Rethinking Nessarose : The Complexities of Disability, Casting, and the New 'Wicked' Film

by Ashley Griffen, Guest Editorial

I’m sure this is going to stir up some controversy…but I feel it needs to be said.

“Wicked” fans near and far are rejoicefying over the success of the recent film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. Though opinions differ, the majority seem to be in strong agreement that the film is a homerun – something that was far from a foregone conclusion given some of the wildly lackluster Broadway musical film adaptations we’ve seen in recent years.

Among the reasons for the film’s success are the cast’s performances – including that of Marissa Bode as Elphaba’s younger sister Nessarose. In addition to her wonderful performance, the center of the press campaign, specifically surrounding Bode, seems to be the fact that she is the first wheelchair user to be cast as Nessa – a character who uses a wheelchair. Indeed, it is the central (and sometimes singular) element Bode is asked about on her press junket.

I’m very excited that an authentic wheelchair user is playing this role. But I’ve been growing more and more concerned that the conversation around that fact seems to have moved away from celebrating Bode and into downright hate and contempt toward the creative team and especially the casting directors of the stage show. The vitriol I’ve seen is along the lines of, “Isn’t it disgusting that no one has ever cast a wheelchair user in this role before? They should be ashamed of themselves.”

I’m uncomfortable with the fact that it is so easy to jump on a “hate” bandwagon. We shouldn’t be throwing hate in the first place, especially when we haven’t done our research.

With that in mind, I would like to explore and break down the history of casting Nessarose, her role in the show (and the role that her wheelchair plays in her arc), and how Bode’s casting fits into all of this. This serves as a companion piece to an article I wrote a while back about whether or not actors should only be cast based on personal identity.

Warning: major spoilers below for “Wicked” and especially for part 2 of the “Wicked” film.

“Wicked,” based on the novel by Gregory Maguire and adapted into a 2003 Broadway musical, is a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” (and for much of the second act runs parallel to it) that seeks to explore the origin and nature of evil (“Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?”) Elphaba, exiled because she was born with green skin, deeply wants to “make good”.

When she tries to buck the corrupt system of Oz she is branded “wicked”, “becoming” the “Wicked Witch of the West”. Glinda, conversely, is blonde, bubbly, and popular, and because she is absolutely fine with the system as is, she is dubbed “Glinda the Good” by those in power. Within the show, we also get the origin stories for the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the East (hint: it’s Elphaba’s sister.)

In “Wicked,” Elphaba’s younger sister Nessarose is many things Elphaba isn’t. She is considered beautiful; she’s sweet, wants to “belong,” and is absolutely adored by their father, to the degree that he, the Governor of Munchkinland (a role that is inherited in Oz), plans to pass the Governorship not to his eldest daughter, Elphaba, but to Nessarose. She has also been a bit coddled her whole life because she can’t walk and must use a wheelchair, a disability both their father and Elphaba blame Elphaba for. As Elphaba tells Glinda:

“You see, when our mother was carrying Nessa our father began to worry that the new baby might come out…green. So worried that he made our mother chew milk flowers, day and night. Only it made Nessa come to soon, with her little legs all tangled… and our mother…our mother never woke up. None of which would ever have happened… if not for me.”

Indeed, Elphaba is only even sent to university to look after her sister. On the first day of school, their father gives Nessa a beautiful pair of jeweled shoes (“As befits the future Governor of Munchkinland”). He gives no gift to Elphaba but simply the instruction to “Look after your sister. And try not to talk so much.” Nessa feels bad about the way her sister is treated but is also annoyed by her presence. Nessa desperately wants to assert her independence.

She’s embarrassed by Elphaba’s magical ability (which Elphaba first demonstrates in the musical by magically taking control of Nessarose’s wheelchair, keeping her from leaving with Madame Morrible). She is over the moon at having the opportunity to share Madame Morrible’s private quarters, making her “special” and not subject to Elphaba’s twenty-four-hour daycare that would be a given if the sisters were to be roommates.  

Throughout her time at school, Nessa desperately wants to fit in with the other students. The first time she feels like “one of the group” is when Munchkin student Boq asks her to a dance at the Ozdust Ballroom (unbeknownst to her, Boq is desperately in love with Glinda, and Glinda told him to ask out Nessa in order to get him off her back.) Nessa proceeds to fall hard for Boq, who she at first thinks feels sorry for her (because of “her chair”) but then grows to believe he truly cares for her (Boq, trying to cover for the real reason he asked her out, tells Nessa that it was “Because you are so beautiful.”)

This sets up a horribly dysfunctional relationship wherein Boq is in love and obsessed with Glinda, keeping up his relationship with Nessa just because he thinks it makes Glinda happy. Nessa believes she has found “the one,” with the only thing standing in the way of their happiness being the fact that she must use a wheelchair.

This seriously escalates offstage between Act 1 and Act 2 in the musical (part 1 and part 2 of the film (we assume it’s possible some of this might be included in the second part of the film.) Elphaba and Nessarose’s father dies, making Nessa the governor of Munchkinland. By now, it’s clear to her that Boq has been, and still is, obsessed with Glinda (an obsession she believes would end if she could walk - Boq wouldn’t have to “look after her,” and they could “equal.”)

Nessa begins enacting crueler laws in Munchkinland specifically to force Boq to stay with her (the most recent being that no Munchkin is allowed to leave Munchkinland). Boq has basically become Nessa’s slave, but Nessa uses their forced proximity to keep trying to get him to return her feelings, with no success (despite numerous requests for him to, he won’t even call her by her first name).

And then Elphaba shows up for the first time since being branded “Wicked.” She’s looking for her sister’s help in standing up to the Wizard: help Nessa immediately denies her, partially because:

“I can’t harbor a fugitive, I’m an unelected official”, but more so because “You fly around Oz rescuing animals you’ve never even met, and not once have you ever thought to use your powers to rescue me.”

