Did you hear the story about a great and powerful wizard who lives in Emerald City that might grant you a wish? Well, of course, because 1939’s ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is one of the most enduring musical fantasy stories of all time. Gregory Maguire’s 1993 novel, the long-running Broadway show by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, and now John M. Chu’s big screen adaptation ‘Wicked,’ brings us back to the time before the Yellow Brick Road. What if it just happened that the wicked witch of the West wasn’t so evil after all?
A main triumph of Chu’s retelling of this story is the care that is given in making the main characters feel distinct in their mannerisms and musical numbers. We know how that story ends — a certain witch of green complexity meets her demise by water in a bucket, the qualities characters wished for were inside them all along, and a girl gets to go home after a sprawling adventure. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s portrayals of witches Elphaba Thropp and Galinda Upland feel alive and relatable. Inside the story of talking animals, magic, and futuristic cities is a story of unlikely friendship, being comfortable in your own skin, and who controls the meaning of destiny. It’s a colorful palette of thematic beats, even if the film itself elects sometimes to sap the brightness out of the world it builds.
Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu.
Elphaba is not like other children, given that she has green skin due to her mother’s unfortunate affair with a salesman paired with the consumption of green elixir. She grows up being ridiculed by her peers and shunned by her father, the mayor of Munchkinland. Elphaba also doubles as the primary caretaker of her younger sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), who uses a wheelchair to help with her disability. But Elphaba is indeed a particular person with powers that seem to come out when she’s upset. Everything starts to change when Elphaba escorts Nessarose to Shiz University (think a big school of sorcery). When a big commotion happens, and Elphaba’s powers reveal themselves, headmistress Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) stands up and takes notice. As Morrible takes on Elphaba as a personal pupil, enter Galinda (Grande), the popular, privileged, and highly upbeat aspiring sorceress. She’s not too fond of Elphaba, but both women become reluctant roommates at the college.
L to R: Jeff Goldblum is The Wizard of Oz, and Michelle Yeoh is Madam Morrible in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
Opposites don’t necessarily attract at first, but each character has something the other character lacks. There’s a natural movement to them finding common ground and becoming friends that aren’t lost within the many side plots and characters to be introduced throughout the 2-hour and 40-minute runtime. Writers Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox strike a balance and ensure Erivo and Grande shine in their characters’ construction. Grande exhibits impeccable comedic timing and uses her singing voice to meet her character’s personality. “Popular,” where Galinda takes it upon herself to provide Elphaba with a makeover, is a great example. Erivo is provided the space to passionately sing to Elphaba’s desire to belong in a world that rejects her. Numbers such as “The Wizard and I” and “Defying Gravity” have emotional weight and provide empathy for a (soon to be) infamous character. A combination of practical sets and VFX work can sometimes be a mixed bag. The towns of Munchkinland and Emerald City were put together with care, and you can tell when contrasted with some very noticeable special effects. Not all computer graphics are bad; they sometimes appear uninspiring and contrast with what the scenes try to invoke. However, at times, clever usages of pink and green try to exhibit a bit of individualism between Elphaba and Galinda.
RELATED MOVIE REVIEWS:
‘A Real Pain’ Review: Jesse Eisenberg’s Exquisitely Constructed Empathy Session
Chu takes much of what he used in his 2021 adaptation of “In The Heights” and applies it to Wicked with the scale of the musical numbers and choreography. Everything feels vibrant, and the camera aspects are positioned in a way that captures the many extras within the scene. One concern in this adaptation is that it is the first part of a two-part story. The stageplay itself is that exact runtime – what else could there be to say about this story? That’s where ‘Wicked’ has many moving motivations, which may have deterred the film if the main ones weren’t so strong. Towards the film’s middle, Prince Fireyo (Jonathan Bailey) enrolls at the school and automatically pulls everybody to his charismatic center. Galinda and Elphaba fall for him in their unique way, but neither has caught on to the fact that they’ll both be dueling for his heart.
L to R: Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba, and Ariana Grande is Glinda in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu
It presents a problem that the second film has to parse through. Galinda wants to be with Fireyo, but she also wants to master magic. Elphaba also wants Fireyo’s hand, but another side story takes her attention. The school, for whatever reason, no longer wants animal teachers as a part of a bigger conspiracy where they are collectively losing their voices. A goat professor named Doctor Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage) sounds the alarm on this, and Elphaba feels a responsibility to help because she, too, feels like an outcast. A specific line within that subplot says, “The best way to bring folks together is to give them an enemy,” which, given current events, might feel timely. The climax leads us to the “all-powerful Oz” (played by Jeff Goldblum in all his Goldblum glory) with a collision of exposition and loose ends to tie up in the next installment.
If that sounds like a lot, it is, and there are two possible ways that you’ll feel about it (perhaps both like I did). There’s the feeling of looking forward to how the next installment will get us to the Wizard of Oz that we know it love — and boy, is there a lot to wrap up. You’ll get a chuckle from the film, saying this is “the whole story” with another installment on the way. Then there’s wanting to deepen some character relationships along with overarching benchmarks this film stops through. For an almost three-hour adaptation, it’s paced at times when things are thrown at you in rapid succession — often feeling the need to repeat things rather than lead us to wonder about what is next. Still, the performances push ‘Wicked (Part 1) over the proverbial finish line in a very faithful translation of the story many know and come to love. Let’s hope there is still magic on the way to complete the monumental task set of closing the gaps presented in this “beginning.”
