Despite having one of the most concentrated marketing campaigns of the decade so far, “Wicked” drew a significant amount of hesitation. A lengthy runtime, big casting decisions, longtime delays, a massive budget, muddy visuals and more drew a not insignificant amount of apprehension toward the film. I know “Wicked” concerned me leading up to its release.
In theory, it shouldn’t have. I adore the songs and world of the original stage production, and I always clamor for more movie musicals. Director Jon M. Chu (a USC alum) boasts a strong track record as of late — “In the Heights” proves him a more than capable musical director, while “Crazy Rich Asians” shows a flair for spectacle. Why wouldn’t I want this show to finally get its cinematic debut in these hands?
I had a few reasons. To begin with, the decision to split “Wicked” into two films left me hesitant. Though the first act certainly comes with a natural break, I wondered if protracting the two halves would do each a disservice. The announcement that the first film carried a nearly three-hour runtime alone (comparable to the length of the entire stage production) heightened my concern.
“Wicked” also spent a significant amount of time in development hell. Talk of a “Wicked” film adaptation propagated for more than a decade, with potential release dates going back to at least 2016. Delays mounted until Chu finally officially signed on in early 2021.
The casting of Ariana Grande as Galinda (or Glinda, as she’s later called) made me less than thrilled as well. With nothing against the clearly talented performer, I worried that the celebrity’s brand would overpower the character being portrayed.
The closer we got to the release of “Wicked,” I found myself falling into an almost paradoxical mix of anticipation and doubt. I truly wanted the film to be good, and I couldn’t wait to see it. Yet each bit of marketing gave me a creeping suspicion that I’d only find disappointment.
It thrills me to say that suspicion was dead wrong.
“Wicked” (or “Wicked: Part One” as the film’s credits refer to it) adapts the iconic musical of the same name to the big screen for the first time. Chu directs the film while Winnie Holzman (author of the stage production’s book) writes the screenplay alongside Dana Fox. USC alum Alice Brooks serves as director of photography.
“Wicked,” based on a novel by Gregory Maguire, reimagines the world of L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” from the perspective of two central characters: the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. The musical takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to exploring the characters’ pasts, here called Elphaba and Galinda respectively, portraying them as enemies-turned-friends who met as college roommates at Shiz University. Like the book, it questions the nature of morality, highlighting how relative the “good” and “bad” can be.
Both of these roles leave large ruby slippers to step into. Both Idina Menzel, who originated Elphaba on Broadway, and Kristin Chenoweth, who originated Galinda, were nominated for Best Actress in a Musical at the 2004 Tony Awards (Menzel took home the win). Joining the aforementioned Grande (who here uses her full name of Ariana Grande-Butera) as Galinda is Cynthia Erivo, a powerhouse vocalist, Tony winner, Grammy winner, Daytime Emmy winner and Academy Award nominee, as Elphaba.
Like with the original Broadway production, these casting decisions mark one of “Wicked’s” greatest strengths. The film largely rests on the shoulders of Erivo, who takes one of cinema’s most iconic villains and spins her into an empathetic outcast. As perhaps the only character in the first film with a full arc and semi-complex characterization (this is a universe of archetypes), “Wicked: Part One” could fall apart without a compelling Elphaba to bring audiences along. Erivo proves equal to the task. She shows tremendous chemistry with Grande-Butera, and the two vocalists command every musical performance.
On the topic of chemistry, one cannot discuss the successes of “Wicked: Part One” without paying tribute to Jonathan Bailey. Bailey portrays Fiyero, a handsome, charming peer of Elphaba and Galinda who immediately enters a love triangle with the pair during their time at Shiz. Every moment Fiyero is on-screen is a moment worthy of a swoon, with his big musical sequence, “Dancing Through Life,” being one of the movie’s crowning achievements. Bailey’s charisma is simply undeniable, injecting even more life into the film as soon as he rides in.
And now I must eat crow, for I have seen the error of my ways. Whatever reservations I had about Grande-Butera popped like a bubble moments after she first entered the frame. Far from allowing her brand to overtake her, the actress-turned-popstar-turned-actress disappears into the role of Galinda, giving the film constant levity. It shouldn’t be surprising that she slips so fully into a theater kid’s dream role — Grande-Butera got her start on Broadway at 15 before making her way to Nickelodeon and pop stardom. Grande-Butera’s hilarious turn steals every second of screentime, while still bringing out genuine emotion when needed. I can very easily see her becoming the Ken of this year’s Oscar race, landing her a Supporting Actress nomination in 2025.
And play well it should. “Wicked: Part One” scratches the itch of big movie musicals that I crave, films it seems that we rarely get and are even more rarely successful anymore. Both Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” and Chu’s “In the Heights” are terrific films, yet neither one met much box office success. While this partly has to do with them being 2021 releases (and “In the Heights” streaming on HBO Max the day of its release), there’s more to it than that. Lately, movie studios seem to actively discourage the marketing of their films as musicals, with “Wonka,” “The Color Purple” and “Mean Girls” hiding their showtune style to various degrees in the past year. It’s a disappointing trend that does a disservice to one of film’s greatest and most classic genres.
“Wicked,” thankfully, does anything but hide its roots. While talking to USC’s Theatrical Film Symposium class, Chu mentioned seeing “Wicked” for the first time with his mother while in college, the production still in its preview stages. Once he started directing films, Chu said he checked in every so often to see if he could take a shot at his dream project.
Chu fully commits to presenting this story as a musical spectacle to the highest degree, leaning into all of the production’s strangeness, silliness and theatricality. The vocals are strong, the dancing is broad and the sets are entirely immaculate. This truly feels like a film he’s been building toward his entire life, and he helms it with complete sincerity.
With the recent struggles of the genre, all eyes are on “Wicked: Part One” to see if an unashamed live-action movie musical can once again bring in big crowds. I imagine audiences will have a hard time not being swayed by the sincerity Chu and his team demonstrate on-screen. I wouldn’t call “Wicked: Part One” the best movie musical of all time, but it’s almost certainly the biggest.
In general, I expect “Wicked: Part One” to do quite well on the nomination front. While I do not anticipate it being a Best Picture winner (or stealing many technical categories from films like “Dune: Part Two”), I would be surprised if a big, well-made musical riffing on a beloved cinema classic didn’t play well to Academy voters.
Unfortunately, I found the visual style of “Wicked: Part One” to be the movie’s weakest element. While I do think the trailers often highlighted some of the worst shots the film has to offer, there are several scenes where the majesty of the stagecraft and costuming feel blurred by dull colors and graying backlighting. It’s a shame, as many of the practical sets are astounding from a craft standpoint (and look stunning in behind-the-scenes imagery). “Wicked: Part One’s” stronger elements quickly allowed me to look past this, but I find it a shame that one has to overlook the colors in a film building off of one of cinema’s most iconically colored movies.
The film ends, as advertised, with the performance of “Defying Gravity,” the act one conclusion of “Wicked.” Chu has stated that this song motivated the breaking of the film into two parts. How can you immediately send audiences into another hour of film following such a bombastic, emotional number? Instead, Chu and company build in a year-long intermission, with “Wicked: Part Two” currently slated for Nov. 21, 2025.
Here, Chu, Erivo and Grande-Butera make “Defying Gravity” a — literal — show-stopper. Though the song slightly suffers from being greatly extended (fitting more dialogue and action into an already lengthy number), it’s hard to deny the powerful note the film leaves off on.
As Elphaba defies gravity, ascending to the mantle of the Wicked Witch of the West, Grande-Butera, in a particularly powerful moment from the actress, wails, “I hope you’re happy.” I can’t speak for Elphaba, but I suspect audiences will be.