By Alex Gilston - November 24, 2024
2024 has been a hard year for the musical genre. In the lead up to its release, the film adaptation of the Mean Girls musical parked the iconic songs in favour of popular music to market it to audiences. Todd Phillips, who dubbed Joker: Folie à Deux as a jukebox musical from its inception, cowered away from discussing its musically inclined moments as if it was a cone of shame. Joker 2 and the new Netflix musical Emilia Pérez went hand in hand with their breathy, hardly-committal singing set pieces that would have worked better simply as conversations. There is a sense that, currently, musicals are embarrassed to be musicals. Which is why Wicked (Part1) is just the tonic. An unapologetic filmmaking triumph that defies gravity a dozen times over.
Wicked takes us to the familiar cinematic setting of Oz to tell the story of the Wicked Witch of the West, but maybe not the one we all know. We start at the end, Dorothy has defeated the Wicked Witch and it has fallen on Glinda the Good Witch (Ariana Grande) to spread the news. Wicked’s opening musical number “No One Mourns The Wicked” sets the tone for the rest of the film. It’s epic in scale, beautifully choreographed, and vocally perfect. When the song is over a Munchkin asks Glinda about her relationship with the Wicked Witch, and so she recounts the events leading up to her death. And so the story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda, and their enemies to friends journey, sets into motion.
It’s important to note that Wicked is simply the first part of this all encompassing story of friendship, acceptance, love, and corruption. As it’s adapted from the stage musical, it takes the first act and fleshes it out into an almost three hour odyssey. A lot of the conversation around Wicked Part 1 has been the worry of adapting 75 minutes into more than double that, and although this worry held some validity, people seemed to forget the simple truth that film is a wholly different medium to a stage show. In the stage production of Wicked it is one singular point and a series of motorised sets that help to change from scene to scene, and characters can simply appear on stage without a second thought. And lets be honest, the film may as well have been a pro shot if they were thinking of copy and pasting it. The expansion of the world, seeing more of Elphaba’s early backstory, and taking more time for character relationships to blossom wasn't just a creative decision for the better it was a change for good. This time afforded to letting the whole thing breath will prove fruitful when part 2 arrives into cinemas this time next year.
Perfect is a word that you hate to use, for the fear that if you assign it to too many things it will lose all meaning. But sometimes you have to call a spade a spade so: Wicked is perfect. The beautiful physical sets immerse you into the world of Oz, and the iconic costumes from the stage show are given a va va voom into some exquisitely looking clothes.
The ensemble musical numbers are stupendously impactful, with slick choreography that will scratch an itch you didn’t even know you had, and the solo numbers are emotionally powerful pockets of greatness. Wicked is also perfectly cast. Not one person feels out of place, and everyone embodies their character to a level not even I thought was possible.
Sometimes actors are born to play certain roles, and it was without a doubt Ariana Grande-Butera’s fate to play Oz’s good witch. Glinda’s bubbly, operatic vocals are something straight out of Ariana’s wheelhouse, and she makes it all look too easy. Her pure ignorance makes her an unintentionally funny character, and Ariana hits the mark with her characterisation. Jonathan Bailey as the attractive-to-literally-everyone-who-lays-their-eyes-on-him Fiyero is a bit of casting genius. Bailey is attractive and he knows it and that is exactly what Fiyero needs to be in the first part of the Wicked story. But the edge comes from his charisma, which he has by the boat load. You will struggle to keep your eyes off him during his major moment in his song “Dancing Through Life”. He cuts through the scenery like butter, and has chemistry with everyone, including the bricks in the walls of Shiz University (truly that’s how good he is).
Ultimately, Wicked is about Elphaba, which means it’s all about Cynthia Erivo. Playing one of the most iconic Broadway/West-End character of all time is no mean feat and Erivo takes the bull by the horns and produces something quite special. This character has been played by so many women, in so many different ways, and the songs are so timeless and have been sung thousands of times. But somehow she manages to inject a new life into them. Her choices add a level of magic into “The Wizard and I” and “Defying Gravity” that, to my knowledge, hadn’t been unlocked yet. There's not a chance you’ll come out of either of those songs with dry eyes. But beyond the songs she plays Elphaba as the relatable, misunderstood, protagonist we all know and love. Which includes a moment during the "Dancing Through Life" sequence which is quite possibly one of the most emotionally resonant moments of the whole film.
It’s hard to put into words what has been achieved by Jon M. Chu and co with this film, and even harder to articulate how good it is considering its only one half. Wicked is everything I ever dreamed it could be and more, a glorious love letter to the stage show, and a blistering time at the movies for those who aren’t familiar with it. Finally a musical that isn’t scared of being one. Hopefully it’s success will mark a new era for the genre, a new set of films with insane musical numbers and fancy dance breaks to boot. But more than that, lets rejoicify in the fact that part 2 is less than 365 days away.
Wicked is out now in cinemas
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