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A movie-musical 15 years in the making, few stage-to-screen adaptations have been as eagerly awaited (or high profile) as Wicked, the two-part cinematic adaption of Stephen Schwartz’s beloved Broadway classic. After a revolving door of stars, directors, and writers, the Wizard of Oz prequel has finally found its way to the silver screen, but not without some growing pains. But while Wicked boasts delightfully ethereal costuming and a pair of impassioned leads in Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, the film’s bloated runtime and pervasive tone and pacing issues bog down what should be a feather-light movie-musical.
Wicked Review
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Starring Grande, Erivo, and Jonathan Bailey, Wicked (based on Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s musical of the same name) follows Elphaba (Erivo), a talented but timid young sorceress whose green skin has been a lifelong source of ridicule. After accompanying her sister Nessarose (Mariss Bode) to boarding school, Elphaba begins to discover the true nature of her powers, and with the unlikely aid of the uber-popular Galinda (Grande), uncover the sinister secrets of the so-called “Wonderful Wizard of Oz”
Certainly, in terms of pure spectacle, Wicked delivers on all fronts. With ethereal pink ballgowns for Galinda, structured black frocks for Elphaba, or painfully frilly numbers for Nessarose, the costume designer succeeds in the seemingly insurmountable task of creating costumes that honor the designs of both the 1939 film and the original Broadway production. Hair/makeup supervisor Karen Cohen and designer Frances Hannon similarly find a way to translate Elphaba’s monochromatic stage makeup to the screen, transforming 37-year-old Erivo into a believable boarding school-aged witch.
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But for every dazzling feat of production design achieved by Nathan Crowley (“Dancing Through Life” is a particular highlight that shows Shiz at its most whimsical), gorgeous costume, or thoughtful element of hair and makeup design, a combination of uninspired cinematography and a failure in lighting design render what should be one of the year’s most visually arresting films lackluster. Admittedly, replicating the technicolor marvel that is the coloring of the original Wizard of Oz is nearly impossible, but Wicked’s onslaught of overexposed daytime scenes and under-light night sequences leave the film feels at times devoid of color.
Whether it’s the washed-out, backlit scenes in the halls of Shiz University, Elphaba and Fiyero’s squint-inducing late-night rendezvous, or low saturation CGI landscape shots, gaffer David Smith and cinematographer Alice Brooks’ work on Wicked washes the entire film out, undercutting the feats of costuming, makeup, and production design as well as robbing the story of a crucial element: whimsy.
But if the lighting and cinematography of Wicked leave it feeling slightly passionless, Cynthia Erivo’s turn as Elphaba is the injection of adrenaline and intensity the film sorely needs. Flinty yet vulnerable, cold and standoffish yet yearning for connection, Erivo (whose long Broadway history includes a Tony win for The Color Purple) fundamentally understands the engine of emotion that drives Elphaba. Though the film starts shaky and gets better as it progresses (perhaps a byproduct of splitting the musical into two pieces and bloating both two nearly three hours), Erivo is unflinching and pitch-perfect from the word “go”, carrying Wicked through many of its less elegant moments — especially when opposite Jonathan Bailey’s Fiyero.
Decidedly less elegant than Erivo’s deft turn as Elphaba is Ariana Grande as Galinda Upland, soon to be known as Glinda the Good Witch. While Grande no doubt has the vocal chops to sing Broadway’s bubbliest soprano and experience on the great white way to boot (she made her debut in the original cast of 13 at age 15), it’s in Wicked’s slower, more intimate moments where her performance falters.
Wicked, for as long as it has been in the pop culture consciousness, has always be intrinsically tied to its two original stars: Idina Menzel (Elphaba) and Kristin Chenoweth (Galinda). Their legacy is so integral to Wicked’s success that the director Jon M Chu makes the (slightly ham-fisted) decision to write them into the film via extensive cameo, playing thinly veiled homages to their characters.
But while it’s understandable that Grande might want to take inspiration from Chenoweth for her turn as Galinda, Grande’s performance in Wicked feels less like her own interpretation of the character and more of a Kristen Chenoweth impression. From the character’s voice to specific lines delivered and hitting the same physical gags as Chenoweth, Grande’s performance is certainly energetic and recognizably “Galinda”. But especially opposite the more understated and earnest Erivo, there’s a calculated varnish in her performance that keeps her from finding the requisite levels and vulnerabilities that make Galinda such a delightful character.
Chu directs the musical numbers with palpable enthusiasm — employing the same crane shots, large-scale choreography, and crowd tactics he pulled for In The Heights and padding the already questionable runtime with vignettes inside musical numbers or needless ad-libs from Bowen Yang and Bronwen James. Glossy, ambitious, and unapologetically theatrical, Wicked (part one) is an earnest if uneven adaption lifted to new heights by a luminous Cynthia Erivo.
Grade: C+
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Wicked
Elphaba, an ostracized but defiant girl born with green skin, and Glinda, a privileged aristocrat born popular, become extremely unlikely friends in the magical Land of Oz. As the two girls struggle with their opposing personalities, their friendship is tested as both begin to fulfil their destinies as Glinda the Good and The Wicked Witch of the West.
Release Date: November 22, 2024
Director: Jon M. Chu
Cast: Cynthia Erivo , Ariana Grande , Jonathan Bailey
