It’s well-known that Depraved relies on the award-winning stage musical of the identical title, which retells the basic story of The Wizard Of Oz from the angle of the character who goes on to turn out to be referred to as the “Depraved Witch Of The West”.

However this present was itself primarily based on a novel by Gregory Maguire – and it was Gregory who really got here up with the title Elphaba.

Talking to GBH Information earlier this yr, the American novelist recalled that he “invented the title” by “enjoying with the initials of the writer Lyman Frank Baum”, who penned the unique Wizard Of Ouncesbooks within the early 1900s.

He recalled: “I attempted ‘Lafaba’, I attempted ‘Lafeyba’. After which I attempted ‘Elphaba’. As quickly as I obtained Elphaba, I assumed, ‘oh, that’s it’.”

Glinda, in the meantime, was initially the title of the so-called “Good Witch Of The North” in Baum’s tales, in addition to the basic 1939 movie The Wizard Of Oz.