By SHARON EBERSON
ENTREATY: The AMC movie chain plans to play a 30-second advisory before “Wicked: Part 1,” reminding moviegoers that “silence is golden”; in other words, no singing from the audience. So please, for your own enjoyment and the enjoyment of others, heed the advisory. First of all, you don’t want to be $%@#*! rude, do you? Secondly, you will want to hear Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera in the roles they were meant to play. Thank you in advance for your good manners.
When I say that Wicked: Part 1 is a terrific movie adaptation of one of Broadway’s enduring spectacle musicals, you probably should know, given the opportunity, I would have voted for Wicked for the Best Musical Tony Award over Avenue Q.
There it is. In online prose. If it changes your opinion of my opinion, so be it.
Wicked is Broadway’s fourth longest-running show ever, and much as Avenue Q has an incalculable entertainment and cool factor, you can take Wicked’s record to the bank.
The movie that opened today does the stage version proud, and then some.
Inspired casting, grand-scale spectacle, full-scale emotional impact, fast-paced action that rarely lets up, girl power … It’s a lot, and I left a screening wanting more, which all of us are going to get. Despite a lack of marketing on this one point, Wicked is a two-parter. If it’s helpful to fellow musical theater fans, this one ends at intermission.
From the first time I saw the stage version – twice on Broadway, then the first national tour and twice more – I was drawn to the musical in all its unabashed excess and songs I can’t get out of my head.
Now as then, I am particularly enthralled by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz’s reimagining of Gregory Maguire’s Wizard of Oz prequel novel. From that sometimes R-rated source material, plucking a BFF story about teen girls who change each other’s lives “for good” is, dare I say, genius. I dare.
Schwartz’s score, requiring two powerhouse female voices, has inspired so much love over two decades that it is a generational favorite, so much so that movie theaters have issued statements imploring fans to not sing along, while also providing dedicated singalong dates.
The inspired casting of Wicked’s original stars – Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda– is undeniable. Their movie counterparts – Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera (as the pop star is credited here) – likewise have created a loathing-to-loving chemistry that jumps off the screen.
Erivo, the Tony-winning star of The Color Purple, is glorious in green, with a voice that defies a pigeonholing range. The some who don’t know pop star Grande’s background – she played a cheerleader in the 2008 Broadway musical 13 – the revelation might be her ability to hit Glinda’s operatic high notes and comedic flair, in a sort of Regina George/Elle Woods mashup that evolves as the story progresses.
The stage version, you may recall, is lite on light, as if it is never sunny in Oz. Part 1 opens in a fully realized Munchkinland and then takes its time at Shiz University, both bursting with color and architectural wonders, before an eventful day in Emerald City. The scenes are perhaps too often over-the-top busy, as if the sets themselves have a life of their own. Mostly, though, I am here for the overabundance of Oz.
It would be amazing, if a little confusing, to come to this film having never read L. Frank Baum’s ageless Wizard of Oz, nor seen the 1939 classic movie, nor having read Maguire’s Wicked novel or seen the stage version.
Having seen and read it all, as many of us have, watching Wicked anew doesn’t lose anything in the translation to screen.
Under Elphaba’s makeup – “it isn’t easy being green” is too easy a pun, so I won’t mention it – Erivo shines brightly as the outcast teen, finding unexpected friendship and growing into the power she has held all along. As the uber-popular, pretty-in-pink Glinda, Grande has a ball tossing her blond locks around before discovering feelings that go beyond what is skin deep,
The arrival of the dashing Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton, Fellow Travelers) as Fiyero, a deceptively shallow prince, ups the relationship ante at Shiz. If you didn’t know going in, Bailey is an Olivier Award winner as Jamie in London’s gender-bending Company, and here makes both graceful and acrobatic use of his ballet training as well.
The charming prince and Glinda are magnetically attracted, but when it comes to romance, opposites attract as well … more on that in Part 2.
The sequence from the Shiz library (spectacular) to the Ozdust Ballroom (a sort of over-the-rainbow rave) is a remarkable feat of crowd control, energy, timing and cinematography. The complexities that separate the movie from the stage version don’t diminish what performers accomplish live, but certainly the incredible movie sets and editing add a new, exciting dimension, choreographed by Christopher Scott, who worked with director Jon M. Chu on In the Heights.
May we talk about the set design now, please?
Grande, finding her comedic groove on the song Popular, jumping onto a light fixture and kicking up her heels while romping in an arched hallway is not Wicked’s grandest number, by far, but the practical set adds to the magic of her performance.
The production design is by Nathan Crowley, who previously has created the worlds of Wonka and The Greatest Showman, among others. With nods to the stage version, Crowley’s imagination knows no bounds, and Wicked looks as if its budget was unlimited. At a reported $145 million, it’s all up there on the screen, including lavish costumes by nine-time Tony-nominee Paul Tazewell.
I swear, Grande’s tiny frame was swathed in more shades of pink than I thought possible.
Emerald City proves to be a cornucopia of wonders, while harmoniously giving nods to the stage version and the beloved Wizard of Oz movie.
That’s not to say there are no visual effects. The animals who become a flashpoint for the story’s dark turn are all computer-generated, including the goat teacher Dr. Dillamond, voiced by Peter Dinklage.
Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh is a different Madame Morrible than I have seen onstage, more elegant and icy, leaning into her own power as an example to Elphaba. The young student has demonstrated an incomparable knack for magic that excites Shiz’s leading instructor, whose interest in Elphaba’s untamed powers reach all the way to the Great and Powerful Oz himself.
PIttsburgh’s own Jeff Goldblum, no stranger to movie blockbusters, has the presence, simmering menace and touch of wonder to pull off the Wizard’s long con game and burst the bubble of the adoring Elphaba.
Her long-dreamed of audience with the Wizard has come true, orchestrated by Madame Morrible, and destiny intervenes with Elphaba’s spur-of-the-moment decision to bring along Glinda, her newly anointed best friend.
Part 1 of Wicked hints at Part 2, when, if following the stage musical, Munchkin Boq (Ethan Slater) and Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), will play bigger roles in the wicked turn of events.
Many performers in the movie come from the London stage, but among the crowd at Shiz are Greatest Showman star Keala Settle and Saturday Night Live’s Bowen Yang, having the time of his life as a student happy to stand in Glinda’s polished pink shadow.
I went into Wicked with many misgivings, particularly about splitting it into two parts. Also, because of the huge hype and my over-the-top dedication to social media and talk shows, I felt as if the world was being painted broad strokes of pink and green long before the movie’s release.
So I am happy to report, Wicked: Part 1 more than lives up to the hype.
With a screenplay by Holzman and Dana Fox (Cruella), and a nod to Maguire, director Chu has built on the promise of In the Heights and Crazy Rich Asians, taking on the gargantuan task of meeting the expectations of a rabid Wicked fan base.
In Part 1, at least, he has created a movie of epic proportions that also is so deeply felt, it may inspire the lovers of this story to sing along. But please don’t defy me on this one.
I intend to see Wicked: Part 1 again, before Part 2 is released on November 21, 2025, and I don’t want anyone to bring me down while listening to two multi-talented women belt to the heavens.
Categories: Arts and Ideas
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