On paper, director Jon M. Chu seems to be the perfect filmmaker to bring the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical to the big screen. His filmography already includes a slew of musically-inclined films (two Step Up movies), blockbusters (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) and a rom-com about overcoming each other’s differences (Crazy Rich Asians), so who better to tell a story about a misunderstood green witch in the magical land of Oz? However, in translating the show from the stage, he makes certain choices that elicit more head-scratches than applause. Of course, what cannot be denied is the perfect casting of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who are so good as Elphaba and Galinda, respectively, that you’re willing to overlook the film’s missteps.
Based on Stephen Schwartz’ eponymous musical, Wicked tells the familiar story of The Wizard of Oz, but from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (Erivo). Indeed, it picks up right at the end of that story, with the citizens of Munchkinland celebrating the Witch’s death-by-melting (via bucket of water) at the hands of young Dorothy. Glinda the Good Witch (Grande) seemingly joins in on the fun, but is then asked about her rumoured past friendship with Elphaba. “Let me tell you the whole story,” she begins, revealing the Wicked Witch’s troubled childhood and, eventually, their time together at Shiz University.
The bulk of Wicked takes place at this university (“where knowledge meets magic”), and it’s here that we discover who these iconic characters were before The Wizard of Oz. Galinda (before she became “Glinda”) is the Queen Bee of this school: entitled, selfish, and very clearly knows what she wants. Elphaba, on the other hand, is more reserved and unsure, having been conditioned by her father, the Governor of Munchkinland, to shrink herself to avoid drawing any further unnecessary attention. In fact, she is only at Shiz University to see her younger sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), get settled in. (Unlike her sister, Nessarose is not green-skinned, but she is paraplegic, which makes their father overly protective.)
What’s evident early on is how gifted, yet untrained, Elphaba is in magic. So much so that she earns a spot in Madam Morrible’s (Michelle Yeoh) super-exclusive seminar that focuses on sorcery, a seminar into which Galinda wants more than anything to enrol (indeed, it’s the sole reason she came to this university). That Elphaba has the one thing Galinda wants serves as the foundation for their contentious relationship.
As expected, Elphaba and Galinda are the heart of the film, growing from enemies to the best of friends. However you may feel about the many emotional press tour moments that have gone viral between Erivo and Grande in the past couple of weeks, it’s clear that they have formed a strong bond with each other throughout this experience, and it translates beautifully onscreen. They are the perfect pair to be introducing these beloved characters to new audiences, their voices in perfect harmony and their chemistry unmatched.
Erivo is prismatic as Elphaba, channeling a quiet strength as she endures Galinda and her classmates’ bullying, but also hiding the all-too-human desire to be seen, understood, and loved by those around her. Her solo, “The Wizard and I,” is a sweeping musical sequence that demonstrates both Erivo’s vocal prowess and Elphaba’s interiority; we see her as a young and hopeful woman, and knowing that she eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West makes it all the more exciting to become invested.
Not unexpectedly, it’s Grande who naturally steals the show. Galinda is a showier role after all, giving Grande ample opportunity to display a wider range of skill — and she’s nothing short of perfection here. She defies expectation, bringing an expert level of physical comedy and exhibiting a more classical vocal style that you might not have anticipated from a pop star.
Both Erivo and Grande’s finest moments are the ones that require the most vulnerability — with us and with each other. The school dance scene, which marks a turning point in Elphaba and Galinda’s relationship, is arguably the best in all the film precisely because of the way in which both actresses connect with each other. It’s a quiet moment in a grand musical, but it soars above anything else the film shows.
Chu certainly owes a great debt to Erivo and Grande because their perfect performances save the film. To say Wicked is a mess would be unfair because it’s far from one, but certain choices are too glaring to ignore. For instance, there’s the decision to split the film into two parts, allegedly to ensure that none of the original stage-musical story gets cut and to grant certain moments, themes, and characters more breathing space. The irony, however, is that, in its attempt to cover everything, the film sometimes loses overall momentum just as it starts to take off.
In truth, there’s a lot of supporting characters to introduce — from Jonathan Bailey’s Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum’s The Wizard, and Ethan Slater’s Boq, to name a few — all of whom play important roles in both the larger Wicked story and lore of Oz. Particularly in Fiyero’s case, if these characters weren’t played by charismatic actors, it’s likely they would have fallen by the wayside. The romantic subplot between Boq and Nessarose, for example, feels more like a checkpoint the film has to run through (because it’ll be important in Wicked: Part 2) than an honest moment we should care about.
On top of that, there are many big themes and ideas that the film seems content to skate past that could have made for a more transcendent film, namely the Wizard’s borderline authoritarian regime built upon sewing distrust and division in Oz.
Perhaps most infuriating is the cinematography that, while appropriately grand in its scope (this is a magical musical, after all), is steadfast in its love for distractingly terrible lighting choices. Fiyero’s “Dancing Through Life” — clips of which were released in the last few weeks — is a main example of this, wherein the characters are backlit from the Oz sun peeking through Shiz U’s windows, thus casting shadows on their faces (and, by extension, performances). At the same time, the film opts for washed-out colours that sort of betray what made the The Wizard of Oz iconic in the first place.
As it stands, Wicked is a fine, if incomplete, spectacle that will delight musical theatre fans, Ariana Grande stans, and families who want to treat their kids to a magical experience. The Wizard of Oz is an irreplaceable cinematic text, whose importance cannot be understated, so it’s exciting to know that Chu’s film will likely inspire a new generation to look back at the 1939 film. Wicked doesn’t always take off, but when it does, it really is defying gravity.
