The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) adaptation of what L. Frank Baum envisioned. In 1995, Gregory Maguire published the novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West", which was adapted into the wildly successful Broadway musical "Wicked". The story describes the life of the Wicked Witch of the West and other events prior to Dorothy's arrival. For the film's 56th anniversary, a 1995 stage show also titled "The Wizard of Oz" was based upon it and the book by L. Frank Baum. It toured from 1995 to 2012, except for 2004. In 2005, The Muppets Studio produced "The Muppets' Wizard of
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz continued to include these faces on gates. Baum did not offer any conclusive proof that he intended his novel to be a political allegory. Historian Ranjit S. Dighe wrote that for 60 years after the book's publication, "virtually nobody" had such an interpretation until Henry Littlefield, a high-school teacher. In his 1964 "American Quarterly" article, "The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism", Littlefield posited that the book contained an allegory of the late 19th-century bimetallism debate regarding monetary policy. Littlefield's thesis achieved some support, but has been strenuously attacked by others. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" has become an established