Which Elphaba was the best?

Raul Esparza.

You think I'm kidding. I'm not kidding. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnryROEX-VA

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Margaret Hamilton. The original! The best! (Okay, not *quite* the original, but certainly the definitive. )

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Julia Murney or Lisa Brescia. Probably Julia though.

Ooh, Weez. You do have me there. I'll say it's a tie between Margaret Hamilton and Raul Esparza. Maggie had the voice, but Raul just fit the part so well.

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I would go with Donna Vivino, she is absolutely amazing.

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I am also going to say Donna Vivino. I have seen Julia and Donna live and every other Elphie in other "forms" but Donna definitely hands down comes out on top!

Do we really need another of these threads? Also, is it really possible for people to judge the "best" without having seen EVERY single Elphaba live? Doesn't seem right. While I've seen all the women to have played the role on Broadway, with the exception of Lisa Brescia and Chelsea Krombach, there are tons of actresses I've not seen in the role, from the tour, Chicago, and L.A.

Maybe you should ask people who their "favorite" Elphaba is, not the best.

This question probably can easily become a can of worms... People are hardcore about their Elphies. Plus, there have been so many! (Someone's bound to include an international Elphie)and most people have not seen most Elphies live (including myself), which can lead to different opinions.

Nevertheless, I humbly offer my opinion from what I have seen that Stephanie J. Block is "the best." But I can really only say she is my hands down favorite. Voice, acting, looks are all there for me.

I value vocal consistency, power and control and physical expressiveness in a performance. I view Elphaba as more mature and less innocent than others do. I tend not to like Elphies with brighter tones to their voices (is that the right term?) because its hard for me to take them seriously as a threat. All of these influence my preference for SJB, although I enjoy other Elphies too. Teal Wicks comes to mind.

I have to add that Megan Hilty is my favorite Glinda too, for her voice, humor, and making me believe her arc.

My favorite remains to be Kristy Cates. Her "look to the western sky" sent chills down my spine.

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For the record:
The Wicked Witch of the West, as played by Hamilton, was Edgar Allan Woolf, Florence Ryerson and Noel Langley's creation based on the character created by L. Frank Baum for the 1900 book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

Elphaba is Maguire's creation based on the character The Wicked Witch of the West created by Baum. She is also based, in part (largely appearance) on the character created by Woolf, Ryerson and Langley for the MGM motion picture classic "The Wizard of Oz"

Margaret Hamilton was not, despite what some people may attest, playing Elphaba.

Therefore, while she is the definitive Wicked Witch of the West (at least in mine and many people's books) she is not playing Elphaba in any sense of the character. Elphaba was a multi-faceted character (at least in Maguire's book), whereas the Wicked Witch (in the MGM motion picture) is merely a villian hell-bent on revenge. In the Baum novel she is merely a minor character that posed a threat to the Wizard and doesn't really pose much threat to Dorothy. Or a meatphor for the dust bowl, the threat of Dictatorship among other vauge skecthy political parallels.

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Husk, that is an excellent point. I was just being goofy when I mentioned her, of course, but I do think it's silly for kids who've always been terrified of the Wicked Witch of the West to suddenly love her just because they love Wicked. I own a Wicked Witch t-shirt that says, "I'm melting, melting, melting!" because I once played the role, and SO many kids come up to me saying, "I love your shirt! Wicked is my favourite musical... I'm SO Elphaba."

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For me, Stephanie J. Block was the best.