With a supernova star power and marketing run rivaling the unprecedented publicity of 2023’s “Barbie” movie, it was hard to believe that the “Wicked” movie, based on the critically acclaimed Broadway show, could meet, or let alone, exceed the hype. While there are plenty of varying opinions on its quality, director Jon M. Chu did an incredible job of bringing the first act of the emotional musical to the silver screen.
As Glinda (Ariana Grande), the popular Good Witch of the North, and her people celebrate the death of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the Wicked Witch of the West, it is revealed that the two rivals were once friends. The rest of the story is a flashback, starting with Elphaba as a teenager and a socially outcast, green-skinned student going to Shiz University to help her handicapped sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode) move in. Due to confusion, she becomes roommates with the popular girl, Glinda, although the two despise each other.
Starring Grande as Glinda ended up as a great decision as she perfectly tied together the ability to sing at an extremely high level to acting at a box office breaker level. While Erivo is primarily known for her acting, she has a strong background in music, and was able to seamlessly raise her level to compliment Grande. While some argued that the prominence of these stars overshadowed the film’s main story, the actors carried themselves like they were doing a tribute to the Broadway show, rather than taking away from the film with their star power.
Despite the cast having wildly different backgrounds—ranging from actors, musicians or beyond that, it seemed like the primary focus was making sure all the actors had chemistry with each other. If that was indeed the intention, Chu and his team did an incredible job of assembling this group together because it is a huge part in the film’s success. There was very little wiggle room for stuff to feel forced in this film, and there were no clear instances of that being the case.
One of the major questions going into the release of the film was whether or not characters or scenes from the show would be altered or removed. However, nothing was cut, and character backstories and scenes were expanded. For example, a scene was added from Elphaba’s childhood, showing how she was raised by an animal nanny. Not only did this show part of her broken relationship with her father and Nessarose, but it also served to explain her deep passion for animals. Minor changes in the film ended up making the movie, which only covers act one of the show, double the length of the entire stage production itself.
Many fans also wondered if there would be new songs added to the film, or if some would be cut due to other changes to the movie’s plot. Luckily for the die-hard fans, no songs were removed outright, and some were even extended. Most notably, the widely popular “Defying Gravity” was changed and given more time to signify its importance to the story. While some were disappointed that Part One added no new musical numbers, Chu and some cast members have confirmed that Part Two will feature “a couple” new songs when it releases on Nov. 21, 2025.
The main criticism of this movie is that it was extremely long and felt stretched, specifically because of the aforementioned fact that it was just act one, but twice as long as the show’s first act. Some felt that there simply was not enough content in the story for this to be a good thing. But the truth is that it was vital to add more depth to the characters, which is what a vast majority of the added time went to.
Overall, “Wicked” is a great film that does a great job of bringing a new audience to the classic production. It is well worth the price of admission, so much so that many will be waiting through what will (probably) be the longest intermission in the history of theatre to find out how Chu, Grande, Erivo and others finish the story.
