• pregnancy & baby
• parenting
• horoscopes
• health
• beauty
• food & drink
• diet & fitness
• more ivillage
  • • Travel
    • Entertainment
    • Home & Garden
    • Relationships
    • Work & Money
    • Shopping
  • • Competitions
    • Dating
    • Quizzes
    • Newsletters
    • Kalimocho.co.uk
    • Wii Fit Plus
  • 

An audience with Gregory Maguire

When Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked!, touched down on these shores for a whistle-stop tour, we couldn't let the opportunity to speak to him pass by. In an exclusive interview, Gregory answered questions submitted via the Official UK Wicked! Forum

Q: You've re-written lots of popular stories, including The Wizard of Oz and Cinderella. Which was your favourite story when you were growing up and why?
cyberfairy

Gregory Maguire: I loved the fairytales, all of them growing up, partly because a fairytale can't really start unless the mother dies, leaving a vulnerable child.

Since my own personal narrative involves my mother having died when I was born, I think I probably held a certain, perhaps false, sense of high identification with the youngest child in a group of siblings.

With fairytales, there is a universality to them that doesn't exclude boys and men. I think a lot of people assume fairytales are for girls but, in fact, fairytales are about people and individuals in a certain kind of trauma.

My favourite? I loved Cinderalla because I could see behind the fact that as well as her beauty, she was also good.

Q: What was your reaction when they first talked to you about your novel Wicked! being made into a musical? Has anyone ever asked you about it being made into a film?
cyberfairy

Gregory Maguire: Within 10 days of the book's publication in the US, I started to get film offers. I had three and a half years' worth of film scripts, each one of which was worse than the one before!

When that interest began to erode (Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings hadn't come out yet) and the notion of a Broadway play came up instead, really in my heart of hearts I just thought (singing and leaping from his chair) 'Broadway!'. What was not to love about it?

There will eventually be a film of Wicked! the musical but probably not for four or five years.

Q: Has anyone approached you and asked you about turning any more of your books into films or shows. If so, which?
totallywicked

Gregory Maguire: The new book, Confessions Of An Ugly Stepsister actually was an ABC TV film in the US and there are a couple of other things that are in the pipeline but there's nothing ready to announce.

I can't imagine anybody putting as much money into something as they did with Wicked! but, for instance, in Confessions Of An Ugly Stepsister, there is the possibility of it being made into an opera, which I just love.

READ MORE:  1 |  2 |  3 |  4 |  5 | next printer friendly send to a friend