Wicked’s phenomenal film adaptation is miles better than the stage musical-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

Wicked demonstrates how to perfectly adapt a stage musical for the screen (Picture: Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures)

Wicked the movie musical has flown past my high expectations with the undeniable quality of its scope, vision and imagination – this is exactly how you adapt a stage show for the big screen.

That it builds this on as remarkable a foundation as it does thanks to the towering talent of its cast and creatives means it doesn’t put a foot wrong.

Yes, for some, it will simply be a kitsch musical with talking animals that makes them cringe with its songs, sincerity and silliness in equal measure. But for anyone that has even just quite liked the stage production or listened to the soundtrack, Wicked the movie elevates the material to a higher plane.

Plenty of this is down to its lead performers Cythia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey, all of whom are exquisitely cast, as well as Jon M. Chu at the helm. The fact that no one doubted they were capable of the task at hand doesn’t take way from the fact that they absolutely master it, with the help of the show’s original musical and producing team Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman, Marc Platt and David Stone.

From the beginning, director Chu is evoking the splashiness of MGM musicals and this one’s roots in the world of The Wizard of Oz (via Gregory Maguire’s take on L. Frank Baum’s creation) with its lavishness and spectacle.

The attention to detail is extraordinary and sure to thrill fans with its magical references and cameos, while the production design delights in recreating Munchkinland, the Emerald City and the Venice-like vista of Shiz, where misfit Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and popular girl Glinda (Ariana Grande) are thrust together on their first day of university.

At its centre, the musical is a tale of the glorious complexities of female friendship (Picture: Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures)

It harks back beautifully to its roots in The Wizard of Oz (Picture: Universal Pictures)

As we know from Glinda’s appearance at the start – in her ‘good witch’ guise of a pink bubble as per the 1939 musical – she and Elphaba, eventually to become the Wicked Witch of the West, were close in their younger years before going their very separate ways. So much so that everyone is celebrating Elphaba’s death at the start.

We then get thrust back to the start of their origin story in a movie where the central relationship is an enemies-to-soulmates arc between two women who become best friends. That its most emotional dance moment happens between these two – in a film filled with huge production moments – is no mistake.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are both incredible as Glinda and Elphaba (Picture: Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures)

But speaking of these, Wicked’s greatest strength has always been Schwartz’s outstanding songs, from Popular, Defying Gravity and The Wizard and I to What Is This Feeling? Every single one of these is intricate, catchy and ambitious – and all easily expand to fill the extra space afforded to them by a Hollywood budget. It’s all killer, no filler.

There has been a lot of talk about Grande as Glinda, who trained her voice in a more legit musical theatre style for the role, trilling and soaring and sounding as you’ve never heard her before on the charts. She also flexes her comedy muscles to play the self-obsessed and perky wannabe witch who announces she must ‘lie down’ to recover when something doesn’t go her way. Her Glinda is dramatic, flouncy and overly-eager – she’s every musical theatre kid who was told they were ‘too much’, and consequently will represent many fans.

Erivo has a spine-tingling voice as perpetual outsider Elphaba (pictured with Marissa Bode as her onscreen sister Nessarose) (Picture: Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures)

You’ve never heard Grande sound like this before (Picture: Universal Pictures)

But hers is not the performance of the movie.

Erivo is more understated as perpetual outsider Elphaba, always having to excuse her greenness, but from the minute she opens her mouth for her first song The Wizard and I, she sent tingles down my spine.

She’s a master at acting through song, à la Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia, but with a voice that is out of this world. By the climax of this first song, I wanted to burst out into song too or at the very least applaud. And when we later get to her wistful lament in I’m Not That Girl and that, ladies and gentleman, will be the clip the Academy plays before she potentially makes EGOT status.

And while Wicked is all about is two leading ladies, we must spare a moment or several for Jonathan Bailey’s virile, twinkly Fiyero, who quite literally leaps onto the screen on his horse while clad in tight britches and sturdy riding boots.

Jonathan Bailey breathes new life into the role of Fiyero (Picture: Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures)

He’s charming in a way I never found the rather bland character to be onstage, bringing vibrancy to the role as a big screen heartthrob who tears up the floor (and library books) with his aggressive dancing. Now it makes sense that he could turn the head of both Glinda and Elphaba.

A West End veteran himself, Bridgerton actor Bailey also boasts an exemplary voice – the casting directors truly spoiled fans here – and there are no exceptions made when every number is treated as a potential show-stopper.

Jeff Goldblum also offers a sincere singing performance as the Wizard, even as a known showman, and Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh is in good voice too as Elphaba’s mentor Madame Morrible. Both in smaller roles, neither star was silly enough to pass up an opportunity to be part of something this good.

Wicked’s leads have solid magical support from Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh (Picture: Universal Pictures)

Wicked treats its music with the reverence fans expect, so it’s a seamless build into the film’s climax around the iconic number Defying Gravity, which Erivo sings with care, accuracy, and appreciation for it as the moment, which is in fact stretched out across several by cinematic scale.

Wicked on the West End is good – it’s never been one of my absolute favourites – but here, as a film, is where it reaches its full potential.

The only major hurdle for Chu now is how to do this all over again for part two in 2025, when fans get to see the climax of this tale. It also doesn’t feature such a strong string of songs. But if I have faith in anyone, it’s him, as Chu intrinsically understands the material, the genre and what fans want.

I give Wicked a standing ovation.

Wicked is in cinemas from Friday, November 22.

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