It takes an outstanding production to meet up to the expectations of die-hard fans of the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz and the hit Broadway musical Wicked. It takes pure magic to exceed those expectations. Jon M. Chu’s film Wicked did just that.
Visually sumptuous with an explosive cast and music by John Powell and Stephen Schwartz, it is an origin story unlike any other about the witches of Oz, Elphaba and Glinda. Chu has created a nearly perfect triumvirate of music, cast, and visuals. This film binds together many of the favorite elements of its progenitors, acknowledging sets from the 1939 spectacle, and incorporating elements from the books and the musical.
The characters aren’t as one-dimensional as they were in Frank L. Baum’s books and the previous films. In addition to spectacular singing, dancing, and acting performances, we’re treated to rich personalities that you will genuinely love and/or end up . . . loathing.
The casting is spot on. Cynthia Erivo portrays Elphaba, a fierce defender of the downtrodden. Born green, her father detests her, and she is treated as a second-class citizen of Oz. Glinda is played by Ariana Grande, a beautiful, popular, privileged and utterly self-absorbed girl. When Elphaba inadvertently shows her magical talents as she escorts her little sister to Shiz University, Headmistress Madame Morrable, played to an icy perfection by Michele Yeoh, insists Elphaba also must enroll and assigns her to room with Glinda. Eventually, the two young witches become inseparable, if improbable, friends. What happens next is a delightful imagining of life at Shiz University, complete with magical libraries, horrendous social cliques, talking animals that teach classes, and a roguish handsome Prince who somehow manages to seem even more vapid than Glinda. Portrayed by the dashing Jonathan Bailey, Prince Fiyero adds a new dimension to the story.
Wicked neatly tells the back story of the early lives of Glinda and Elphaba, taking viewers to the expected and thoroughly satisfying conclusion of the early life of the witches, as Elphaba escapes on her broomstick from the tyranny of an Oz that demonizes anyone who looks or acts differently than the established status quo. The scene was powerfully rendered and makes me look forward to seeing Wicked: For Good in November 2025.
If you’ve read Frank L. Baum’s original Oz stories, or seen Wicked on stage, prepare to be both soothed by the tenacity of the script to the origin sources, and dazzled by the astounding CGI world of this film. There are two sides to every story, and at last we get to look behind the curtain, past the Wizard and into the hearts and minds of Elphaba and Glinda. And those stories just might surprise you.