The story of the wonderful Wizard of Oz has seen many iterations that sweep across a wide range of genres and audiences since its inception as a children’s book written by L. Frank Baum in 1900. The most recent of these retellings is the first half of a two-film adaptation set of the musical Wicked inspired by a book of the same name by Gregory Maguire, which was a spinoff of the original Baum universe. Although the yellow brick road to this Wicked theatre release has been long and winding, the destination at the end hasn’t let down, grossing the highest ever for a Broadway adaptation at the box office in its opening weekend of Nov. 29–Dec 1 to $163 million, according to nbcuniversal.com.
The plot of Wicked is a little challenging to follow for those who have no previous familiarity with the Maguire adaptation. The opening scene is dark and ominous, panning across a dirty scene of ruin strewn across cobblestones, but the view quickly opens up to a celebration heralded by bell–ringing children and a beautiful blonde Ariana Grande as Glinda the Good Witch, who cheekily exclaims how “nice [it is] to see me, isn’t it?” From there, the Good Witch takes the rapt crowd surrounding her back to the past– to her friendship born at university with The Wicked Witch of the West, actually Elphaba Thropp, a young woman with unpredictable magic powers and an impossible–to–ignore green skin tone played by Cynthia Erivo.
Of all the iterations of the Oz story, Wicked is one of the most powerful and interesting. Much of that power can be accredited to the leading duo of the film, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. The two make a compelling pair throughout all of the transitions their characters go through, from their initial hostility to touching connection during an instrumental interlude in “Dancing Through Life” to the heart–wrenching confrontation that brings the movie to a close. Their dynamic seems as far from acting as physically possible, achingly real and fluid, taking the viewer effortlessly through the highs and lows of the friendship up until their splitting point.
What was especially impressive about their performance, however, was that all of the songs they sang were performed live on set, not recorded in a studio and then edited over. With each of the actresses appearing in seven songs respectively out of the total eleven, it is a next-level feat of performance that they were able to sing, dance and act their way through a live set all in a single take. Even more thrilling, Erivo even did her own stunts, learning “how to shift the way she breath[ed]” in order to sing while also falling and flying at different points throughout the film, according to people.com
One of the other strongest features of the movie is the beautiful combination of its set and costume design. While watching Elphaba twirl through the halls of Shiz University or stomp her way through the Emerald City with Glinda, it’s impossible not to notice the way the world around them compliments their iconic colors. Beautiful sprays of pink flowers decorate green trees at Shiz, and even the emerald–clad residents of the city are accented in rosy hues– but all of these colors fade away to reveal something more dark and muted as the duo make their way to meet the Wizard. The deliberate color scheme of the movie made it feel appropriately whimsical, but also played into the dark and terrifying aspects at the exact right moments as well.
One pitfall of the film, however, was the casting of its supporting characters. Erivo and Grande undoubtedly take center stage throughout the film, outshining the supporting cast to a noticeable degree at times– especially when either of them are singing with anyone other than each other. Michelle Yeoh made a compelling turn–of–the–dime evil Madame Morrible and Jonathan Bailey made a dashing and provocative Fiyero Tigelaar, but their singing couldn’t compare to either of the female leads. There was an incredible buildup to the release of Wicked with each of the cast members being speculatively compared to their Broadway counterparts, and Erivo and Grande met and even in some cases exceeded those comparisons in a way that some of the supporting actors failed to achieve.
The lengthy runtime of Wicked also leaves something to be desired. Wicked runs for two hours and 40 minutes, which is just five minutes shorter than the entire Broadway stage production. It isn’t hard to understand why the movie ran on the long side, with its numerous stylistic pauses and long montages, but the length of the film took its toll at certain slower points that made it feel draggy and too long. Even beyond that, the end of the movie is a strong climatic sequence that might pose a challenge to follow up with an entire second act of the story still to wrap up in the second film, presumably similar in length to the first.
Overall, Wicked is an immersively stylized and fantastically fun film that honors the legacy of the Ozian stories before it in a new and modern way. It might be a slight stretch on the attention span, especially when the main cast is at odds vocally with the supporting cast, but as a whole it is an impressive musical spectacle worth the watch for a trip down the by yellow brick road that leaves audiences with high expectations for the second film, which will premiere on Nov. 21, 2025.
