Two Reviews of 'Wicked'

Directed by Jon M. Chu. Starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera.

STEPHEN’S REVIEW

After decades of watching Disney undertake the laborious task of subverting every fairy tale in their catalog to give their villains victim-complex backstories, it seems odd that Wicked is arriving on screen 20 years after its Broadway premiere, since this was the mega-hit musical that inspired Disney’s “villains are people too” trend in the first place. Based on Gregory Maguire’s revisionist novel for adults (which I wholeheartedly do not recommend), Wicked was given the family-friendly Broadway treatment to lure in tourist crowds eager for the high-caliber song-and-dance numbers Broadway is known for. As a kid, I saw Wicked on tour, and looking back on all the cinema subversion that came after it, this musical remains one of the more well-written and nuanced revisionist tales produced, with strong music and engaging characters, all populating a story that turns The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on its head. Now that Universal has finally released the (first half) of the film version, how well does this story translate to film?

I’ll start on a bitter note because regrettably, it’s still hard to know how this is going to translate to film, since this is only Act 1, and features only the exposition and rising conflict. Hollywood has been breaking up stories in two-parters for a while now, and following the trend, Wicked, as a movie, is fundamentally incomplete. This issue is more egregious since it’s a musical theater piece, and the composition is designed to be a single musical structure. Leitmotifs sung in the first act establish theme and character but are sung again in Act 2 to show plot and character progression. These sections of music will no doubt be included in part two in order to complete Stephen Schwartz’ internal music structure, but in a play, intermission is usually fifteen minutes, and we have to wait a whole year for the second film. Maybe it’s a minor grievance, but I don’t think musicals are meant to be experienced that way.

With all that said, the music remains, like in the play, the highlight of the experience. Schwartz is an excellent composer who rivals Alan Menken when it comes to pop musicals. While Wicked might not be his best work, it’s the most consistently entertaining musical of his repertoire. There is not a weak song in the bunch, and the lead performers do justice to the numbers. Ariana Grande’s soprano is lovely, and Cynthia Erivo belts to her hearts’ content. As Glinda, Grande lacks the naturally fun presence of Kristin Chenoweth and acts more in the style of her SNL stints, but her comic timing is exceptional. Erivo’s performance is more sincere, but becomes too stoic and lacks the fiery bluntness of Idina Menzel’s Elphaba. The movie very much wants audiences to take these characters seriously while the stage show was content to revel in the comedic potential of the mismatched characters (another reason this naturally works better on stage). But every time the script grows too stodgy, it falls back on the powerhouse vocals and gains momentum again, giving the people what they want. Jonathan Bailey also adds his vocal chops as Prince Fiyero in the show-stopping anthem “Dancing Through Life.” These songs are designed to get pulses pounding and everyone pulls their weight, so truthfully I can’t complain about any of the vocals.

I will complain about the filming and choreography around the vocals. While it brings me no pleasure to harp on creatives who try to bring theater to the film world, director Jon M. Chu must be stopped. Wicked suffers the same problem as his previous screen musical In the Heights, which used music video language to cut up the dances without truly showcasing the human form in motion. Though if he were to keep his camera still, I fear it would be disappointing too, because the choreography is missing a crucial ingredient: human emotion. While watching the dance numbers, I kept comparing them to Steven Spielberg’s imperfect but compelling West Side Story remake, which featured choreography that expressed the themes and emotions of the singers, including a traditional distinction between the masculine and the feminine. Here, all the dancing communicates is bland androgynous conformity. The background dancers often blend together in a genderless blob, performing dance moves that do not match what they’re singing about. The synchronicity is impressive, but it fails to emotionally engage. 

I realize I’m being picky in ways that will not bother most viewers. The energy is there, and despite all my misgivings about Chu’s lack of cinematic vision, I was, at the very least, entertained. There is an element of old-school charm when the cinema world is given another screen musical. It hearkens back to an older era of entertainment that I hope to see more of again. I also hope that future musical adaptations will respect the medium enough to give audiences a full musical in one sitting.

