Wicked

Last night, I went to an advance screening of Wicked and all I have to say is Oh. My. Oz.

Wicked means the world to me. I truly feel like this show raised me. I remember moment I heard a song from the musical for the very first time and I remember going home and BEGGING my mom to buy us tickets to see the show.

That Christmas, I found tickets to Wicked in my stocking and that experience unlocked an absolute obsession with live theater. It was my first experience with live theater and I can say with my whole heart that Wicked unleashed a side of me that I had no idea existed.

After that, I listened to the Broadway album on repeat. Wicked became the soundtrack of my childhood and to this day, I can’t hear the arrangements without getting choked up.

Live music in general makes me emotional, but live theater brings it to a whole other level. The second I hear the first note of No One Mourns the Wicked live I have to swallow down a sob from so deep in my chest that I know if I let out, I won’t be able to stop crying.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way. This story speaks to me in a way very few other stories do and it probably sounds dumb, but I’m so grateful that this story was brought into my life.

I’m going to dive deep into the musical and the movie, so if you haven’t seen either, I would suggest coming back once you do. There will be major spoilers.

Leading Up to the Movie

My mom and I have been following news on the film for YEARS and to say I was nervous to see it would be an understatement. The musical is so well done and the original Broadway cast is so phenomenal that I was terrified they were going to ruin it.

In my eyes, no one is going to live up to Kristin Chenoweth or Idina Menzel, and I mean no hate here, but I am not an Ariana Grande fan at all, so seeing that she was cast in a leading role… I had huge reservations.

But honestly… this film was so well done, I am completely blown away.

I truly believe that they did this beautiful show the justice it deserves.

My Initial Reactions

• I’ve seen this show more times than I can count and I was so scared they were going to change lines, dialogue, instrumentals, vocal arrangements, you name it. And while there were some (though admittedly very few) changes, the arrangements – and especially the instrumentals – were near identical to the Broadway show which I was so impressed by.

• Literally every freaking song got me choked up. As I mentioned before, I do get emotional listening to this soundtrack even just on Spotify, but seeing and hearing it on the big screen was totally different. The second the first note of No One Mourns the Wicked started, I felt that familiar sob rising in my chest and I had to try to just swallow it down. And I’m completely unashamed to admit that it stayed there the. entire. movie. There were tears in my eyes for the full two and a half hours watching this beautiful story play out in front of me.
  • I didn’t fully lose it until Dancing Through Life (which I’ll touch on more later) and after that, all bets were off.
• I think that both Ariana and Cynthia did such a fantastic job and they had such huge shoes to fill. I can’t imagine having been in their position. Broadway fans are harsh critics, but these two really did hit the notes and play these characters so well.
• Ariana truly surprised me. She honestly killed the role. While I don’t think her vocals are as strong as Kristin’s, I don’t think there is a single person I would feel could fill the shoes Kristin (or Idina for that matter) does. But she played the role almost like it was made for her. The way she embodied that ditzy, shallow behavior of Glinda’s, I was seriously impressed.
• I liked being able to see more of the characters reactions and backstories in the movie. I love the musical, but musicals are, by nature, fast paced and it’s very easy to miss expressions as they cross actors’ faces and miss things in general as you try to take in everything on the stage in front of you.
  • I especially liked being able to see Glinda’s reactions in No One Mourns the Wicked – it felt to me like she was upset that people were speaking so disparagingly about Elphaba – and also see her reaction to Fiyero speaking to Elphaba before she boards the train to the Emerald City. Same with Nessa’s reaction to seeing Boq fawn over Glinda.
• I enjoyed seeing more of the dynamic between Elphaba and her family. I liked seeing the flashback to her childhood during No One Mourns the Wicked and how she interacted with her family when they first arrived Shiz to drop Nessa off.
• I freaking love Jonathan Bailey. I followed casting announcements with my mom for years and I remember Harry Styles mentioned as a possibility to play Fiyero, and as much as I LOVE my guy Harry (and I REALLY do), I think Jonathan was absolutely perfect for this role. He just has that charisma and he so perfectly fits the aesthetic for who Fiyero is.

