The long-awaited movie “Wicked” is set to premiere today, November 22nd. It will be the first of a two-part series adaptation, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande with the second installation premiering in November 2025.
This movie is based off the Broadway musical by the same name. It opened in 2003 starring Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristen Chenoweth as Glinda. Its success was immediate, winning three Tony Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards and a Grammy Award. The musical tells the story of two friends attending Shiz University in Oz and how their actions shaped the world of Oz (as seen in both the book and movie “The Wizard of Oz”). The soundtrack is amazing, with the most famous song being “Defying Gravity” but others are just as good and show off the vocal ranges of the actors. “Popular” is Glinda gloating to Elphaba and explaining how she was going to change Elphaba to be better accepted since she stuck out for being green. Elphaba and Glinda arrive in the Emerald City to meet the Wizard (played by Joel Grey) in “One Short Day,” and “Dancing Through Life” is a perfect introduction to Fiyero and his blasé attitude toward life as well as being able to show the dynamics between the main characters.
What most people don’t know is that Wicked is loosely based off the first book of four by Toby Maguire, “the Wicked Years.” The last three books were published after the musical premiered. There are many differences between the book and musical, as expected, and characters are added or replaced, but both are very good stories.
As someone who believes the best movie musicals are professional videos of the stage production, the Wicked movie will be interesting to see the spectacle of magic with cinematic special effects which may be over the top or not as exciting for the suspension of disbelief from the stage. Based on the trailers, it appears as though much of the story line from the musical is kept, which will be nice to see, though in my mind, nothing can compare to the Original Broadway Cast soundtrack.
Love it or not, I am sure that “Wicked” will be the talk of the school until the next big movie comes out.
Kathryn McElfresh
Staff Reporter