In one of only two brief moments when Nessa sings in the show, she tells Elphaba just how awful it’s been having to spend her whole life in a wheelchair, never feeling like she belonged to “the group” and always needing someone to care for her. Elphaba feels terrible and bemoans the fact that “There isn’t a spell for everything” before having the idea to enchant Nessa’s jeweled shoes to allow Nessa to walk. She casts the spell, and it works.

The shoes are now, for all intents and purposes, the Ruby Slippers – magical and all, and Nessa can now walk, run, dance, anything she wants. Elphaba believes this will finally repair their relationship, but instead, Nessa immediately calls for Boq, believing this will change everything between them and allow them to be together. Boq does believe “this changes everything” but for a different reason – now that Nessa no longer needs a caregiver, he believes he will be set free and allowed to finally go declare his feelings to Glinda before her wedding to Fiyero.

Michelle Federer as Nessarose, who originated the role on Broadway

But instead of accepting the situation and letting him (and the rest of Munchkinland) leave, Nessa doubles down (“Lost your heart? Well, we’ll see about that…”) grabs Elphaba’s spell book and, though she can’t read it properly, nor does she have any magical ability, starts trying to cast a spell to make Boq “lose his heart” to her.

The spell backfires, instead causing Boq’s heart to shrink and ultimately disappear. Elphaba, who makes clear “You can’t reverse a spell once it’s been cast” casts another spell to try to save Boq’s life, ultimately leaving him in a form where “he won’t need a heart”.

Elphaba‘s last words to Nessa are: “My whole life I have done everything I could for you and it’s never been enough… and it never will be.” Boq regains consciousness and both he and Nessa discover he has been turned into the Tin Man. Boq runs, screaming from the room as Nessa shouts after him: “It was Elphaba!”

One of the most powerful images in the show is the transition between this scene and the next. Nessa stands center stage as a beautiful ball, led by Glinda and Fiyero, surrounds her. She looks around, realizing that it and physically complex moment was never her chair that kept her separate and that now, despite being able to walk, she has condemned herself to a life of isolation (at the end of her song, she proclaims that she has made herself into the “Wicked Witch of the East.”) She goes to her chair, and wheels it offstage.

And that is the last time we see Nessa until her feet, jeweled shoes and all, are sticking out from under Dorothy’s house (I’m being a bit facetious; we don’t actually see her legs under the house in the musical).

Nessarose is only a wheelchair user for 3/4ths of the show, and then her ability to walk becomes a HUGE plot point. In fact, the moment when Elphaba casts the spell and Nessa starts to use her legs for the first time is such a dramatic and physically complex moment that the creative team originally planned to cast a contemporary dancer in the role (one of the reasons Nessa doesn’t sing much in the show.)

And that’s not to mention the fact that, much like how the actress playing Fantine in “Les Miserables” doubles as a soldier on the barricade in Act 2, the actress playing Nessarose doubles as a Denizen of Oz in scenes where Nessa isn’t present, where she performs choreography along with the rest of the ensemble, all while trying to fade into the background so the audience doesn’t realize it’s the same performer (other characters do this as well… the actor playing Fiyero doubling as the man with the green elixir in the opening number is perhaps the most well-known example.)

Barring some very complex and likely problematic wire rigging or a performer whose wheelchair needs are incredibly limited and specific, it is flat-out not possible to cast a wheelchair user in the role of Nessarose on stage - and accusing the theatrical team of prejudice or ableism because of a lack of wheelchair users in the role is wildly unfair.

Many “Wicked” fans are, in fact, abuzz with curiosity as to how the film is going to handle Nessa’s penultimate scene. It’s clear that cinematic wizardry will be necessary for Bode to not only stand and walk but perform complex physical interactions with other actors, sets, and props while doing so (including some potential combat depending on how her “showdown” with Boq is staged.)

On the flip side, some who are familiar with the show’s plot points are calling the film (and “Wicked” in general) ableist because Nessarose gains the ability to walk in the story (and doesn’t want to be reliant on a wheelchair). Never mind that without that plot point, there would be no Ruby Slippers, no Tin Man, and no Dorothy dropping a house on the “Wicked Witch of the East” (who happens to be walking around Munchkinland at the time), which sets in motion a large part of the plot of “The Wizard of Oz” and the second half of “Wicked.”

And that’s not to mention the emotional ramifications for Nessa of having to come to terms with the fact that her wheelchair is not to blame for all the problems in her life or for Elphaba in realizing that putting her sister first has meant nothing to Nessa, adding one more notch in the build to “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.”

I’m thrilled that a wheelchair user was cast as Nessa in the film, a medium where, clearly, with the use of special effects, they can have an authentic wheelchair user in the role and still remain true to the emotional arc and plot significance of the character in the story (and I would like to point out that the casting directors for the Broadway production were the casting directors on the film).

But to jump on the hate bandwagon and criticize the theatrical production for not doing the same shows and being ignorant of the actual requirements of the show.

Barring significant technical advancements, there is not going to be a wheelchair user cast in the stage musical – out of necessity for the plot. It is absolutely right that we celebrate Bode’s casting, but let’s do a little more research before making the jump from “first wheelchair user cast in the role” to “casting directors for previous productions are prejudiced and should be canceled.” There are many reasons why someone might be the “first” at something – some might be for sad reasons of historical prejudice, and some might be because a situation has changed, technology has advanced, or a myriad of other reasons.

Let’s celebrate Bode’s casting and performance while also celebrating the role, why it was written that way (including by the author of the original novel, Gregory Maguire), and the great casting choices that have come before and will come after.