By Brian Landa
@BrianLandaLawyer
New York business trip Spring 2004. My third trip to the city. As many of us do when in NYC, we extend our stay to see some shows. Wicked was already New York hot, not national Zeitgeist yet, but very sold out. I saw that I could get in a standby line, but the wait was four hours of trip time. Worth it. $100 flat for eighth row center orchestra, for a fantastic show that was all new to me. The show had been running for several months by then, but it was pre-Tonys, so the principals, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, were still original Broadway cast.
After the bows, none other than Liza Minnelli showed up during curtain call to assist with a charity auction. The crowd went bonkers because Joel Grey was the onstage Wizard, so it was a Cabaret reunion with actual Oz royalty. She’s the literal biological daughter of Judy “Dorothy” Garland.
So I was understandably concerned about the movie versions. Film adaptations of stage shows are hit and miss. For every Les Miserables or Into The Woods that works, there’s A Chorus Line or Dear Evan Hansen that doesn’t. After twenty-plus years of listening to the cast album repeatedly, it becomes part of you. I was not crazy about the casting when it was announced early. Ariana Grande had licked that donut for a viral video, and British Cynthia Erivo had said something about American Black actors being subpar talent. So I had a bit of animosity toward each of them.
But the first movie, also directed by John M. Chu, was spectacular. The songs, the sets, the costumes. It didn’t at all feel like the running time. Which is why I’m somewhat disappointed to say that Wicked: For Good is not as good. It doesn’t feel like they were filmed simultaneously (although reportedly they were) because the tone is so different, but the second act (this is not a sequel) is indeed darker. And it has some of the most iconic songs.
Unfortunately, they decided to Oscar bait with a couple new songs which aren’t even worth mentioning, except for some fascinating mirror FX camera work in a purely Grande sequence. I don’t expect either new song to win, but I’ve been surprised before. The character development of Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) is really good. He’s quite the party boy in the first film and act one of the show, very similar to the Brother character in Ragtime in his transition from fun frivolous guy to intense risk-taking political activist.
Michelle Yeoh returns as the weather-controlling (she can’t do much else) Madame Morrible. But she’s somewhat of a non-entity. Jeff Goldblum is much more punchy as The Wizard in part two, as his sinister false nature is revealed more and more. The animal-rights aspect of the entire endeavor is not lost. Apparently, some people have become vegetarian or vegan since they were involved in this endeavor.
Nessa also goes through quite the character development, because she is after all The Wicked Witch of the East by the time the house falls on her. They find a clever way to get her out of the chair in one sequence through flying magic rather than just getting up and walking, because that particular performer, Marissa Bode, is specially-abled in real life as well.
The vibe is very different from the frothy fun of the massive dance sequences at Shiz University. Harry Potter has a similar issue once they take the plot out of the school. It got dark and bleak and not fun anymore. Not that it’s supposed to be fun, because this is a very intense story of fascism and political strife. Very much a reflection of present times. The source novel, never intended for children, was always political, and the stage show, which premiered in 2003, was a coded story reflecting W and Abu Ghraib.
There’s a somewhat goofy catfight scene, which somehow works better than some of the other elements of this one. Domingo Colman shows up as the voice of The Cowardly Lion. He was stunning in the recent hybrid docu-drama Sing-Sing, but he is not given much to do here. They try to weave Oz mythology in and out, but not as effectively or as subtle as the stage show.
And with the legacy of Wicked for 20 years and The Wizard of Oz (1939) for the past 85 years, the source material is very familiar to us. You don’t want to insult the fans, but you also don’t want to be a carbon copy. The changes and additions are hit and miss. It’s definitely intensely emotional.
The For Good duet works very well. After all, it’s now the title of the film. You can see Erivo’s emotion pull through, even with the greenish contacts and green skin. I love the design of that hat. Upside down, it very much resembles a cyclone. And that pointy hat plays a key role throughout both films. “It’s really, uh, sharp, don’t you think?”
The animals, talking and not, look very realistic, so it’s not bad CGI, but it just feels like more CGI than the first one did. This is not a show with a truly happy ending, so that takes some getting used to. The sequence of brutal travel restrictions and discrimination against the Munchkin population is very now. And I like how they kind of look similar with the frizzy red hair. The set design and costuming, of course, are still spectacular, and I expect repeat Oscar nominations, if not wins.
And like the first film, they keep to the original Stephen Schwartz orchestrations for the most part. But Erivo certainly puts her own spin on the vocalizations, as does Grande. Their voices are not the issue. And they are apparently very close in real life. Erivo protected Grande from an aggressive fan who tried to grab her recently.
Chu and company have plans to stay within the world of Oz for another project or two and have a lot of source material to choose from on a different path than Elphaba and G(a)linda. Author L. Frank Baum was prolific. Quite a few Oz books. Elphaba’s very name is in honor of the creator. Mind blown when that was first pointed out, hidden in plain sight. Looking forward to where the adventure unfolds next in this colorful, scary and spectacular fantasy world.
