By BRUCE DENNILL
Wicked / Directed by Jon M Chu / PG
The original Wizard Of Oz film is 85 years old and remains as magical to watch now as it did then, even after multiple viewings. That is a special kind of magic, an extraordinary alchemy, that is perhaps impossible to replicate. And beyond the filmmaking, er, wizardry, the story remains a cultural touchstone in and outside of film and theatre circles, allowing it to reach, however indirectly, generations of audiences whose parents or even grandparents were not yet born when Judy Garland skipped down the yellow brick road.
All of this feeds into how many audiences will receive Wicked, the big-budget screen version of the massively successful Broadway musical of the same name. You don’t have to know much about the original tale to be drawn into what is designed as a prequel, focused on the fortunes of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. But if you are a fan of the 1939 classic, it undeniably informs your experience of this 2024 vintage.
One slightly annoying part of Wicked is its marketing – wisely making use of the sometimes deliriously dedicated following of the stage musical but often making the focus of that about celebrity and Instagram and ‘Team Glinda or Team Elphaba’, which in some ways places the film in a context that encourages superficial engagement rather than a real connection with the storyline.
The casting of Adriana Grande as Glinda plays both ways – her influential pop culture status brings in new viewers from outside of the usual reach of film or stage musicals, but also muddies the water when considering her performance for its craft rather than its presence. To her credit, Grande does an excellent job, adding layers to her character after a start to the narrative that shows Glinda to be a popularity-obsessed rich kid, with all the tropes that come with that.
Cynthia Erivo, more famous for her undoubted talents than for being a celebrity, is an inspired choice as Elphaba, consistently combining outsider uncertainty (her skin is green – people just don’t get it) with the quiet authority that comes with being comfortable with herself on the inside, even if the world doesn’t accept that as valid. It’s a performance of such poise that, essentially, this film without this actress would have half the impact.
That’s saying a lot when considering the look and scale of the piece. Director Jon M Chu is given – and brilliantly utilises – a huge ensemble, along with costumes and sets that, on the big screen, have viewers swivelling their heads right and left to take in all the detail. One Short Day, the big musical number performed as the protagonists arrive in Oz for the first time, has the gargantuan scope and feel of a big-studio Golden Age classic, and even without a potent double cameo by Kristen Chinoweth and Idina Menzel (who originated the Broadway stage roles of Glinda and Elphaba, respectively), it’s a scene that thrills and lifts any fan of large-scale musicals or simply films that spend money on epic ensemble numbers rather than digital robots or whatever.
The film probably doesn’t need to be 160 minutes long and those hearing the soundtrack for the first time will – with Defying Gravity a notable aside – possibly wonder if all the fuss is merited and if it’s more or less a replacement for a Harry Potter-type product to bring in some chunky profits. But as Wicked picks up momentum and starts to grow into the outline all the hype traced out before the screening began, it begins to feel like a chapter of the Wizard of Oz story that, if not the equal of the original, adds something satisfying and … happy to that world.
This is not a project, like the Avengers series of movies, for example, where a whole cinematic universe is the hoped-for outcome, but that more contemporary filmmaking mindset does inform a piece that stands on the shoulders of a giant – and still has the second half of its story to tell in part two, with this release only covering the first act of the stage show!
