It’s the ultimate celebrity redemption tour, two decades in the making. In the history of pop culture, few characters have been imaged like the Wicked Witch of the West.
Oh, she must have been vindictive and scary in “The Wizard of Oz.” But something changed – like, really changed – on the way from the yellow brick road to the Great White Way. Since 2003, “Wicked” has drawn crowds every night at Broadway’s Gershwin Theater as green-skinned, misunderstood Elphaba rises on her broomstick and plays “Defying Gravity,” the enduring girl- It is a power song.
How many people have seen “Wicked”? Preliminary math suggests more than 15 million on Broadway alone. And now we have the movie “Wicked,” director Jon M. Chu’s gorgeous, faithful, impeccably crafted take on this origin story of Elphaba and her best friend – Glinda, who is very nice and very blonde. Ladies, welcome to Hollywood.
Before we get to what makes this film so good, there are just a few complex issues to consider. Will this “Wicked” musical, led by soulful Cynthia Erivo and sharp-witted, funny, hair-raising Ariana Grande, turn even theater haters into lovers?
Difficult question. Some people don’t agree with the music, and they should be allowed to live freely among us. But if the people who join in the song amuse you rather than irritate you, if the elaborate dance numbers in village squares and fantasy nightclubs and emerald-colored cities make perfect sense to you, and especially if you’re already into “Wicked.” “, then, you’ll probably like it. This film. If it sounds like they’ve made the best “Wicked” movie that money can buy – well, that’s because they have.
Much of the credit for this goes to Chu, who has said that he spent so many years working on “Wicked” that three of his five children were born during that period. Chu clearly has musical theater in her DNA, as we already knew from “In the Heights.” His actors don’t just awkwardly play composer Stephen Schwartz’s famous pop-show tunes: They run headlong into them, and sometimes blow the roof off with them.
Another question: Will people be disappointed after watching “To Be Continued” after two hours and 40 minutes, they finally realize they have to wait a year for Part 2? Tricky too. Certainly this could have been a movie. But then again, how would they have followed up with “Defying Gravity,” which brings down the curtain on Act 1 of the show? It’s hard to imagine just continuing the plot.
Yes, the plot: We begin with Grande’s Glinda landing on Munchkinland in her glittering bubble, which has been upgraded with a comfortable couch from 1939, to announce that, in fact, the Wicked Witch is dead.
But someone challenged Glinda: Is it true that you were her friend? Well, er, yes, Glinda replies cautiously. Their paths crossed – at school.
Q Inauguration day at Shi’z University. Glinda – well, for now, Galinda “with a Ga” – an aspiring magician, arrives in her pink suit looking like a mix of Grace Kelly and Elle Woods. She already has a fan base and a private suite.
Elphaba is also coming to help her sister Nessaros settle. The students become frightened after seeing his green skin. But when the powerful Madame Morrible, the dean of sorority at Shiz, glimpses Elphaba’s untapped magical powers, the green girl becomes her prized student.
Elphaba hopes that her witchcraft lesson will lead to a meeting with the all-powerful Wizard of Oz, whose glorious head is carved on the premises and she secretly hopes that he will grant her wish of being “de-greened”. Will do. She sings of this desire in “The Wizard and I”, a beautiful song that showcases Erivo’s distinctive soft vocals.
Another upbeat number, “What’s This Feeling?”, introduces “disgusting, pure hatred” between Elphaba and Glinda, who are forced to live in a room together. These early songs have an edgy appeal, and the best of all is “Dancing Through Life,” a banger. -up dance number that depicts the boyish charms of local prince Fiyero, who proudly urges fellow students to join him in his turmoil.
“Life is more painless for brainless people,” Bailey sings while accompanying acrobatic dancers on giant, coordinated “whirlwind wheels” in a glittering library. “Life is less painful when you are thoughtless.” Fiyero will evolve into something different in Part 2. For now, he woos Glinda and establishes a friendship with Elphaba.
But “Wicked” is about female friendship and the sudden, surprising bond between polar opposites Glinda and Elphaba — playful versus deep, pink-clad versus black-clad. In the delightful makeover song “Popular”, Glinda’s a tour de force, with Grande swinging from chandeliers, kicking like a can-can dancer, and gallivanting around a bedroom set with pink-sequin shoes out of nowhere. also come out.
Erivo’s tour de force? That would be the show’s huge signature song, “Defying Gravity”, arriving just when the mood has shifted to something more ominous. Both young women end up in the Emerald City, where they – or at least, Elphaba – have discovered that the Wizard is not powerful and beneficent, but, rather, like Jeff Goldblum: charming and vulnerable, with a big, dark secret.
“So if you care to find me,” Elphaba said, drawing the power of her broom, “look to the western sky.” After all, where is she going?
Hold on to that thought. Exactly for one year.
Universal Studios’ release “Wicked” is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for some scary action, thematic material and brief suggestive material. Running time: 160 minutes. Three out of four stars.
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