Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande Invite Moviegoers Back to the Wonderful World of Oz
DIRECTOR: JON M. CHU/2024
The marketing campaign for Wicked: Part One has been a journey as eventful as Dorothy’s down the yellow brick road.
First of all: part one? This film runs the same length as the Broadway show, but it ends at the stage production’s intermission. An adaptation of one of Broadway’s longest-running shows based on one of the most beloved movies ever made comes with a built-in fan base, but the Internet has non-stop complained the trailers look visually cheap and undersell that it’s a musical. And though you can debate whether all of the coverage has been fair, it’s almost certain you’ve seen a negative headline in the last few months about its stars or PR snafus. (I doubt anyone was fired over the tone-deaf Kardashian-Jenner screening that missed the spirit of the film, but, uh, someone might have lost their job over that Barbie doll blunder.) With those tornadoes raining on the months of excellent press tour looks, Wicked: Part One pulls off something magical: It’s actually pretty good!
As a three-time Wicked audience member, I’ve been cautiously excited since this production got of the ground after years of rumored screen adaptations. Emphasis on the cautiously for all the reasons listed above and more, but for nearly every announcement that added to my skepticism—Ariana Grande, really?—Part One found a way to prove me wrong. Most encouragerizing (as the Ozians would say), it has justified its runtime. At 2 hours and 40 minutes, it runs an hour longer than The Wizard of Oz, but its pacing never lags. Perhaps “Dear Old Shiz” and “I’m Not That Girl” could have been cut, but the entire story would still have been a squeeze in a single film. Storytelling on stage moves faster and with fewer production details than cinema, which is a medium more adept at time travel, visual juxtaposition, and montage, allowing us to explore the darker side of Oz in a new way.
Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), Galinda (Grande), and Fiyero (charmer Jonathan Bailey) are still exploring the same ideas, now through songs with a smidge more breathing room and with more visual detail (like whimsical asymmetrical costumes) than the previous format allowed. (If you think they’ve adjusted any plotting to comment on our current moment—such as on about politicians who use their cult of personality to manipulate public opinion, target the vulnerable, and demand unquestioning loyalty—that’s always been there.) Part Two, expected to release the same time next year, will be the true test of this double feature’s success. (Just ask The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.) The second half features fewer and shorter songs, and most of the bangers are sung in the first half. The intermission serves as a significant time jump for the characters, and the tone shifts as they grapple with the nature of goodness, wickedness, truth, and power.
But for now, Part One is the spectacle you’d hope for a smash musical. Sequins! Vocal runs! Large-scale choreography! Director Jon M. Chu has graduated again and again to new levels as a director of dance, and I hope these larger-than-life set pieces give him the credit he should have earned for the underrated In the Heights, especially since he’s the only director trying musicals on this scale right now. Erivo and Grande are excellent successors to Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, hitting goosebump-worthy notes and harmonies. Just as thrillifying, none of the humor is lost. Grande leads the laugh count, but supporting players like Bowen Yang find moments to steal, too. In fact, this is about as perfectly cast a collection of actors as they come—who knew Jeff Goldblum could feel like a logical successor to Frank Morgan? And for those unimpressed by the paltry number of performances I’ve attended, look forward to an extended new sequence in the Emerald City, which inspired widespread applause in my screening.
The one criticism Wicked: Part One can’t overcome: It may not be hideoteous, but any scenes that aren’t fully lit are…confusifying. Several night scenes make me wonder if night vision goggles were used on set. Many daytime scenes are backlit with light sources in the middle of the frame so bright they wash out the actors’ faces. And somehow, there are scenes that struggle with both of those problems—were some of the crew wearing the night vision and others wearing sunglasses? Another concern: Modern audiences expect talking animals to be animated with CGI, but I wonder if we will still think they look sharp in a decade or two. Even with painted sets, men in monkey suits, and muslin tornadoes, The Wizard of Oz looks better 85 years later—there really is no place like that Oz.