• THE KRISTIN CHENOWETH AND IDINA MENZEL APPEARANCE FUCKED. ME. UP.
  • In the moment, I genuinely forgot about the possibility of them being in the movie and I’m just so happy they were in it and how they were in it. The second they appeared, my jaw DROPPED and I just instantly started crying.
  • I need to see the movie again for so many reasons, but especially to take in this particular scene a little bit more.
  • Just seeing the way that Kristin and Idina look at each other, the love there is so special.

Qualms

• There were little line changes that I didn’t like (and I only noticed because I’m such a nerdy fan)
  • In Dancing Through Life, I didn’t like that the lines ‘So, what’s the most swankified place in town? / That would be the Ozdust Ballroom / Sounds perfect!’ were cut out. I know they mention it prior to the song beginning, but I wish it was in the song itself.
  • I hated the extra la las in Popular – it was TOO MUCH.

• I have no notes about Ethan Slater’s performance, but I just am such a HUGE Christopher Fitzgerald fan that no one holds a candle to him.
• I didn’t feel the relationship between Glinda and Elphaba.
  • I thought that their relationship would be more fleshed out in the movie given the run time, but I really just didn’t feel how close these two woman were. I think in the musical, everything is so fast paced and you feel so deep in your bones how much love is shared between Glinda and Elphaba, but I didn’t feel it here. I don’t think it was anything in Ariana nor Cynthia’s performances, but I think the shallowness of Glinda’s character is so emboldened in the movie and I just didn’t feel the love like I do in the musical. I’m curious to see how the second part will play out and if I change my mind by the time For Good comes around.

General Observation and Praise for Wicked

• Excuse my language here, but the foreshadowing in this musical is fucking incredible. This is such a well written, well thought out soundtrack and script, I’m still blown away fifteen years after seeing it for the first time. Let me give you some of my favorite examples:
  • Sentimental Man???????? Admittedly, I do skip this song every time I listen to the soundtrack, but it’s such a brilliant piece. The lyrics are short enough that I’m going to paste them here:
    • I am a sentimental man who always longed to be a father. That’s why I do the best I can to treat each citizen of Oz as son or daughter. So Elphaba, I’d like to raise you high ’cause I think everyone deserves the chance to fly and helping you with your ascent allows me to feel so parental.
    • If you’re looking through the right lens, this song tells you everything you need to know; the Wizard is all but telling Elphaba that he’s her father here but because it’s not said outright and the actual revelation doesn’t come until later, I think it’s brilliant.
  • Dancing Through Life
    • There’s mention of being brainless and thoughtless and the irony here of Fiyero actually becoming brainless is not lost on me
      • I also love how Fiyero says in Thank Goodness that ‘people are so empty headed they’ll believe anything’ when he actually does become empty headed when he’s turned into the Scarecrow.
      • I also think it’s funny that Glinda says to Elphaba that Fiyero’s changed and that he’s ‘been…thinking!’ when he’s soon to not be doing any more thinking at all.
  • I like the mentions of melting throughout the story, prior to the rumor being spread that the Wicked Witch will melt
    • For example, Madame Morrible mentions how Elphaba ‘mustn’t get wet’ at the beginning of the film. I think Elphaba herself even mentions not getting wet at the beginning of the movie too, outside of the mention in The Wizard and I.
  • I think the irony of Elphaba saying in The Wizard and I ‘I swear, someday there’ll be a celebration throughout Oz that’s all to do with me!’ is worth mentioning. I feel so hard for her – I know she’s hoping there’s an event celebrating her brilliance, but I do think it’s ironic that there is a celebration throughout all of Oz all to do with Elphaba… only, it’s her ‘death’ they’re celebrating. She’s also correct when she says in this song that once she meets the Wizard her whole life will change, it’s just not in the way she had been expecting or hoping for.

• I love the instrumentals, especially the repetition of so many instrumentals and the singing of unlimited in so many different contexts. I think that’s part of what evokes such nostalgia in the show.

• These characters are so well written. You understand the attraction Boq has for Glinda in a way that’s familiar, because at one point or another in your life, you’ve had that type of innocent, unadulterated affection for someone. You experience how shallow Glinda is, but you also feel her regret over how she’s treated Elphaba.
  • As for Elphaba and Fiyero, they have so many layers. The character building here in particular is what’s so strong. These are two characters who don’t want you to see who they really are (Elphaba pretending she doesn’t care what people think of her and Fiyero claiming in Dancing Through Life that life is better when you ignore strife and only skim the surface) and yet, they become the only people who can really, truly see who the other is.

