The new movie adaption of the world-renowned Broadway musical “Wicked” is now out in theatres. Many people have high expectations for the release of Jon M. Chu’s movie adaptation and the movie easily exceeded anything fans could have hoped for.
Fans of the original musical will immediately notice a few differences, such as the fact that they have added short little tidbits with amazing creativity to add to the scenery and portray scenes so incredibly well. With this only being the first movie in a two-act portrayal, we do not get to follow along on Glinda and Elphaba’s full tale, but we watch their adventures throughout Shiz which is a legendary school renowned throughout all of Oz.
Now of course the music is one of the most important things to consider in a musical and the soundtrack was genuinely incredible throughout the entire movie. With casting pop star Ariana Grande as Glinda, it was genuinely a perfect fit for the role taking the original Kristen Chenoweth’s role to a whole new level in certain songs. While she obviously played the role with some differences, she was an incredible pick and truly played Glinda’s role to the fullest. When taking on the role of Elphaba, originally played by Idina Menzel who also starred in the popular movie Frozen, Cynthia Erivo took on her role incredibly well, especially in Elphaba’s big song “Defying Gravity” she took the song to another level truly leaving any watchers in absolute awe.
As for the storyline, some fans may make complaints about it not being the exact same, however, they really took the original and enhanced it with jaw-dropping scenery and absolutely stunning backgrounds and effects that simply cannot be created on stage. As for the storyline, they follow it perfectly even adding little scenes to truly grow the characters’ relationships and get the audience to truly know them. The only gripes to truly be had with the movie are two things:, while they recorded the entire soundtrack for the movie live while filming the album that they released simply does not have the same incredible feeling. The only other problem to have with the adaption is the fact that after an incredibly stunning performance of “Defying Gravity,” fans are now left waiting until Nov 21, 2025, to watch the second part as they finish post-production.
The film enhances and improves upon everything they could not do on stage, and even manages to bring in the original actors of Elphaba and Glinda as a cherry on top. It was an absolutely amazing experience, and it is absolutely a must-see not just for any fans of the original musical but for everyone out there. All in all, I would absolutely recommend watching it and I personally will be going to watch it again.
