‘Wicked’ review: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo aspire to movie musical magic

Wicked is easily one of the most anticipated films of 2024, as it’s bringing to the big screen a three-time Tony Award–winning musical that defined a generation of theater kids, with a Hollywood-scale spectacle of song, dance, and star power. As the Wicked Witch’s origin story told from a place of empathy, it’s a movie meant to make us believe in magic again. But even with a cast that boasts two-time Academy Award nominee Cynthia Erivo, pop star Ariana Grande, Bridgerton dreamboat Jonathan Bailey, Academy Award–winner Michelle Yeoh, and the one and only Jeff Goldblum, can director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights) meet the high, high bar fans will have in mind for such a sweeping adaptation? Especially when he’s only tackling half of it in Wicked: Part 1?

Despite enthusiasm from fans of the theatrical production, online criticism has plagued the film from the first images and footage that Universal Pictures released. Complaints were made that Chu’s vision of Oz was washed out, with colors far duller than we’ve come to expect from past media inspired by L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, including 1939’s Wizard of Oz, 1978’s The Wiz, and the vibrant Broadway production based on Gregory Maguire’s contrarian perspective, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Then, when the first teaser hit, offering a hint as to what kind of performance Erivo would give as the eponymous witch Elphaba, social media was rife with worries over how she hit one particular note. With the bold choice to split the musical into two films, Chu drew more eyebrows into a knit. So, how does all this pan out? Were the fans right to worry? Frankly, yes. 

While the performances in the film are sensational overall, Chu makes a series of downright confounding choices that undercut the rapturous flow of the Broadway production and even the perspective of the story he aims to exalt. 

Where does Wicked: Part 1 end? 

As the trailers suggest, this first Wicked movie ends with “Defying Gravity,” a rousing anthem that plays as a dynamic climax to the first act of the theatrical production. This means much of Wicked: Part 1 takes place in Shiz University, where the future wicked witch Elphaba (Erivo) and good witch Glinda (Grande) first meet. However, the screenplay from Dana Fox and Wicked‘s book writer Winnie Holzman holds true to its stage source, kicking off the film with news that the Wicked Witch is dead. After the munchkins revel with a song of schadenfreude (“No One Mourns The Wicked”), Glinda reflects on the childhood of her friend, Elphaba, transporting the film to a flashback of a torrid one-night stand and the green child who was the much-bullied result of it. From there, their time at Shiz becomes the focus.

There’s a kinetic energy in all this, reflecting Grande’s boundless energy throughout the film. But here’s where Chu’s choices begin to get bizarre. While this is a story about Elphaba, it’s told from the perspective of her deeply girly, proudly ridiculous, and very vibrant best friend. Glinda’s view on the world is clear through her costumes, which are pronounced pink, ultra-femme, flouncy, and always on the boundary of too much. Yet Chu coats her pinks and Elphaba’s greens in a yellowy-gray cast. Perhaps this is meant to telegraph how Glinda’s perspective on Oz will become sullied over the course of this story, but it also makes the movie astonishingly dull in comparison to all of the other movies set in Oz. 

This grayness intrudes most intensely on the incredible sets built for Shiz. Designed like a cross between Hogwarts and BarbieLand, Shiz University should be a majestic, magical place, where possibilities feel boundless. And yet, despite its thoughtful and gorgeous set design, a pale palette and cinematography that feels almost claustrophobic turns it into a stifling location. This conflicts with the perspective of Glinda, who swans into the role of Queen Bee with ease, and even with Elphaba, who swiftly embraces this space as a path to finally finding her place (“The Wizard and I”).

This grim overcast likewise saps verve from what would otherwise be astounding musical numbers, deadening the dazzle through its drudgery. In “Dancing Through Life,” a dashing prince Fiyero (a pitch-perfect Bailey) sings of his devil-may-care philosophy in a library filled with parkouring students on human-sized hamster wheels of bookshelves. And that is undoubtedly fun, yet this visual pall scoffs at his pronouncements, undermining their whimsy even as we enjoy them. 

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Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are unevenly matched. 

It’s no easy task to step into the role of these two iconic characters, as each actress might be compared to every Elphaba and Glinda who’ve come before, reaching all the way back to The Wizard of Oz‘s Margaret “and your little dog too!” Hamilton and Billie Burke, not to mention Wicked‘s defining stars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. Arguably, the bar is even higher for Grande, who is better known for her catchy pop songs than her acting chops or her Broadway stint in 13 at age 15. And yet, she is a fantastic force to be reckoned with in Wicked. 

