The best Broadway-to-screen adaption since "Chicago" (22 years ago!), WICKED doesn't just defy gravity, it blows the doors off of even the highest of expectations.
A little history of my experience with Stephen Schwartz blockbuster musical. In November of 2023, just after it opened on Broadway, I went to see it with the original cast. I didn't want to go, I hated "The Wizard of Oz" since I was a kid!
By intermission, with Idina Menzel soaring up into the air while belting out her most famous tune, I sat there with a dropped jaw. It was incredibly entertaining, funny, dramatic, it was a fantastic night of theater.
Over the next 15 years, every client wanted to see it on Broadway, we would go, then I took my wife, then my daughters...by the time I wrapped up, I had seen it 13 times. Hell, I could practically be an understudy by that point. But I'd had enough. I was good. Enough Wicked.
When the film was announced, I was excited Cynthia Erivo was playing Elphaba, she's been a powerhouse on screen, on stage, on TV, in everything I've seen her play.
But Ariana Grande as Glinda. Hmmm....ok.
I apologize Ariana.
She goes toe-to-toe with Erivo and together, they deliver one show-stopping moment after another in an acting and vocal performance that does Kristin Chenoweth proud.
If you don't know the story, it's based on Gregory Maguire's best selling book about what happened in Oz BEFORE the story we all know. Why is the Wicked Witch bad and how did Glinda get to be known as the "good" witch? What's up with those flying monkeys?
If you don't know Maguire's story, brilliantly adapted for both stage & screen by Winnie Holzman, then it's best you discover it on your own as it's got more twists and turns than the yellow brick road.
Nothing is quite what you expect and it's clever as hell.
Pile on top of that Schwartz's finest music and lyric work of his career and you've got a musical packed with now classic tunes, spanning the realm from hilarious to powerfully dramatic.
If you know and love the Broadway musical, then buckle up.
WICKED is bigger and better in every way possible.
Director Jon M. Chu created one of my favorite films of 2021, his criminally under seen adaption of Lin Manuel Miranda's first Broadway hit, "In The Heights".
With many times the budget and a dream cast this time out, Chu creates a WICKED that soars.
Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton, Broadchurch) steals every scene he's in as Fiyero, the brainless Prince who arrives at Elphaba and Glinda's school Shiz University.
Bailey's big number, "Dancing Through Life" pops with incredible sets by Gavin Fitch (Ready Player One) and his team, as well as fun choreography by Christopher Scott.
Like the dance scenes in Steven Spielberg's superb 2021 remake of "West Side Story", many players and their synchronized movements fill the entire, wide screen. There's no cheating with fast cuts or clever editing. The camera sweeps up and an entire village or university moves at once. It demands a second viewing, it all just comes at you so relentlessly and flawlessly.
Scott knows the Wicked stage audience as well, bringing in many of the intimate movements you experienced in live theater into his much wider canvas here.
Grande's big number, "Popular" is laugh out loud funny and a showcase for her dance talents and her incredible range. She knocks it out of the park.
Erivo's first big number "The Wizard and I" turns into an epic final camera shot that rivals Julie Andrews singing across that Swiss mountaintop in the classic opening shot of "The Sound of Music".
It's just one of many moments that showcase Chu's achievement in adapting this monster stage hit into a modern movie musical classic. There's a reverence in his framing and storytelling that somehow pays homage to the MGM Musicals of old while he blazes a modern new trail all his own.
Hearing the score and songs with a massive orchestra elevates the material dramatically.
Jeff Goldblum brings his appealing eccentricities and a sense of seductive menace to the Wizard and Michelle Yeoh is Madame Morrible, head mistress and professor of magic at Shiz, who recognizes her dream student in Elphaba.
At 2 hours and 40 minutes, the film never drags (although if you hate musicals, you will probably vehemently disagree. If that's you, why are you still reading this? LOL)
As just part one of the adaption, it has the same running time as the entire Broadway show, but it works perfectly. Chu has expanded back stories, exploring the world of Oz through mostly REAL, physical sets, including actual fields with 9 MILLION tulips planted for scenes in Munchkinland. That train to OZ is an actual train, not a CGI creation. With $150 million budget for each of the two parts of the film, every dollar is on the big screen. We saw it in IMAX and the production design fills every corner, as does the sound mix.
There are plenty of surprises here for fans of the play, but I won't ruin any of them here.
Erivo and Grande sang all their songs live during filming. It adds depth and power to every number. They are in the moment, and they will drag you in as well.
We went into the theater with high expectations and WICKED exceeded them on every level. As I mentioned at the beginning, the first time I saw Idina Menzel lift off the stage singing "Defying Gravity" it became a touchstone moment in my experience seeing live theater. How could they top that?
Trust me when I say, they do. The finale with Erivo soaring into the air left the packed house in our showing stunned and applauding as "To Be Continued...." filled the screen.
WICKED is one of the best films of 2024 and one of the best movie musicals ever made.
Defying gravity, indeed, it gets an A+.
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