Josh Reviews Wicked

Wicked is, as you all probably know, the first of a two-part film adaptation of the broadway musical.  (The film was written by Winnie Holzman & Dana Fox and directed by John M. Chu.  It’s based on the musical Wicked, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Ms. Holzman. The musical was an adaptation of the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire.  That novel, of course, was based on L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the famous 1939 film adaptation The Wizard of Oz.  Got all that?)

I thought the Wicked film was fantastic!

My first question, going in, was why the heck was this movie two hours and forty minutes long??  It’s only half of the story, and it has a run-time longer than the entire Broadway show?  That seemed crazy to me, but having watched the film, I must say that Mr. Chu and his team made all the right choices with this adaptation.  They’ve chosen to follow the Broadway show very carefully, without cutting any songs or major plot-lines.  They also smartly realized that while a Broadway show can condense events, in a film you need to give those events the space to breathe in order for them to land emotionally with the audience.  Had this movie been an exact adaptation of the show, it’d have felt like a Cliff’s Notes version of the story.  But the film smartly allows the story and the characters the space to unfold at what feels like a natural pace.  This means that the audience is just as sucked into the story and the characters as the filmmakers want us to be.

(I’ve been asked a few times if one has to have seen the play to appreciate the movie.  Often that is the case with adaptations, that condense the source material in ways that can be confusing.  But the film’s relaxed pacing and long run-time mean that precisely the opposite is happening here, and one can fully enjoy the story and connect with the characters even without having seen the original show.)

Mr. Chu’s smart, energetic direction (and smart editing by Myron Kerstein) mean that even though this film is so long, it flies.  I’ve sat through movies of this length that were a slog, where I felt every minute of the run-time.  But this Wicked film zips along at a rapid clip.  (The only time I ever got a smidge bored and started thinking about the clock was just for a minute or two, after Elphaba and Glinda enter the Emerald City.  But then things picked right up again and carried us straight through to “Defying Gravity” and the film’s explosive and emotional climax.)  This is very impressive.

I’m not much of a Broadway musical fellow, and even I know that Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth were iconic in the original show as Elphaba and Galinda (Glinda).  Trying to cast new actors in these roles must have been a chore.  It’s incredible how well the filmmakers succeeded in casting Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande for the film.  I completely and immediately accepted them in these roles.  The danger of a film adaptation of a famous show is that it feels like a pale shadow of the original, and the audience notices and winces and every change.  But Ms. Erivo and Ms. Grande own these roles from minute one.  I bet there are a lot of Wicked fans out there for whom these two are now indelibly these characters.  I’ve been a fan of Cynthia Erivo’s ever since her tremendous performance in Bad Times at the El Royale.  (If you missed that film back in 2018, it’s definitely worth your time to revisit it now!  Ms. Erivo even got to demonstrate her vocal chops in that film, in the show-stopping “You Can’t Hurry Love” scene.)  I’ve paid attention to Ms. Erivo’s work ever since; it’s fun to see her smash her way into the spotlight with her astonishing performance as Elphaba here.  Ms. Erivo has to hold her own, even when playing the shy, timid version of Elphaba — and sharing the screen with superstar Ariana Grande — and she succeeds flawlessly.  Her performance builds in power and intensity until she brings the house down with “Defying Gravity” in the climax.  Amazing.  Then there’s Ariana Grande.  I know she is a huge, huge star, but I must admit I’m not much of a fan of her music and I didn’t come into this film with particularly high hopes.  So I was blown away by how good she is here.  Of course she can sing.  But she’s so funny as Galinda!!  I wasn’t expecting that!  She nails every comedic moment.  (The way she’d toss her hair was endlessly funny to me.)  She’s so good at playing the spoiled, snooty version of Galinda, and at the same time pitching her performance perfectly so that the audience falls in love with her at the same time as we’re falling in love with Elphaba.  Very impressive.  (And her rendition of “Popular” is so great; that song has been stuck in my head ever since seeing the film.)

The film belongs to those two powerhouses, but what’s the mark of a great film is that every supporting role is also note-perfect.  Jonathan Bailey is wonderful and so, so funny as the spoiled, rich, self-centered Fiyero; and Mr. Bailey shows us Fiyero’s depths of humanity mostly through the emotion in his eyes.  This is a top-notch performance.  Ethan Slater (who originated the role of Spongebob Squarepants in the Broadway musical) is very sweet and funny as Boq, the munchkin in love with Galinda who winds up in a relationship with Elphaba’s sister Nessarose.  Speaking of which, Marissa Bode is beautiful and soulful in that role.  (And it’s a pleasure to see a disabled actress playing this character.)  Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) is dazzling as Madame Morrible, the Dean of Sorcery at the school at which Elphaba and Galinda attend.  It feels to me like they beefed up this character’s role in the climax, and I was happy to see that.  Ms. Yeoh is a terrific on-screen presence.  Speaking of terrific on-screen presences, we come to the great Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz.  What perfect casting; Mr. Goldman plays the character’s quirkiness to perfection, and can embody both his innocence and his menace.  He’s great.  Bowen Yang and Bronwyn James are very funny as Galinda’s two suck-up friends, Pfannee and Shenshen.  Peter Dinklage is wonderful as the voice of the goat Professor Dillamond.  And it’s fun to see Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth pop up to perform a song late in the film.

The film looks terrific.  The production design is wonderful.  Oz is brought to life full of color and character.  I loved the way the different locations were given such individuality; Munchkinland, Shiz University, the Emerald City… each looks gorgeous and unique.  The sets are extraordinary.  So are the costumes and props!  There’s a lot of creativity on display in all of Oz’s varied denizens.  There’s also some strong CGI work, from the talking animals to the flying monkeys, and it all meshes smoothly with the physical effects.  It’s all very well done.

The opening title makes clear that this is just going to be Part One of the story, but I was impressed by how satisfied I was when the end of the film arrived.  The structure of the original show helps with this; I felt like even if this was the only movie we were going to get, we’d gotten a full and complete story.  That’s cool… and, at the same time, I’m very excited for Part Two, and it’s going to be hard to wait a year for it!

Please support my website by clicking through one of my Amazon links the next time you need to shop!  As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  That means I’ll receive a small percentage from ANY product you purchase from Amazon within 24 hours after clicking through.  Thank you!