(Bloomberg) -- Many of us assumed a Wicked movie was never going to actually happen. There had been talk of turning the beloved Broadway musical about the Wicked Witch of the West into a movie at least as far back as 2010. Even after the project was formally announced in 2016, it’s taken nearly a decade for the film to actually hit theaters.
Almost miraculously, all that time has paid off. Despite the delays, despite the questionable choice to split the story into two parts (yes, this movie is technically Part One),Wicked is largely a triumph, a spectacle designed to appeal to longtime fans of the show and draw in new ones for huge box-office numbers.
In a crowded Thanksgiving market, which also includes Gladiator II and Moana 2, Wicked looks like it’s going to be the main attraction. This will be good news for Universal Pictures, which is riding high after becoming the highest-grossing studio of 2023, a feat capped by winning best picture for Oppenheimer. So far this year, Disney Co. has it beaten with a winning streak that includes Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2. Wicked could be the juice Universal needs to pull ahead again.
The film, directed by Jon M. Chu, is emotionally effective and sumptuous and features a revelatory performance from the pop star Ariana Grande. She glows on screen, finding comic moments wherever she can as chirpy Galinda, with a golden age of Hollywood flare for performance. Sure, sometimes the film is a little cheesy and overwrought, but that’s always been Wicked’s sweet spot.
If, for some reason, you haven’t been cornered by an eager Broadway obsessive belting out “Defying Gravity” in the past 20 years and are unaware whatWicked is about, the plot goes something like this: Elphaba, played here by the silken-voiced Cynthia Erivo, is a girl with green skin who arrives at Oz’s Shiz University (just a regular college, though this is Oz, so … everyone is magic) and is forced to be roommates with Galinda, a perky blond queen bee. They immediately hate one another, sing about it, and then become friends. Meanwhile, the talking animals in Oz—it’s a thing, just go with it—are mysteriously losing their ability to speak and being confined to cages. Elphaba senses foul play afoot and plans to use a long-sought-after audience with the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) to speak her mind. There’s also a love triangle involving bad boy Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey, dreamy in tight pants), who seems like the perfect match for popular Galinda but secretly has eyes for Elphaba.
But are you really here for the plot? You are not. You are here for the lavish, kinetic song and dance numbers, written by composer Stephen Schwartz.
Chu, who also directed In the Heights and has a knack for staging big musical sequences, pulls out all the stops here. As Fiyero croons his seductive “Dancing Through Life” in Shiz’s library, the ensemble performs acrobatics in a rotating bookcase. During the tune when Galinda and Elphaba belt about their loathing for one another (“What Is This Feeling?”), Chu employs a split screen that feels like something out of Bye Bye Birdie to show them hilariously warring. Later, he creates a delightful pink fantasia for Grande to bop around during “Popular,” then uses an intricate diorama while applying shadows effectively in the Wizard’s “A Sentimental Man.” (Don’t know these songs? You will—they’ll be stuck in your head for months, maybe even years, if you have children.)
The frame in the movie is often filled with dancers, who occupy the impressive fantasyland sets. Production designer Nathan Crowley takes the familiar aesthetic of Oz from the 1939 Judy Garland film and makes it a bit more florid— the buildings almost swirl with ornate patterns.
Frustratingly, Chu sometimes undercuts his own excellent work by excessively backlighting his images, leaving them undersaturated, but most of the time you can simply get swept up in the choreography.
Still, Wicked’s biggest appeal is in its individual performances. It is a marvel of casting: Erivo, a Tony winner for The Color Purple, gives Elphaba a tenderness and sorrow that seeps away as she learns to embrace her power. When she sings ballads like “The Wizard and I” or “I’m Not That Girl,” her clear tones sound deeply vulnerable. Elsewhere, Bailey makes a captivating cad with a heart of gold; Michelle Yeoh is regal as the imperious teacher Madame Morrible; and Goldblum is a mix of sweet and sleazy as the Wizard.
And yet it’s Grande who steals the show. In many ways,Wicked: Part One, which covers the first act of the musical, is a better showcase for Galinda than it is for Elphaba. (Yes, Galinda later changes her name to the more familiar Glinda.) Galinda is both the co-lead and the comic relief, and Grande plays her spoiled haughtiness with a dash of innocence. She flings her tiny body around and tosses her hair flirtatiously at Fiyero, while imbuing the melodies with hints of her own pop star vocal inflections. And while Grande nails the comedy, she also allows Galinda’s insecurities to creep into her eyes, which is what makes her performance so affecting.
It’s worth noting that Wicked does end with a “to be continued” card after Erivo performs Elphaba’s bone-shaking war cry, leaving the audience in awe. And though there is more story to come, you don’t leave feeling shortchanged. The characters are given rich arcs that should keep fans satiated until (the invariably much darker) part two drops next year. Wicked will likely never win over skeptics or those who have an allergy to earnestness, but longtime devotees of the admittedly silly but big-hearted musical will fall in love bringing newcomers into their club. It’s just the dose of magic that Hollywood needs this season.
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