One can’t imagine a world in which we never had a story like The Wizard of Oz in our lives. Since author L. Frank Baum wrote down his imaginative tome about the magical world of Oz and the little Kansas girl who found her way there, we have been collectively enchanted for generations, finding new and creative ways to bring Oz to life. No other adaptation has had as deep an impact as the big screen MGM production in 1939; a technicolor masterpiece that has been declared the most watched movie in history. The Wizard of Oz (1939) remains the gold standard for all adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s stories, particularly in the visual iconography it created. But, that hasn’t stopped many other people from trying to put their own spin on the Oz mythos. One of the more creative came in the 70’s, when the musical The Wiz premiered on the Broadway stage and infused the familiar story with contemporary African-American culture and music. The musical would later be adapted into a movie by Sidney Lumet and starred Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. But that wouldn’t be it for The Wizard of Oz on both the Broadway stage and on the big screen. In 1995, writer Gregory Maguire wrote an alternate history version of Baum’s original tale, recounting the events of The Wizard of Oz, but from the point of view of it’s villain, the Wicked Witch of the West. Maguire’s book used the Oz story to deconstruct the notion of evil in the stories we tell, and whether people are born wicked or are made to be wicked, and how stories often are used as weapons to villainize the wrong people. It was a compelling re-imagining of the Oz narrative and that gained the attention of some key people in the musical theater world. Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz had been wanting to do a musical themed around the Land of Oz and he was instantly drawn to Maguire’s book and found it to be a perfect subject for adaptation. Working alongside stage book writer Winnie Holzman, Wicked was realized into a lavish, high spectacle musical in 2003, and it has been playing non-stop on the Broadway stage ever since, becoming one of the longest running and most profitable shows ever on the Great White Way.
With the enormous success of the Wicked stage show it was easy to think that a big screen musical adaptation would follow very soon after. But, the show’s producer Marc Platt held off bringing it to the big screen for twenty years, despite the fact that Universal Pictures was involved in the development of the show for the stage. Platt’s intention was to allow Wicked to have a full, uninterrupted run on the stage before bringing it too the screen. People would be less inclined to pay $50-100 per showing for the stage show if they could buy a movie ticket for a fraction of that price or rent it for even less to watch at home. The Broadway show needed to build up that following first, and thanks to it’s record success both in New York and through it’s worldwide touring company, Wicked didn’t wane over time; it just kept growing. So, after 20 years of running on stage (minus the Covid shutdowns for one year) it was time to finally bring the hit musical to the big screen. But, it was going to require the right team behind it. Mark Platt and Universal ended up turning to director Jon M. Chu , who had come up through directing music videos for the likes of Justin Bieber and many other hip hop groups, but managed to find his biggest success as a film director with the hit film Crazy Rich Asians (2018). He came into this project with a lot of experience behind him, but Wicked was going to be a much heftier undertaking than anything he had made before. There was also controversy surrounding the casting of the two lead characters; Elphaba, the Wicked Witch and Glinda, the Good Witch. A lot of fans of the show wanted to see the return of the show’s original stars, Kristen Chenoweth as Glinda and Idina Menzel as Elphaba, a role that won her a Tony Award, but it was decided by the production to tap new performers for the roles; in particular Tony Winner Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and recording artist Ariana Grande as Glinda. Also controversial was the decision to break the musical up into two films, with a year long gap in between releases. Despite the worries of many fans, Part 1 of Wicked (2024) premiered over the holiday season and became a smashing success, creating a lot of anticipation for it’s concluding chapter this year. The only question is, does Wicked: For Good defy gravity, or does the yellow brick road lead to nowhere.
Some time has passed between Part One of Wicked and this second act of the story. The first part of the tale showed us the start of the relationship at the heart of the story, that between Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) and Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande). Though they started out as rivals at the prestigious Shiz University of the Land of Oz, they found themselves becoming the closest of friends. But, turmoil would once again test their friendship. All across Oz, animal citizens continue to loose their rights to co-exist with the humans, leading many of them to be forced into cages which leads them to loosing their ability to speak. Elphaba sees this injustice and becomes determined to help the animals that she sees being abused and scapegoated. She believed that if she could make her case to the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) himself, he might be able to undo this injustice. But unfortunately, upon arriving at the Emerald City, she finds out that not only is he complicit in the mistreatment of animals in Oz, but that he doesn’t have any magical power at all, and is just a con man trying to use her real magical abilities for his advantage. Not only that, she also learns that the dean of her school, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) is also the master mind behind this deception, making her feel even more betrayed. After standing up against the Wizard, Elphaba is labeled a traitor and a menace to Ozians through a propaganda campaign that paints her as a Wicked Witch. She chooses to go into exile and acts to disrupt the Wizard’s regime through select attacks. All the while, Glinda tries to keep up appearances as a Good Witch to counter the “threat” of the Wicked one, while at the same time trying to keep Elphaba’s true whereabouts hidden. Glinda’s attempt to broker peace between Elphaba and the Wizard becomes increasingly difficult, and it drives a wedge between her and Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Baily), the captain of the Emerald City guards and her fiancée. It turns out that Fiyero still has feelings for Elphaba, which also makes Glinda feel all the more betrayed by those she thought were her friends. Is there hope that Elphaba and Glinda can bridge their differences once again and bring harmony to Oz, or are the betrayals too much to overcome? And is it possible for Elphaba to be seen for the good that she does and not for the wickedness that the powerful have unjustly labeled her with?
