Back in 2019, Cats memes took over the internet after the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical was adapted into film with a starry cast and huge Hollywood budget.
Confused audiences everywhere decried the movie, wondering why on Earth Universal Pictures would choose to make it over a more likely slam dunk, like, say, a Wicked movie.
Rumblings of the latter had been going on since 2012, but it wasn’t until 2021 that a cast was finally confirmed and Jon Chu (whose past work includes In the Heights and Crazy Rich Asians) was attached to direct. Fast-forward to today and Wicked finally hits cinemas worldwide, and let’s just say, it was definitely worth the wait.
The story follows Elphaba, a verdant citizen of Oz with untold magical powers who will later go on to become the Wicked Witch of the West – the iconic villain at the centre of L. Frank Baum’s iconic 1900 children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
The film gets going with a window into her childhood: misunderstood, scapegoated and teased, we quickly learn that Elphaba’s early life was one of relative misery, and it’s only when she enrols at the Hogwarts-esque Shiz University that her fortunes change. Elphaba’s enemies-to-friends relationship with the oh-so-perfect Galinda (later Glinda, and eventually Glinda the Good Witch of the North) is also central to the plot.
Moviegoers might not be aware that this film is actually just the first part of Wicked, and that Part Two will allegedly arrive just before Christmas 2025.
Starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in the lead roles of Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, Wicked Part One follows the ever-popular stage show’s first half almost beat-for-beat, but adds even more detail to it, taking the film to a whopping two hours and forty minutes.
There’s no getting past the fact that this is a long movie that might have benefited from slimming down a smidge. However, the movie doesn’t drag thanks to magnetic performances from both of its leads, and an array of thrilling and heart-rending sequences that distract from its runtime.
It’s not just about the leads though. There is also Prince Fiyero, who will become much more important in the second film. He’s played by Bridgerton heartthrob Jonathan Bailey, who cavorts and swaggers around in the most charming and alluring of ways (it’s best evidenced in his performance during Fiyero’s big number, Dancing Through Life). Even so, Jonathan is somewhat underused, much like SNL darling Bowen Yang who plays one of Glinda’s sycophantic minions. The character was written for Bowen specifically, and though he has a couple of snappy lines, he’s never really there for more than a couple of seconds.
Some critics have already taken aim at the visual aesthetic of the film, but I personally cannot say I found it lurid or advert-like. The costumes, hair and makeup, sets and special effects are all visually delicious, and are reminiscent of the craft and colourful excess of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie from last year.
Back at Shiz, after catching the eye of sorceress and visiting professor, Madame Morrible (played by Michelle Yeoh) Elphaba joins the incoming class and inadvertently begins rooming with Glinda.
The chemistry between Cynthia and Ariana is obvious from the get-go as they go about Shiz taunting one another and squabbling, but with a sense of burgeoning sisterly love, rather than a Heathers-esque genuine disdain for one another. Finding this kind of chemistry can only have been imperative to the director, given that the story of Wicked is so much about the power of friendship to heal old wounds and empower a person.
Elphaba and Glinda soon set aside their differences after an incredibly moving scene at the Ozdust Ballroom, a club that a group of Shiz students sneak out to one evening. After being humiliated by her classmates, Glinda very publicly comforts Elphaba on the dancefloor – a key event that allows them to move forwards as friends rather than adversaries. Before long they’re off to Oz to meet the famed Wizard, played by Hollywood royalty, Jeff Goldblum (who is pretty much playing himself). But there’s a problem – the Wizard isn’t all he seems.
We learn of his villainous intentions when it emerges that he’s planning to wage a war against the talking animals of Oz, and Madame Morrible is also involved (doesn’t Michelle Yeoh play evil so brilliantly?) It’s a somewhat heavy-handed metaphor about silencing oppressed people that’s designed to question the dichotomy between good and evil – the point of Gregory Maguire’s original work, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which is, in turn, a revisionist exploration of Baum’s novel. But, hey, it works well enough!
Elphaba throws the Wizard’s offer to become his second-in-command in his face, and flees the Emerald City, now a fugitive. It’s an action-packed, electrifying sequence that incorporates Wicked’s standout song, Defying Gravity, and perfectly showcases Cynthia’s goosebump-inducing voice.
The vocals and musical arrangements are seriously impressive throughout – with Ariana, Jonathan and Cynthia all delivering spectacular performances – but it’s really Defying Gravity that’s the peak of all of these in Wicked.
Between the songs, the dancing and the visual details, there’s really a lot to love in Wicked, but the jewel in the crown of this film is really Cynthia. Her performance could have been cringeworthy, but instead it feels sincere and emotionally resonant, and will surely be relatable to anyone who has ever felt like a bit of a weirdo outcast. Ariana, too, shines, and demonstrates that her understanding of comedy is not to be underestimated. Personally, *I couldn’t be happier* with Chu’s offering to the world – bring on next year for Part Two!
Wicked is released on 22 November in UK cinemas.