As she teased during her Saturday Night Live gig last month, she is absolutely hilarious as the self-obsessed girly pop Glinda. There are echoes of Chenoweth’s Glinda in Grande’s broad comedic approach. But this pop star’s Glinda is more poised, making the outrageous moments — like her splendidly silly hair toss — all the more comically sharp. Grande has embraced a portrayal of this mean girl/good witch that edges into drag queen theatricality, supported by her smizing sidekicks in snark, hysterically portrayed by Bowen Yang and Bronwyn James. Glinda’s reads are delivered by Grande with a radiant smile that makes them all the more cutting. Her dancing is deranged while determined. Her “Popular” — one of the show’s most beloved numbers — is charismatically chaotic and finally, finally as brightly realized as Wicked demands. 

Erivo, on the other hand, approaches Wicked as if it were a prestige drama. Traditionally, Wicked‘s Elphaba was written with a bit of teen-misfit snark, and masterfully so, as Holzman’s prior claim to fame creating the exceptional teen drama series My So-Called Life. While the dialogue is often the same in this adaptation, Erivo pulls her punchlines. Where previous stage versions of Elphaba might have used a slightly self-righteous sense of wit as armor against her bullies, this Elphaba is much more nakedly vulnerable, speaking in a dejected near-whisper or a strained shout.

It’s a daring choice, but one that throws off Glinda and Elphaba’s dynamic. Like Daria and Quinn Morgendorffer or Wednesday Addams and Enid Sinclair, they are foils, gloom and sunshine, anti-social asides and “dumb blonde” bounciness — but this Elphaba has been defanged. A sullen expression of a slight frown and downcast eyes makes up much of Elphaba’s non-singing screentime for Act 1, which might not have been a problem if Chu had included Act II in Wicked. But as it is, Erivo’s Elphaba doesn’t come fully alive until she and Glinda reach the Emerald City (“One Short Day”). This means pivotal moments like the scene in the Ozdust Ballroom, where Elphaba and Glinda finally bond, feel achingly inert and long. 

Wicked: Part 1 is wonky, but at times wonderful. 

Chu’s decision to turn Act 1 into a teen musical is marred by his dingy color palette, the crowded cinematography of Shiz (thankfully, things open up in the Emerald City), and directing his leading lady to play the titular witch as chiefly woeful. A show heralded for its high-energy song numbers, stage spectacle, and smirking sense of humor, Wicked is malformed by these choices. Yet, some sections are sure to have audiences cheering. 

Beyond Erivo’s riveting performance of the final number and Grande giddily making a meal out of every moment on-screen, Bailey — who had Bridgerton fans swooning as Anthony in Season 2 — has a jolly time parodying a decadently flirtatious playboy in Part 1. His spotlight is “Dancing Through Life,” but even his meaningful glances to his crush and flirty banter with any Shiz student who crosses his pansexual path are enchanting. As Madame Morrible, Yeoh is given little do but look majestic, but she does that with aplomb. Marissa Bode and Ethan Slater — as Elphaba’s sister Nessarose and her boyfriend Boq — solidly match the screen presence of the famous names around them. Goldblum clearly relishes playing the wizard, and does so with a smarmy charm that’s dizzyingly unnerving and alluring. James and Yang are superbly cast as Glinda’s social-climbing toadies, who love gossip as much as they do improvising wild one-liners. They’re so funny, you’ll catch yourself scanning the crowd for them, hungry for more.

The musical numbers are hit-and-miss. “Popular” and “Defying Gravity” are rightful standouts for enthralling vocals and staging that embraces the cinematic form, employing cheeky close-ups, playful cutaways, or high-flying stunts as suits. But others feel oddly out of place, like “The Wizard and I” shot amid a CG setting that feels achingly empty and fake, undercutting the optimism of the song. Overall, Wicked is an overlong journey, dragged down by Chu’s more confounding choices. Upon reflection, a movie that could have been defined by its sense of hope, following a powerful and accomplished woman of color as she defies a tyrannical con man, feels instead tainted by gray disillusionment, telegraphing the film’s climactic reveals. So, it’s hard to watch Wicked play out and not wish for something more dynamic that allows us a safe space to dream for something better.

Still, even the lowest lows can’t make the film’s highest highs less dazzling. Indulgent and unwieldy as it is, Wicked is a thrill, at times wildly funny, heart-soaring, and ultimately inspirational in spite of itself.

Wicked opens in theaters Nov. 22.