LIZ’S REVIEW

“You’ll be popular, just not quite as popular as me!”

I think it would be fair to say that if the ever sassy Kristin Chenoweth were to sing those words (as Glinda, of course) about the new movie Wicked, she’d probably be right. 

While the newly released Wicked will certainly be popular, and rightly so— it is currently hovering around 90% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes— I would hazard a guess that despite its success, it will never top the magnetism and charm of the original (and now legendary) Broadway cast. 

The movie is part one of a two part series— essentially Act one of the stage musical. While fans of the Broadway show were (at least initially) salty about the decision to split the movie into two parts, I think ultimately it was a good decision on director Jon M. Chu’s part, as the first installment clocked in at 2 hours and 40 minutes. It meant that it never felt rushed or crammed, no songs were cut, and also gave him the opportunity to fill out the plot with more backstory from the original novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire, and even L. Frank Baum’s original Wizard of Oz. 

Going into the movie, I expected good vocals.  While I’m not a fan of the music Ariana Grande produces, she is admittedly incredibly talented, and knows how to use her voice.  Cynthia Erivo is a name I’d heard before from seeing clips of her performance in The Color Purple.  So, I was optimistic I’d get not only good vocals, but also good acting.  Erivo proved to be excellent.  Subtle but expressive, she handled the songs masterfully with her strong voice.  I was pleasantly surprised that both she and Grande both not only sang their songs very well, and did appropriate homage to the original performers, but weren’t a carbon copy of them– they made them their own at the appropriate points, and to the appropriate level.  This came out particularly for Erivo in “Defying Gravity,” and for Grande in “Popular.”  

Other actors proved to be satisfactory as well.  Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible fit the bill, but didn’t “wow” me particularly (though I can honestly say that I’ve never been particularly enthused about her acting).  Jeff Goldblum did… well… what you’d expect Jeff Goldblum to do as the Wizard, which… worked well enough.  Jonathan Bailey played a very charismatic and captivating Fiyero, who had great chemistry with both Grande and Erivo.  Marissa Bode as Nessarose and Ethan Slater as Boq were also fantastic in their respective parts.  There was also a highly entertaining set of cameos in “One Short Day,” which delighted everyone in attendance.  

Honestly, my biggest complaints (aside from maybe wanting something just a little different from Jeff Goldblum) had more to do with Grande’s lack of acting/dancing experience than anything else.  It was pretty clear to me that Grande definitely was not up to par with the ensemble, as her movements were not as sharp and clean (when they chose not to hide most of her dancing with strategic angles).  As far as acting, I will admit that it took me most of the movie to realize specifically what it was that was bothering me– it wasn’t anything glaring or horribly offensive, either.  After really studying Erivo and Grande, particularly when they were side by side, I noticed that when Erivo expressed an emotion on her face, it was her whole face.  Whereas for Grande, her expression stopped at/near her eyebrows– there wasn’t the depth of emotion that you’d hope to see in the tight close ups of their faces that would have really brought the moments home.  Don’t misunderstand me– there was emotion; just not to the degree that I think would have been ideal.  To be fair, Kristin Chenoweth sets an enormously high bar for Glinda (as Idina Menzel does for Elphaba), but I would have hoped that Grande would have come a little closer to meeting that bar in certain areas.  That said, there were several moments where her comedic timing was laugh-out-loud impeccable, and her whole performance (both singing and acting) in “Popular” was a highlight, alongside Erivo’s stunning (and live-recorded!) performance of “Defying Gravity.”

As far as movie-musicals go, I thought Wicked was a very fun, very faithful, and surprisingly un-woke adaptation of what has quickly become, for many musical theatre fans, a “classic.”  Does it have all the same charm and charisma as the original Broadway show?  No, not quite.  But does it have a charm and flair of it’s own?  I think Kristin Chenoweth would tell even the musical purists: “And though you protest/your disinterest/ I know clandestinely/ you’re gonna grin and bear it/this newfound popularity!”