• The relatability of this show is wild to me. Even though the reality is very far from the world we live in because of the magic, the concepts of their world are very much the same. Many people in our world judge those who don’t look like them (like Elphaba), people prefer to live on the surface where there’s less conflict (like Fiyero says in Dancing Through Life), and a lot of times, the person who is more popular or who knows more people will get what they want over the little guy (the song Popular represents this well, especially when when Glinda says ‘it’s not about aptitude, it’s the way you’re viewed’)

The Thing That Hit Me Most Seeing the Movie

• Elphaba just kind of breaks my heart. And I say this because I LOVE Elphaba. I love her character, I love her personality, I love her heart. But the way she’s treated absolutely breaks my heart. You see it in the musical and you feel for her, but in this movie, I genuinely ACHED for her.
  • Elphaba has SUCH a GOOD HEART and no matter what she did, everyone was just so AGAINST her. And for what? Really, for what? Because she looked different than them? Because she spoke her mind? There’s nothing wrong with that. And it felt like she was the only one that could see that.
  • The way she wanted to help the animals, wanted to help Oz, wanted so desperately (and innocently) to believe in the Wizard, the way that she refused to bend her morals to align with the Wizard even though she knew it was the easiest route, THE WAY SHE HELPED GLINDA GET INTO THE SEMINAR???? She truly has the purest, kindest heart, and yet everyone was so against her and also so quick to turn on her (i.e. Madam Morrible)
    • The way that her peers treated her, shunned her, and bullied her broke. my. heart.
    • One of my favorite songs from Wicked is Dancing Through Life and I was counting down until that part of the movie, but I didn’t expect to actually cry during that song (unless it was nostalgic tearing up). When everyone was staring at Elphaba, alone, on the dance floor wearing her new hat, I absolutely broke down. To see a woman so broken, so humiliated, comprehending that she’d been treated so badly by someone she thought might actually be becoming her friend broke my heart. And when Glinda actually stepped out onto the dance floor and stood with Elphaba, that got me crying even more.
    • I will give extremely minor props to Glinda for seeing the way that everyone was treating Elphaba (including herself) was wrong – like when she gave her the hat – but it wasn’t until she danced with Elphaba that I was able to see a little bit of light in Glinda’s character.

The Three (Maybe Four) Parts That Got Me Most Emotional

• Dancing Through Life – Like I said above, when Elphaba is standing alone on the dance floor, I could not hold the tears in
• One Short Day – This scene felt so surreal for these two to finally be in the Emerald City, and when Kristin and Idina came on screen, I lost my freaking mind. Their presence alone was enough to get me full on crying, but the way they look at each other sealed the deal.
• Defying Gravity – The emotions are raw in this song and I just cried through the entire scene.
• The Credits – I couldn’t tell you if there was anything special in the credits because I started crying even more during the credits than Defying Gravity itself. I just looked at my family members and said ‘that was incredible’ and started crying even more. I could barely even get the words out, and as I sit here typing now, I could start crying again.

They really just did this story justice.

Things I’m Excited For in Part 2

• As Long As You’re Mine
  • I think the soundtrack for the second half of this musical is so underrated and I LOVE As Long As You’re Mine, No Good Deed, and March of the Witch Hunters and I think As Long As You’re Mine in particular is so beautiful and the fact that it means more Jonathan Bailey? Sign. Me. Up.

• Stemming from that last point, I can’t wait to see more Jonathan Bailey in the second half. I was so sad when I processed that after the train left for the Emerald City, he wouldn’t be in the movie anymore. I want to see more of his character and his character’s growth.
• For Good – I’m so excited to see how I feel watching Ariana and Cynthia sing For Good. That song in itself is so emotional and such a strong way to end the musical, so I’m curious to see if I’ll feel more of that loving friendship by the end of the second half that I was looking for in the first.

• This isn’t specific to part 2, but I’m really curious to hear the soundtrack. Some of the songs were extended (i.e. No One Mourns the Wicked, Dancing Through Life to a certain extent, One Short Day) and Defying Gravity was broken up a little bit in the end, so I’m curious how it will all come together on the soundtrack

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading all my thoughts and nostalgia about Wicked! Check out the trailer for the movie if you haven’t seen it yet and check out the movie once it hits theaters this weekend!