For me personally, I came into the first Wicked movie completely cold. I was familiar with the Broadway show, but I had never seen it performed live. I also haven’t read the original Maguire novel it’s based on, so the only thing I brought with me going into the first movie was my knowledge of Oz lore from the original MGM classic. I wasn’t expecting much, because I’ve had a particularly mixed experience with modern movie musicals based on hit Broadway shows. Some have been pretty great over the years (Sweeny Todd, In the Heights, West Side Story) while others have been pretty dreadful (Les Miserables, Cats, Dear Evan Hansen). Given how massive of a hit the show has been on the Broadway stage, I felt like there was no way they would be able to translate it successfully for the big screen, and splitting up the 2 1/2 stage show and blowing it up into a two part, 5 hour cinematic experience just spelt disaster. So, color me pleasantly surprised when I walked out of the first part of Wicked having really enjoyed it. I was pretty stunned by how well the movie ended up coming together. The entire first film is longer than the whole of the Broadway show, running 160 minutes, and yet it never felt bloated or sagging. It used it’s run time remarkably well, and it helped to immerse us the audience into this version of Oz which was incredibly imaginative and detailed. The movie wound up winning very deserved Oscars for for it’s costumes and production design. And Cynthia Erivo’s performance of the show’s signature song “Defying Gravity” was such a perfect high note to close the movie on and it really got me excited to watch the second film, which I’d have to wait a year for. So, was it worth the wait. Well, a lot of Broadway show fans will tell you that the musical peaks at “Defying Gravity” and the second half of the musical doesn’t quite match up with the first. That’s true of the Broadway show, and sadly also true of the movie Wicked: For Good, but that doesn’t mean that the movie is bad; not at all. It’s just not as good as it’s predecessor, and that flaw is not really a fault of the movie so much as a flaw built into the musical from the very start. In order to be a faithful adaptation, Wicked had to take the bad along with the good. One would have hoped that maybe the filmmakers would’ve found a work around to make the flaws of the stage show less of an issue here, but alas we see that they still made the translation to the big screen.
There’s still a lot of entertainment to be had here. Jon M. Chu still proves to be a great stager of musical numbers. One of the worries I had going into the first film was the fact that it was being directed by a man who cut his teeth as a director of musical videos. I have long said that the MTV generation ruined movie musicals for a long time, because the prevailing style of quick edits that worked for snappy music videos on MTV did not translate well into musical adaptations for the cinema. That’s why so many musicals over the last 20 or so years look so cheap, because the music video style just chops everything up in the edit and doesn’t allow for the musical numbers to really come alive. You look at stage to screen musicals of the past like Oklahoma (1955) or The Music Man (1962), they relied on long takes that really showed off the incredible staging of the different musical numbers, immersing the audience the same way that the stage show would. Thankfully, Jon M. Chu is not the kind of filmmaker to chop things up. I think what helps is that in addition to directing music videos, he also directed concerts as well, and he was the creator of the choreography centered Step Up movies, so the man knows the importance of staging. The musical numbers in Wicked are cinematic, but still feel true to their stage bound origins, and that remains true throughout both parts of the Wicked experience. While none of the musical numbers here reach the epic heights of “Defying Gravity,” there’s still enough creativity in their staging to still make them feel immersive and visually pleasing. There’s one particular number, a new original song for Glinda, that does some incredible things with mirrors that I thought really helped it to stand out in the movie. Another highlight is the song “Wonderful” sung by Goldblum’s Wizard, which has some really great visual touches. So, even while this is the lesser half of the narrative, there are still plenty of moments that will still enchant you while watching the movie.
