real-life

Elphaba’s progressiveness and curious soul reflect a real-life society troubled by the potential ramifications of Donald Trump’s reelection.

And it’s a result of the creative team’s frank conversations with real-life wheelchair users, including Tony-winning actress Ali Stroker.

According to Chu, “Marissa transformed how we present Nessa in so many ways,” beginning with her suggestion to model Nessa’s wheelchair design off the actor’s real-life wheelchair, in order to express the character’s physical self-sufficiency with ease.

Like a nonfiction novel, Keefe’s book traces five decades of thorny history from the perspective of real-life characters, including the notorious Price sisters, Marian and Dolours, I.R.A. militants whose prison hunger strikes made front-page news in the 1970s, and Gerry Adams, the political leader who helped bring peace to Northern Ireland but has been accused of participating in atrocities committed during the height of the conflict.

Many of the cast and crew had connections to the real-life people in the story.