Directed by Jon M. Chu, Wicked — the movie adaptation of the musical based on the book of the same name, itself based on The Wizard of Oz, part one — follows the story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a green-skinned woman living in Oz whose unlikely friendship with Glinda (Ariana Grande), the most popular girl at her school, will lead to her becoming the Wicked Witch of the West.
Musical fans have waited with bated breath to see their favourite misunderstood witch appear on the big screen. After all, it's not unheard of for a musical adaptation to completely botch the plot of a story that already exists. Luckily for fans, Wicked hits note for note like the musical it's based on, with every song, joke and character miraculously left intact.
Chu's Wicked shows that the musical was always meant to be a movie, with every detail bursting with life and energy. The thematic green and pink and cute and quirky style, like Elphaba's glasses, makes for awards season-worthy costume design. Charming, fantasy-fuelled sets borrow some of the original musical's best concepts and create backgrounds that have just as much character as the musical numbers.
Rumours of a Wicked movie have been floating around so long, every follower has a fantasy fancast with all their teen celebrity crushes involved. Casting may be a letdown for the tiny nerds in audience's hearts, but on a logical level, there's little to want for. The two leads, Erivo and Grande, inhabit their roles like they were born to play them. With Tony Award-winning Erivo's strong resume in theatre and Grande's pop and Nickelodeon background, the two fit right into their characters' skin, be it green or otherwise. While Erivo drives the plot, Grande often takes over the show with charm, charisma and spectacular dance sequences, just as Glinda would want.
The film ends with "Defying Gravity," the musical's most famous tune, leaving fans and new viewers alike with only half the story and much to be desired. A midpoint isn't an ending, and shoving a wedge between two halves of the original musical's plot only leads to frustration. The change in tone and colour scheme could have been amazing to witness in one sitting — and besides, the movie's already close to three hours long, so it doesn't seem unrealistic to fit it into one film.
Wicked's popularity is already of epic proportions, so why not an epic runtime to go with it? It's just about as long as Tom Hooper's Les Misérables adaptation, and if moviegoers could sit through Russell Crowe's singing for over two and a half hours, we can easily enjoy this far superior adaptation for three hours. It's not worthwhile to make fans wait a year just to make a couple extra bucks.
Despite the obvious money grab, Wicked reminds audiences and the film industry what an adaptation can be when filmmakers treat the source material with not only respect, but adoration: a wonderfully entertaining adventure that leaves other musical adaptations seeing green.