It’s fair to say that the movie version of Wicked has been a long time coming, and I don’t just mean the delays due to Cats, Covid, and last years’s SAG-AFTRA strike. Not to mention producer Marc Platt’s initial film concept that was in development at Universal before the Tony-winning stage musical adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel was conceived. Or even the brilliantly orchestrated, and genuinely joyful, movie promotional blitz that has been heightening our anticipation ever since the teaser trailer dropped during the Super Bowl back in February, before we witnessed the fashionably Oz-inspired attired cast following the red (well, green) carpet from Los Angeles to Mexico City, to New York, and London for premieres and press interviews.
For me, the anticipation of returning to Oz with Wicked goes back much further. Like so many other folks around the globe since MGM’s 1939 The Wizard of Oz began playing on television in the 1950s, I first befriended Dorothy and fell in love with all things Oz at home (there’s no place like it) gathered around the small screen with my family. It blew my mind as a child in the early 80s, especially as a gay one searching for somewhere over the rainbow, and as an adult it remains one of my favourite films. In fact, I included it in my selection of The Greatest Films of All Time for the most recent decennial poll conducted by the British Film Institute (BFI).
Although even as a kid in 1985 I could see that Walter Murch’s Return to Oz had its flaws (as a result of production shutdowns and visual effects shortcuts taken as it went over budget, to what now seems a fairly modest $28M), nevertheless, I relished every second of my time back in Oz, with its quirky and often terrifyingly creepy characters, and I reveled in the fairy tale melancholy of its much darker tone.
It was that enduring love, ingrained deep within me, that made the idea of returning to Oz on Broadway so enticing. With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman, I was thrilled and utterly transported when I saw the show for the first time nearly 20 years ago, enveloped in the action as a lottery-winning front-row audience member, and bought the CD of the cast recording at the merch stand on my way out. Having later read Maguire’s novel, I’d return to see Wicked in London and New York, most recently at the end of February 2020 to catch Alexandra Billings’ brilliant turn as Madame Morrible to interview her about her own connection to Oz and the magic that she felt being part of that world eight shows a week.
Essentially, the weight of expectation for director Jon M. Chu’s Wicked Part One—which is finally released in cinemas internationally on Friday, November 22nd—from me, and countless others, was hefty to say the least. It is not just about following up an 85-year-old movie classic, an enduring pop culture phenomenon that’s etched onto the hearts and psyches of so many of us, but also about fulfilling the hopes of the adoring fans of Schwartz and Holzman’s musical, Maguire’s novel, and of course the much-cherished L. Frank Baum books where it all began. I’m happy to report that it was well worth the wait. Chu’s Wicked is a marvel.
As the film opens, we’re immersed into an Oz that might not look exactly like the MGM film, but more importantly it feels like it, with some familiar touchstones. There’s even an enticingly brief aerial glimpse of Dorothy and friends as they skip back through the poppy fields towards the Emerald City having melted the Wicked Witch of the West as instructed by the Wizard. As Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande) reports the “good news” of the witch’s demise to the impressionable Munchkins with the brooding opening ensemble number “No One Mourns The Wicked”, her bubble is burst by a piercing question from one inconveniently inquisitive resident of Munchkinland: “Glinda, is it true you were her friend?”
What follows is the origin story of these two witches, Glinda (initially known as Galinda) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), and how they each came by their respective Good and Wicked epithets. Taking us back to young Elphy’s (Karis Musongole) childhood, we see how she was shunned for being born green by her own father, Governor Thropp (Andy Nyman), who favoured her younger, wheelchair-using sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode). All of which is succinctly covered, before we pick up with the characters on their first day at the rather snooty Shiz University, where much of Wicked Part One takes place.
The Clueless-meets-Harry Potter vibe of Shiz, sees the students reluctantly take foreboding history classes from a bespectacled wise old goat, Dr. Dillamond (voiced with affecting richness by Peter Dinklage), while Galinda is desperate to be taken under the tutelage of Shiz’s Dean of Sorcery Studies, Madame Morrible (a fabulously austere Michelle Yeoh), who is instead impressed by the raw but awesome magical potential that she sees in Elphaba. Immediately othered by her fellow students for the unusual colour of her skin—encouraged by the mean-spiritedness of the instantly “popular” Galinda—Elphaba is apparently unshakably confident in who she is, but quick to anger when provoked, leading to her, as yet unharnessed, magical powers to be unleashed à la De Palma’s Carrie. In private Elphy ponders about whether she would one day want to be “degreenified” in the enchanting daydream of a solo number that is “The Wizard and I”, that sees the young witch come face to face with a typically narcissistic rendering of the Wiz carved in a Mount Rushmore-like rock formation.
