusual for parents or caregivers of disabled children to hover, even moreso than the most helicopter-y of parents. We can tell that Nessa has been suffocating under his thumb because instead of being happy that Elphaba is joining her, she’s disappointed. There’s probably also some jealousy here. Even though their father ignores Elphaba except to remonstrate her, Nessa probably views this as a kind of freedom. This was clearly supposed to be the start of her independence, but now her father has positioned her sister to be his eyes and ears. Of course, Elphaba isn’t interested in shepherding her sister and seems to want Nessa to find independence as much as Nessa does. Elphaba often finds herself advocating for her sister because people just don’t seem to listen to the poor little disabled girl. In fact, when dropping her off, Nessa can be heard plainly saying, “Don’t help me,” to her father, which is perfectly in sync with Elphaba saying, “Don’t help her.”

Then we are introduced to Miss Coddle, played by the delightful Keala Settle, who was amazing as Lettie, the bearded lady, in The Greatest Showman. Not for nothing is the character’s name “Coddle.” We don’t see much of her, but she approaches Nessa and makes a big show of the fact that she has been in correspondence with Governor Thropp, thoroughly talking over Nessa as she tries to express HER desires. Miss Coddle barrels right over her and takes control of the situation, and physical control of Nessa as she grabs her wheelchair, prompting Elphaba to shout “STOP!” and give students and faculty a preview of her immense power. It even sends Nessa and her chair flying overhead.

In an interview, Bode confirmed that she did perform this stunt, which, holy shiz-balls, would terrify me, but awesome for her! Bode’s interviews have been nothing but complimentary for the cast and crew of the film making her feel welcome, giving her the accommodations she needed, and going above and beyond to make everything accessible, which is amazing. I hope it’s all true. But it’s not unheard of for Hollywood to try to make things sunnier than they are, so I can’t help a dose of skepticism.

Still, the fact that the production company went to the effort of finding and hiring a disabled actress DOES say a lot.

Any disabled person watching would have felt a sense of kinship with Nessa as her wishes were disregarded and another person — a stranger — decided to take control of her path, literally and figuratively. If you felt ANY sort of discomfort at watching Nessa be trundled about like a piece of luggage, remember that just because someone uses a wheelchair or a walker or a mobility aid of any kind does not give you the right to touch them without their express permission in ANY context.

Finally, I want to examine the relationship between Nessa and Boq, the Munchkin boy Galinda so kindly directs toward her. Boq, to his detriment, is infatuated with Galinda, and would do anything for her, including befriending and ultimately entering a romantic relationship with Nessa. At one point, Boq tries to come clean to Nessa and explain that he only invited her to the Ozdust Ballroom because Galinda asked him to. Nessa thinks he’s going to confess that he only invited her because he pities her, but Boq doesn’t want her to think THAT. So he tells her that invited her because she is so beautiful.

And even if Boq thinks that, it doesn’t matter because he’s STILL infatuated with Galinda. When Nessa figures that out, well, it’s certainly a turning point for her character. Don’t forget, the Wicked Witch of the West had a sister.

I think for many disabled women, we often feel like we can never quite trust what potential romantic partners are telling us. We don’t know if their feelings are genuine or born of pity. So, if someone like Boq comes along, someone who seems so kind and innocent, and makes Nessa believe that he values her for HER, her turning bitter at his betrayal isn’t so surprising. 

Think about what Boq represents, in the overall story of Oz. He’s a Munchkin, and in the original movie, the Munchkins were kind and practically child-like. Boq is presented in the same way. A little bit of a bumpkin, swayed by the first pretty face he sees. Not only that but because Governor Thropp is the governor of Munchkinland, there’s a very good chance that Boq already knows of Elphaba AND Nessa. He knows who she is, he knows about her disability, and he CHOOSES HER ANYWAY. I know the way my heart would swell if I was in Nessa’s position.

So, yes, Nessa would feel betrayed to know that Boq got involved with her at Galinda’s pleasure. It would hurt to be sure, but also, it goes against the very idea of who she thinks he is.

Nessarose isn’t the central focus of Wicked, obviously, but her story isn’t one to be overlooked. After having watched the first film, I’m really looking forward to the second, despite knowing how the second half of the stage show goes. Act II really is where the thing went south.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to see Wicked yet, do so at your earliest convenience. Cynthia Ervio is delightful as Elphaba, and I certainly underestimated Ariana Grande’s abilities. And, after seeing Fiyero in the flesh, so to speak, I guess I have joined the ranks of women who are disappointed that Jonathan Bailey isn’t interested in women.

Thanks for listening and I’ll talk to you in the next one.

[10:39]
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