*Warning: this article contains spoilers*
On Nov. 22nd, movie theaters filled with enthusiastic Broadway lovers anticipating the famous musical turned into a movie, Wicked. Wicked is a musical that takes place before the Wizard of Oz and follows Elphaba the wicked witch and Glinda the good witch, as they room together at “Shiz University”. They are polar opposites, but their initial rivalry turns into an unlikely friendship. Because of the intriguing plot, Wicked is the overall best selling show on Broadway and had the highest-grossing global debut of a Broadway adaptation. Because it is so popular, it is bound to have different judgements on how it was made. With this in mind, I will share my opinion on different aspects of the film.
Unlike most remakes, instead of omitting things from the film, the producers of Wicked expanded on aspects of the original. The movie is very long, in fact, part one of the adaptation is longer than the entirety of the play. But, I think this expansion in time was necessary and beneficial for the film. The movie started off at the end of the Wizard of Oz after the wicked witch had died, then went back as Glinda was explaining how they used to be friends. This scene reminded viewers of how the story will ultimately end while keeping anticipation for the second half of the movie to see how it turned out that way. Unlike the play, the movie also provided scenes of Elphaba growing up, giving viewers clips of her being bullied for being green and starting to use her powers. I loved this addition, I think it gave viewers more sympathy for the character and helped relate to her more. It also gave background to why Elphaba is so passionate about animal rights, as she was raised by one, and shows she wanted to meet the Wizard from a young age. I loved these in-depth moments.
The only time this expansion seemed unnecessary to me was towards the end of the movie when Elphaba and Glinda go to meet the Wizard. Upon this introduction, there is a long meeting period before they start talking about powers and revealing his true immoralities. This was really the only part of the movie where I felt bored, which is impressive for almost a three hour long movie. Although the intention of this scene was to give viewers more backstory of the spell book used, it felt overshadowed by the entertaining scene before of the duo entering the city for the first time and the suspenseful scenes after as it is the climax of the story. It is something that could be easily looked over by anyone watching. The only seemingly interesting part was him asking which color he should make the brick road, where Glinda replied yellow, relating to the famous yellow brick road from the Wizard of Oz.
Another addition to the movie was Elphaba and Glinda going to see a show called “Wizomania” during the song “One short day” which starred the original Broadway cast, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. This scene is filled with singing and dancing and allows the original actresses to share a moment and pass the torch to the newest versions of Glinda and Elphaba. This part of the movie paid honor to who brought the play popularity as they come face-to-face with the new actresses, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
Although there have been controversies with the casting of Erivo as Elphaba and Grande as Glinda, in my opinion it could not have been more perfect. Their voices harmonized perfectly and you could see the connection they had off screen throughout the movie. A lot of the controversies have come from the two being overly emotional during interviews, as seen across multiple social media platforms. While this does seem to be a bit much, I think it really shows how connected they are with their characters and each other as well as their respect and love for the musical itself. Grande’s facial expressions in one of the beginning scenes “No One Mourns the Wicked” alone displayed how good of a choice she was as you could immediately tell that she was mourning Elphaba while trying to hide it and thinks of herself as the real “wicked” one.
The switch from a play to a movie provides lots of changes that I think made Wicked even better because it highlighted more songs and scenes. One of my favorite parts of the movie was when Erivo and Grande sing “What is this feeling?” as it changes time periods and scenes throughout them singing. The time periods changing showed how their feeling towards each other lasted a long time and was not just in one specific moment, which helped the audience understand their complicated relationship.This song seemed trivial in the play compared to the movie. There was a similarity in the scenes of the song “The Wizard and I” as Elphaba as visions of the future. These visions are a form of tragic foreshadowing: she believes everyone is cheering for her doing something good, but in reality it’s the cheering when she was killed. Also the scene at the end of the movie where Elphaba is falling before she gets on the broom was in slow motion and even flashed back to her childhood self. This made the scene more dramatic and interesting. Overall, the ability that the movie version of Wicked had to contain more settings and quick changes between them really made it entertaining and added another layer to the classic story.
Although the Broadway musical will always hold a special place in my heart, the movie was wonderful and even more than I hoped it would be. It had every aspect of the play and even expanded on and made things more interesting. Although there are a few additions, I actually enjoyed almost all of them and thought they made the story even more complex. Everything about the production, casting, and homage for the original was phenomenal, and I would highly recommend seeing it!
