Everything about the new Wicked movie is big: The production numbers. The costumes. The notes as Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, belts out “Defying Gravity.” Even the tie-in merch.

The Good Witch of the North is meant to be someone Dorothy can trust, but she doesn’t really show this by leaving her on her own. The theory might fall apart if you think about how Dorothy was ...

Obsessed, perhaps, with what became known as the North Berwick Witch Trials. Now, it wasn’t just James. Across Europe fear of witchcraft was very much in the air. In 1563, James’s mother ...