The rhythm of daily life at Shiz is thrown into a tizzy with the late arrival of a charming, infectiously carefree and impossibly handsome new student, Fiyero Tigelaar, The Crown Prince of Winkie County (a magnetic Jonathan Bailey) who is determined to be a bad influence on his fellow students. Fiyero gets one of the film’s most appealing numbers, brilliantly delivered by Bailey, “Dancing Through Life”, as the dashing Prince disturbs the peace of Shiz’s library to entice his classmates to join him for an evening of fun at “the most swankified place in town”, the Ozdust Ballroom. With Bailey gleefully taking on Christopher Scott’s characterful, silky smooth choreography, he goes on to offer us seductive glimpses of the more substantial man hiding behind his mask of superficiality.
Oz is a queer old place. Aside from all of the singing and dancing, camp aesthetics, and dashes of gender nonconforming fashion courtesy of costume designer Paul Tazewell, there is also explicit queerness in Fiyero seeming to catch the eye of every student regardless of their gender. Galinda’s gay bff Pfannee (Bowen Yang) swoons especially hard for him in an amusing exchange. In fact, Yang makes the most of every moment he’s on screen, dropping funny lines so naturally and effortlessly that they feel like they are improvised, like one memorable exit line: “we have to go and rouge our knees”. Bronwyn James’ snarky sidekick ShenShen makes for a great double act with Yang’s Pfannee as they flutter around and fawn over Galinda. Another aspect of the tale that is likely to resonate with a queer audience is Elphaba’s greeness and her relationship to that aspect of herself, which is handled in a way that means it can stand in for anything that society might deem as being “different”.
When the invitation to meet the Wizard finally arrives, with the yellow brick road not yet built, Elphaba and Galinda journey to the dazzlingly-rendered Ozian metropolis by the strikingly sleek Emerald City Express train. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the city, Elphy and Galinda take in the Wiz-omania show which features a delectable cameo by the two performers most closely associated with Wicked, reminding us why they will forever be cherished for originating their characters.
Stepping from behind the curtain, Jeff Goldblum brings a smug and sinister edge to his portrayal of the Wizard, along with a nonchalant charisma and his performance is among the film’s many treasures. One of the strengths of Wicked in all of its forms, is that along with its thrilling escapism, it has something timeless to say about the real world, albeit seen through an Ozian lens. The charlatan Wizard’s words about his strategy of creating a common enemy to unite against and distract the population of Oz are particularly chilling given their real-world parallels today.
The film’s casting, by Bernie Telsey, is impeccable throughout with a balance of some performers in supporting roles being chosen for their acting ability over their singing chops. Which does not work on stage so well, but is a wise move on film. Crucially there is captivating chemistry between Grande and Erivo at the centre of it all, with Grande bringing delicate nuance to Glinda’s seemingly impenetrable self-involved perkiness and Erivo delivering palpable emotional depth to her Elphaba that creates an intimacy that really draws us in. Backed up by their great acting choices, all of their musical numbers really soar, and the distinctiveness of their exceptional singing voices, culminating in the show-stopping Part One finale number “Defying Gravity”, makes for a potent and delightfully appealing blend.
Much as the film itself comes with the burden of expectation, so of course do the songs. Not so much ear-worms as soul-worms that tap into something deep within us, Schwartz’s numbers are among the finest, catchiest, and certainly among the most loved, in the contemporary musical theatre canon. Just pull up a stool at Marie’s Crisis piano bar in New York City on any given night of the week and wait for the pianist to start playing a number from the show and you’ll see what I mean. While “Defying Gravity” itself has become a gay anthem right up there with “I Am What I Am, “I Will Survive, and yes, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. Exquisitely orchestrated and beautifully sung, these songs have never sounded better.
Following the over-reliance on CGI and green screen in Sam Raimi’s best-forgotten Oz the Great and Powerful, I was concerned that Wicked might go that way too. But Chu helps to keep things feeling tangible and grounded in some sense of reality with gorgeously detailed practical sets by production designer Nathan Crowley, along with practical special effects by SFX supervisor Paul Corbould, while the CGI visual effects creations such as the blue monkeys have a convincing screen presence. Following her work on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s tick, tick… BOOM! and Chu’s In the Heights, cinematographer Alice Brooks brings real dynamism to Wicked, as does editor Myron Kerstein, who worked on both of those previous films with Brooks.
After the major box office success of the groundbreaking romcom Crazy Rich Asians and proving himself as a skilled director of musicals with the stunning In The Heights, Chu excels here in ensuring the spectacle of this sweeping epic never overwhelms the emotional connection we feel to the characters. Chu keeps things buoyant with plenty of laughs throughout, while maintaining the uneasiness of the material’s inherent darker undercurrent (with a tone that is somewhere between The Wizard of Oz and Return To Oz), as he builds towards the film’s breathtaking finale that both satisfies and leaves us wanting more from next year’s Part Two. Despite its 2 hours and 40 minute runtime (just five minutes shorter than the entire show runs on Broadway including an intermission), Wicked flys by and never feels padded or drawn out, even when Chu really takes his time over certain pivotal scenes. As the end credits rolled, I felt that same sense of exhilaration that I did when I saw the Broadway production for the first time all those years ago.
By James Kleinmann
Wicked – Part One opens in theaters on Friday, November 22nd, 2024. Wicked – Part Two is scheduled to arrive in theaters on Friday, November 21st, 2025.
