The musical Wicked opened on Broadway in October 2003. Based on the best-selling novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire, the show retells the story of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the point of view of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, a misfit who, through the events of the play, discovers her inner strength and power. The show has run for nearly six thousand performances as of 2017 and is the second highest grossing Broadway musical of all time, having earned over 1 billion dollars to date. This book describes the path the play took from concept to the stage, its Broadway run, and its influence.