GREGORY MAGUIRE

Eugene Lee, the six-time Emmy Award-winning production designer for “Saturday Night Live” who won three Tony Awards for his Broadway sets, including the complicated, greenified Emerald City of “Wicked,” has died.

Placeholder while article actions loadTalking rabbits, squirrels and a skunk scamper and scheme in Gregory Maguire’s new fantasy, “Cress Watercress.” Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Through these animal characters, “I can explore universal emotions,” Maguire said by phone from his home in Concord, Massachusetts. The main character, a girl rabbit named Cress, must move with her mother and baby brother after the sudden disappearance of her father. Young playwrightLike all his tales, “Cress Watercress” sparkles with lively dialogue and surprising moments. During these past two years, he wrote not just “Cress Watercress,” but two additional books in a new trilogy about the Wicked characters.

While many people spent Valentine’s Day with the traditional flowers and chocolates, Brittney Johnson was making theater history.

Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel "Wicked" gave a backstory to one of the most haunting figures from L. Frank Baum's "Wizard of Oz" – and inspired a show that has become a beacon for anyone who doesn't fit a conventional mold.

Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel "Wicked" sought to give a backstory to one of the most haunting figures from L. Frank Baum's "Wizard of Oz": The Wicked Witch of the West. The book would inspire a long-running musical, which has proved a hit both on Broadway and on tour. Correspondent Tracy Smith talks with Maguire and composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, and with the original Glinda and Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, about a show that has become a beacon for anyone who doesn't fit a conventional mold.