I think one of the big issues that ends up hurting Wicked: For Good, which is a flaw inherent from the original show itself, is that it breaks up the heart of what made the first half so powerful, which is the chemistry between Elphaba and Glinda. One of the best things about the Wicked movies is the absolutely perfect castings of the lead characters. Cynthia Erivo of course has an angelic singing voice which made her a perfect candidate to fill Idina Menzel’s enormous shoes in the role of Elphaba. But, she’s also a brilliant actor as well, bringing so much depth to this character. And despite all of the naysayers who objected to her casting in the role, Ariana Grande has proven to be just as equally brilliant as Cynthia in her role as Glinda. I would dare say that Ariana is the MVP of this whole endeavor, because so much of this movie rides on her ability to balance her performance between the silly comical aspects of Glinda’s character and the heavier emotional moments that she has to take very seriously. So much of the movie relies on Cynthia and Ariana’s ability to work so harmoniously together and make this friendship the beating heart of the movie, and they pull it off magically. It’s just unfortunate that they are apart for so much of Wicked: For Good. The beautiful chemistry of these two actors is missing for a good chunk of the movie, and that unfortunately make a lot of the film feel like much of a drag. But the highlights do come once they are finally sharing the screen again. There’s an especially fun scene where Glinda tries to fight Elphaba one on one that is a hilarious high point in the film, and a much needed moment of levity in an otherwise darker second half. Thankfully much of the returning supporting cast remain strong, though sadly with less to make them stand out. Jeff Goldblum steals all of his scenes as the Wizard, strongly leaning into his own eccentric parody of himself, which matches the character well. It’s also nice to see Michelle Yeoh really relishing her chance to play a villain, giving the character a nice menacing presence. The one who unfortunately gets shorted the most in this second act is Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. He still has his moments here or there, but unfortunately the bulk of his character development and screen presence happened in Part One, so he more or less is just here to be a key supporting player. It’s especially unfortunate since Part One showed off just how good of a musical performer he is.
The movie also does a great job of presenting such a rich, detailed version of the Land of Oz. One of the best decisions that was made about the adaptation of this musical to big screen was splitting it up into two movies. If the movie had adapted the story as it is from the stage production, it would have felt rushed and truncated on the big screen. Making the whole thing a lavish 5 hour long production allows more space to really immerse us in the world of Oz over these two films. That way we are better able to appreciate Nathan Crowley’s lavish sets and Paul Tazewell’s amazing costumes. There’s a big difference between what works on the stage and what works on the screen, and the best movie musicals are the ones that find that right balance. It’s also why so many movie musicals run between 2 1/2 to 3 hours in length, because movies really need that extra time for immersion into the world of their story. Wicked was such a monumental undertaking that it all couldn’t be contained in just one movie, unless audiences were willing to sit for a 5 hour long show. Wicked: For Good continues the high stand of the first film’s incredible production design. The only downside is that because this is the second film of a two part production, the novelty of seeing it all for the first time is not there. Apart from just a handful of new locations, like the castle that Elphaba holds refuge in, every other place in this movie are holdovers from the first. It’s probably unlikely this movie will see the same success it enjoyed from last year’s Awards season, because it really isn’t showing much that we haven’t seen before. But, at the same time, the movie still gives us plenty of time to appreciate all the work that went into the production. Whether it’s the amazing Glinda dresses that Ariana gets to wear, or the graceful staging of the musical numbers that John M. Chu puts together, Wicked: For Good still succeeds as a visual feast for the eyes.
Despite the strengths comparable between the two films, taken as a whole these Wicked movies are a remarkable success. There were a lot of high expectations surrounding these movies, especially given the universal success of the stage musical, which even after the release of these movies is still selling out shows across the world. I really appreciate that the makers of these films didn’t just make a direct translation of the musical, but instead really explored what was possible in bringing this to the big screen. Like the best movie musicals of the past, these movies understand what it takes to make what worked on the stage become a spectacle on the big screen. Wicked is an epic just as much as it is musical, full of lavish detail that really makes the world of Oz come alive. And “Defying Gravity” gives the experience a cliffhanger ending for Part One that even the likes of Marvel would be jealous of. There’s no doubt that Wicked: For Good is the lesser of the two halves, and the one that is more reliant upon the other to give it meaning. You unfortunately loose a bit of the magic if you only watch For Good independent of the other film. The only way that this movie could ever match up with it’s predecessor is if it had that emotional high of the cliffhanger ending, and sadly that wasn’t meant to be since the musical itself couldn’t repeat that same emotional high. But, there’s still a lot to like, particularly with the performances of the actors. I also loved the way that, just like the stage show, the plot of the original Wizard of Oz is playing out in the background. We never even see Dorothy’s face, which is as it should be, because this isn’t her story. The movie expects us to know how the original story goes, and the charm of Wicked is in how it subverts the original Oz narrative. Over time, I do see Wicked being celebrated among the likes of The Sound of Music (1965), My Fair Lady (1964), and West Side Story (1961) as one of the greatest stage to screen musical adaptations ever made, especially for how well the spectacle of it all was pulled off. More than likely it will be because of the strength of the first half, but I hope many out there also see the bright points of Wicked: For Good as something worth celebrating as well. It may not be a strong finish to this adaptation, which is more the original musical’s fault than anything, but it does do the best job it can to compliment it’s sister film. And that’s something worth the journey over the rainbow for.
Rating: 7.5/10