This past month, the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Wicked premiered in theatres to critical acclaim. The 2003 musical and novel served as a prologue or backstory to the events of 1939’s movie, The Wizard Of Oz. The film follows the early life and education of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, played by Cynthia Erivo, known for her work in The Color Purple and Harriet. Ariana Grande, the famous pop singer-songwriter, stars as Glinda the Good Witch. We’ll be providing some perspective on the film without revealing any of the major plot, so don’t worry about any spoilers!
Conor: Growing up with the Broadway soundtrack playing in my house, I had a fair amount of knowledge about the musical coming in to see it in theatres. I believe the medium of film serves itself well to the story, allowing for larger and more intricate settings and effects. At times, it also has the opposite effect, allowing smaller nuances to have an effect that they could not onstage. These changes come through in the “Dancing Through Life” choreography, allowing for massive rotating pieces and circular filming techniques to add depth to the piece.
Tony: Many of those elements in “Dancing Through Life” also stood out to me. The number was probably my favorite throughout the entire film. While I can’t call myself a lifelong Wicked fan, I can still definitely appreciate the choreography and creative use of dynamic props, both of which contributed to the overall ‘magic’ feel of the film.
The Wicked released this year was only a “Part 1”, and the finale to the timeless story is in the works for its 2025 release.
Conor: With this choice to divide the story, it creates some of the issues I have with the movie. While being incredibly entertaining and engrossing, the film boasts a 2 hour 40 minute run time. This makes the movie far longer than most others, and can make it difficult for many to watch. I also feel that the film adaptation lessened Fiyero, the love interest’s, impact and character. He creates serious tension in the movie, which is a great source of conflict, but then is abandoned and not seen until (presumably) the next part. This makes a lot of his exposition and interaction with the main characters feel a bit unnecessary.
Tony: To be completely honest, I was not aware of the runtime of the movie until I came to the realization midway-through that I would not make it home in time for dinner… With that in mind, I recommend choosing an appropriate time to watch the film. Despite being hungry for a large portion of the movie, I found that I was never willing to leave to go get food because of the significance in each scene. The writers manage to avoid wasting almost any time over the 2 hours and 40 minutes, aside from some scenes seemingly irrelevant to the conclusion of part 1. As someone who (still) doesn’t know what’s to come in the plot of part 2, I feel that the end of part 1 falls short of being a good cliffhanger, and ends up being a little abrupt.
The music however, is a phenomenal piece of the adaptation. Both Erivo and Grande are stellar throughout the movie and close out the film with a remarkable rendition of Stephen Schwartz’s “Defying Gravity”. We appreciated the cameos by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, the original actors for Elphaba and Glinda respectively. This felt like a nice way to pay homage while keeping it relevant to the story. The film and play both tackle heavy and important topics, providing commentary on race, equality, propaganda, and belonging while still keeping the story fun. This is a challenging thing for many films to do, but we believe Wicked walks the line very well. Overall the movie was great and we would recommend it to everyone, regardless of whether you are already a Wicked fan or not!
