Are people born Wicked? Or do they have thrust upon them?
That is the question everyone who has ever seen the Broadway show, read the book or now has seen the movie is asked when watching Wicked.
When The Wizard of Oz was released almost 90 years ago in 1939, it was not expected to become the classic movie it is today. When you see a young woman with dark hair, pigtails, a blue and white checkered dress and red shoes, you know that a Dorothy Gale is around.
The original movie, based on L. Frank Baum’s over 100-year-old book series of the same name, showcased a young Judy Garland with a cast of other spectacular characters. Two characters stood out: Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West, who originally had no name.
That all changed in 1995 when Gregory Maguire, no relation to Spiderman actor Tobey Maguire, wrote a retelling prequel of the classic book and movie Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The book follows the story of Elphaba Thropp, her name based on the name of Oz’s creator, and tells the tale of how the Wicked Witch of the West became who she was and her relationship with Glinda, known back then as Galinda.
Now, the book is…questionable. There are very mature themes and aspects that make the book something for most people to look up trigger warnings for. Universal Pictures, who is distributing the movie, bought the rights to make a feature film based solely off the book in 1998.
According to the New York Theatre Guide, composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz was on vacation with his friend, songwriter John Bucchino, when Bucchino recommended the book to Schwartz and it was history from there. After falling in love with the concept, he successfully persuaded Maguire to give him the rights to Wicked. He also got Universal president Marc Platt on board to help produce the musical.
What spawned was one of the most iconic and longest-running musicals on Broadway, and it became the show that inspired many of the newer generations of Broadway performers.
So finally, after over 20 years, Wicked got its feature film, and it was worth the wait.
Jon M. Chu’s vision for the movie is one that truly shows how much he loves the source material. When you have someone at the top who loves what they will create, it brings in people who do as well.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo gave spectacular performances as Galinda and Elphaba. Their love for these iconic characters shined as they took very good care of their roles, making it almost impossible to imagine anyone else playing them. These roles were very sought after with many big names such as Amanda Seyfried, Dove Cameron and Reneé Rapp, who auditioned for Galina and Lea Michele, Amber Riley and Ariana DeBose, who auditioned for Elphaba.
Watching this movie felt like a love letter to the land of Oz and the magic surrounding it. The music was amazing and put perfectly into the movie. All the musical numbers flowed well into making it seem natural and not a jump like some do.
Jonathan Bailey was perfect with his charm and natural flirtatiousness that we saw in Bridgerton now coming to Oz. His voice took many people by surprise when Dancing Through Life came on, most people not knowing he also had a background in musical theatre. The Winkie Prince had chemistry with everyone, which made people who had never seen the Broadway play fall in love with the heartthrob, Fiyero Tigelaar.
You could feel the chemistry between all the characters and their emotions throughout the movie. At the end of the movie with Defying Gravity, the emotion between Grande and Erivo brought many to tears. You could see how much they needed each other but knew it would be better to go their separate ways in the end.
Erviro’s ending riff of the song put the proper punctuation to end the first part of the movie. The run time was two hours and 40 minutes, but it felt so much faster.
As we now wait for the second part to come out on Nov. 21, 2025, we can enjoy watching the number one movie in the world several times over and singing along to the soundtrack hoping to hit those notes, because no one mourns the wicked.
