Why does Elphie melt???

[PeteG]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:20pm

OK... I know you people have a habbit of going crazy when people post about Wicked.... but here I go....

I've seen Wicked, and maybe I'm just blacking one part out... but why can't Elphaba get wet? She "melts" at the end, but in the first act, when shes out in the rain, Madame Morrible had a line that was something like "We don't want you to get wet..."

Someone explain!!!!

[Matt_G]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:20pm

Cuz she's so WIKUD.

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:22pm

Its never explained in the show but in the book they explain that she has is allegic to water... But they put it in the show because like in the movie and book a bucket of water kills the Wicked Witch... She's allegic to water. Plain and simple.

[KelRel]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:22pm

In the book she is allergic to water...in the musical I think that it is a rumor because so many people think so many odd thinks about Elphie since she is green

[WickedShopofQ]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:23pm

if you were really wwatching you would know...(SPOILER) she doesnt melt!!!!
and the madame morrible line was supposed to be funny

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:24pm

To quote him---

She "melts" at the end

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:26pm

I thought that the scene in the rain was a rather elegant way to foreshadow that Elphaba WOULDN'T be melted by water. For all the slams the book has taken, that was once nice piece of writing.

I think maybe you need to go see Wicked again.

[WickedShopofQ]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:27pm

SPOILER
if im not mistaken, doesnt Elphie run off with fiyero at the end.
and i quote...
"they can never know"
hello trap door injuries ring a bell????

[baddadnpa]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:31pm

In the show, the "allergy" to water is a rumor. In fact, she is standing out in the rain when she is singing I'm Not That Girl and Madame Morrible comes out carrying an umbrella. I thought it was an error in the show until I saw the end when she in fact doesn't melt.

[DefyingPopular]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:39pm

actually i think sequel was the reason for that line.

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:43pm

I think I have red somewhere that Elphaba is so bad and evil that she can only be destroyed by something pure or clean: which is the water for example.

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:44pm

You mean a sequel musical to WICKED---- I know there is gonna be a sequel to the book out soon about Elphaba's son and his life I would assume. But a second Oz musical... I would go for it... but it would prolly have to be amazing just like Wicked.

[sassypanz]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:50pm

Yeah Whenever she crys, the tears burn her face.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:50pm

The problem with the melting reference is that it's clearly a wink to the movie and the original rather than any kind of exposition. NO one ever explains that they think she has any kind of reaction to water and, aside from that one little piece of "schtick," the water allergy is never mentioned again until the "death." I think it's indicative of a bit of faulty writing there, for all I think Winnie did an interesting and occasionally successful job of adapting the book into a musical.

Posted: 4/19/05 at 4:55pm

I agree. Winnie did a nice job.

[WickedShopofQ]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 5:02pm

"i hear her soul is so unclean, pure water can melt her"
~Thank Goodness

[BluCat500]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 5:05pm

The "water allergy" is mentioned...In thank goodness someone sings I hear her soul is so unclean pure water can melt her, however in the play it is just a rumor Fiyero even remarks to the above line saying how its a crazy rumor that water can melt her or something along those lines, in the book it is a true allergy, she bathes in oil instead of water and spends her whole childhood avoiding water and water does eventually melt her if i remember correctly

[PennyLou]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 5:13pm

I think it's just to make people laugh, but in the context of the show she's ok in the rain but she is told don't get wet just like someone would say to a normal person.. if I was in the ran and was talking to someone I would let them share my umbrella as well.. then later on in the story Feyro hears the roomer and is shocked by it (SPOILER) but then they use it to get away

Posted: 4/19/05 at 5:13pm

Boy hate to jump into this without novel in hand, but (and do I need to say SPOILER ALERT) we do all realize that in the stage musical, playing now at the Gershwin, Elphaba does not die at the end? Because the question and some responses make me think that people are confused about that. Musical=Elphaba NOT dead at the end!

As far as the book goes, I was under the impression that she was not melted at the end. I'd want to re read it make sure, but doesn't she get hit with the water and is so outraged by the injustice of it all, take off into hiding? There is that reference that one day she will be back from wherever she is hiding: "Did she ever come back? Not yet...." or words to that effect.....

[WickedShopofQ]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 5:22pm

i guess we will find out when the sequel to the book comes out about her son. but how would she of had a son if she did melt? ureka! ive solved it. she doesnt melt in the musical nor the book

thank you

[Aigoo]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 5:25pm

She melts in the book, I assure you :)

Her son is born about midway into the book, after they find out about her affair with Fiyero.

Posted: 4/19/05 at 5:31pm

Yeah he's the boy who follows her around in the book.

[renthead2005z]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 5:38pm

all i have to say is when i saw it, it kinda looked like the musical had fiyero and elphie plan it...i mean he is the only one who knows about her being alive at the end, and he gets so mad at the rumors of her being able to be melted by water. I kinda infered that they planned it so the wouldn't have to worry about the townspeople anymore.

[badkarma719]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 6:02pm

One: after the second act starts the show and the book go down totaly different paths, I mean in the book Elphie lives with Fiyeros wife for a number of years after Fiyero dies ( I think its been a while since I read it)

and I'll say it again I read the book a while back and don't remember evey detail so I cant reply to everything that I think sounds wrong on here

[Thenardier]

Posted: 4/19/05 at 8:18pm

I heard her soul
Is so UNCLEAN
Pure WATER can melt her...

UNCLEAN - WATER