If you spent the holidays belting “Defying Gravity” with your family, you might want to sit down for this one.
Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West—the novel that inspired the Broadway phenomenon and Ariana Grande’s blockbuster film—has officially been banned from all public schools in Utah.
The state’s Board of Education added the 1995 novel to its growing list of prohibited books on January 5, citing “objective sensitive materials.” It joins 21 other titles now forbidden in Utah classrooms, putting the state at the top of the nation for statewide book bans.
Here’s what most people don’t realize: if you’ve only seen the musical or the movie, you don’t actually know this book.
The Novel Is Nothing Like the Musical
Maguire himself has been clear about this. The author has said his novel isn’t intended for young readers and that he purposefully included mature content early on to signal what kind of story this was. If readers came expecting chorus lines and dancing monkeys, they were in the wrong place.
The book includes graphic content—sex, violence, and sexual assault. It’s a dark political allegory that Maguire has said was inspired by the murder of British toddler Jamie Bulger, the Gulf War, and the AIDS epidemic. Elphaba’s journey isn’t a sparkly tale of friendship. It’s an unflinching look at evil, oppression, and the ways society manufactures its villains.
The Broadway adaptation, which opened in 2003, softened virtually all of this into a crowd-pleasing story about two friends on opposite sides of a conflict. The film follows that same family-friendly path.
So when Utah officials labeled the source material inappropriate for schools, they weren’t talking about the story audiences know and love. They were talking about an entirely different beast wearing the same green skin.
How Utah’s Ban Works
Under a law passed in 2024, books are automatically banned statewide if at least three school districts determine they contain “pornographic or indecent” content. Wicked hit that threshold after removals in Davis, Tooele, and Washington County school districts.
The novel was the sixth most-banned book in American schools during the 2024-2025 school year, according to PEN America. Other titles on Utah’s banned list include the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.
Two other titles joined the list the same day: Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
The Backlash Has Already Begun
The ACLU of Utah filed a federal lawsuit on January 7 challenging the state’s book ban law, arguing it violates students’ First Amendment rights. The suit represents several authors and two anonymous high school students.
“The right to read and the right to free speech are inseparable,” said Tom Ford, staff attorney at the ACLU of Utah.
Neither Grande nor Erivo has publicly commented on the ban. Given both stars’ history of speaking out, that silence probably won’t last.
