Student blogger Owen Fitzpatrick returns this season to write unique essays, letters and stories for each of our 10th Anniversary Broadway Series shows. Read on for his letter to the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz, then be sure to reserve your seats for this spectacular production before it twists its way out of town this Sunday.

Dear Wicked Witch of the West,

I feel bad for you. I really do. This has nothing to do with your warts or the green hue to your skin. All that is superficial. Let me tell you about yourself before I come see your show, The Wizard of Oz, at The Hanover Theatre. It seems you clearly don’t get it.

Not to spoil anything for you, Witch, but you aren’t going to make it. Your downfall will not be simply a substance like, let’s say, water. Rather, I believe your downfall will be kindness. It will destroy you. You can believe me or not, but it’s true. The girl, Dorothy, who you seek to harm, will be the innocence that defeats your wickedness. There will be fire and there will be water, and Dorothy, in her pure kindness, will want to save you despite all that you’ve put her through. In fact, as you are breathing your last breath, she will say she didn’t mean it and apologize. That level of kindness is fatal to any living being of pure wickedness, like the kind that lies within you.

In all of Oz, Dorothy is the only one who has the purest heart, giving her alone the ability to defeat you. When Dorothy enters the world of Oz, she attracts new friends and comforts each of them along the way, showing kindness and friendship. This kindness reflects off of the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man as they help her to end your reign of fear and captivity. Her new, colorful, over-the-rainbow friends are all different from her, but friends can come from the most unlikely places. 

We see brains, a heart and courage, all working together with innocence to try and find a way home. Their answer is kindness, which, we are told, they knew all along. Kindness tells others around you that there is friendship to be given. True friends stick together on the yellow brick road of life.

But, Wicked Witch of the West, your road isn’t yellow or brick. You are off the path. You don’t care if your decisions are good or bad, as long as they don’t leave you “all wet.” You are the leader of a band of flying monkeys who don’t speak, which leaves your voice as the only voice you hear. You have no friends. You aren’t listening to anyone. To you, Oz is full of pawns. And these pawns? You don’t even know who they are.

The power has gone to your head. You’ve probably forgotten what you are really working to achieve or the dream that you dared to dream. Maybe you haven’t always been wicked, but I hear that’s another story.

The Wizard tells us that “a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.” I disagree with the great and powerful wizard. I believe the opposite is true. There is nothing greater than the love you have inside of you, and truly, there’s no place like home.

Respectfully,

Owen Fitzpatrick