I saw Wicked this weekend, and I can’t stop talking about it. I saw the musical on Broadway for the first time when I was 16-years-old, and I am now 32-years-old, DOUBLE the age I was then. I’ve loved Wicked for all of my adult life and then some. If you’re wondering if I cried, I did, obviously, but the tears were because we have to wait a whole year to hear Cynthia Erivo’s version of “No Good Deed” and Erivo + Ariana Grande’s version of “For Good.” Two-part films should be banned, especially when it comes to movie musicals!!!!

One thing that connects all of the current editors of Autostraddle is that we all have a deep love for and background in musical theater. I went to a performing arts high school where I studied musical theater, Riese went to THEE performing arts boarding school, and Drew was also a theater dork. We all have unhealthy relationships to the television program Glee. All of this is to say we’re very aware of the longstanding tradition of musical theater being dominated by the gays. In high school, the stage was the one space where homosexuals were at the top of the food chain. And yet, we were all pleasantly surprised by JUST HOW GAY the Wicked movie cast is! It has preserved this time-honored tradition! And even the “straight” people in the cast are kind of gay-adjacent, like certified gay icon Michelle Yeoh and campy Jeff Goldblum. And I will probably Google “Ariana Grande bisexual” every day until Wicked part two comes out.

If you’re wondering who all’s gay in the Wicked cast, we’ve got you covered.

Cynthia Erivo

Photo by Lia Toby/Getty Images

Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba in Wicked, came out as queer in British Vogue in 2022. Therefore, when Cynthia was cast as Elphaba in the Wicked movie, we decided all Wicked news was automatically gay.

In the spring, Erivo accepted the Rand Schrader Award at the annual Los Angeles LGBT Center Gala and said in her speech: “It is a privilege to be on this stage tonight because for so long I lived in deep admiration of anyone who could fully embody their true authentic self, wear their queerness like a feather boa and proudly state ‘This is a beautiful part of who I am.’” She also shared her deep personal connection to her role as Elphaba. “As I stand here in front of you: Black, bald-headed, pierced and queer, I can say I know a thing or two about being the other,” she said. “Elphaba’s story is the cautionary tale of what it can sometimes mean to have to stand in your individuality, your otherness, even when systems of oppression are set against you.”

She is in a relationship with Lena Waithe. Gay Power Couple much?

Jonathan Bailey

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Jonathan Bailey, who plays Fiyero in Wicked, has been publicly out as gay since 2018, though he came out privately to family and friends before that, in his early twenties. In a GQ interview following his rise in popularity from his role in Bridgerton, he recalls hearing a story early on in his career when a fellow actor friend was told: “There’s two things we don’t want to know: if you’re an alcoholic or if you’re gay.” “Of course I thought that in order to be happy I needed to be straight,” Bailey tells GQ. “I reached a point where I thought, Fuck this, I’d much prefer to hold my boyfriend’s hand in public or be able to put my own face picture on Tinder and not be so concerned about that than getting a part.”

In my professional opinion, Fiyero being played by a gay man only adds to my headcanon that Elphaba and Glinda are in a relationship with each other and Fiyero is merely their platonic but perhaps toxically enmeshed gay boy best friend. A love triangle where they’re all gay!

Marissa Bode

Marissa Bode is also queer! The actress who plays Nessarose (and has unfortunately had to call out ableist comments about her character) has been providing some queer disability visibility on the Wicked press tour as an out wheelchair user. I love that BOTH Thropp sisters are played by queer actresses, especially since BOTH Thropp sisters have baby gay vibes (Nessa/Boq are so closeted dyke4fag).

Bode is in a relationship with writer Lauren Brooks. They did Chappell Roan-inspired couples costumes for Halloween this year!

In an interview with Gay Times, Bode said: “This movie is for everyone, but the girls and gays are definitely going to be seated for sure!” And say that!

Bowen Yang

SNL icon Bowen Yang is a very delightful and gay presence in the Wicked movie as Pfannee (yes, pronounced…fanny), one of Glinda’s sidekicks at Shiz. Pfannee is definitely textually queer in the film! He swoons over Fiyero! Co-hosting the popular gay pop culture podcast Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and starring in the gay rom-com Fire Island, Yang has a very queer career, and his casting in Wicked was thrilling news for me and all the gays and girls I know.

“Everyone, get ready: I’m really showing my range, I’m playing a gay guy,” Yang joked on his podcast. He also has had a lot of fun making fun of his character’s name in the even-gayer-than-the-movie Wicked press tour.

Bronwyn James

Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Playing ShenShen, Bronwyn James is ALSO queer, which means both of Glinda’s sidekicks are played by gay actors! And no, Pfannee and ShenShen don’t seem to fall into the stereotypical “gay best friend” category at all — I mean, perhaps most notable because Glinda’s a little bit in the closet according to, you know, everyone. Glinda surrounding herself with gays while entering into a fraught homoerotic dynamic with an enemy-turned-best-friend? That has closeted musical theater gay written all over it, and I should know.

James is married to Katherine-Alice, who founded a nonprofit that promotes accessibility in the arts in Yorkshire.

Yang and James answered some wonderfully gay questions from Gay Times about their characters, including which character would stay at the gay club all night, to which both answered ShenShen. Party Dyke Legend!

Sharon D. Clarke

Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Sharon D. Clarke is a heavily accoladed UK stage actress, and she voices Dulcibear, the bear nurse who raises Elphaba since her father is an asshole who hates his green child. Clarke is married to writer and director Susie McKenna. The fact that Dulcibear is voiced by a queer woman only adds to the queer family vibes of Elphaba’s upbringing. I bet if Elphaba wrote the letter she pens to her father in the song “What Is This Feeling?” to Dulcibear instead then maybe she would have been told “it sounds like you’re in love with her.”