We’ve reached the end of another long week. But before we clock out for the weekend, we’re giving props where they’re due. Here’s to our winners of the week.
If you’ll allow me to nerd out about the history of the Wicked movie for just a second, and why I’ve been skeptical from the jump: The show, based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, which is inspired by The Wizard of Oz, has been running and touring since 2003. A movie was announced in 2010. Yeah…it doesn’t take a decade to shoot a movie musical (unless you’re Richard Linklater). And every time there was a report or a rumor that it was actually, finally going to happen I became less and less convinced. So when the current iteration was first announced, I swear I turned to a friend and said, “please, the Wicked movie is never gonna happen.”
Cut to Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo being announced as the leads. I was wrong, and they seemed passionate about the project (though my prediction that Grande will need to enunciate more seems to be coming true). But I remained hesitant to get my hopes up. Not necessarily about the actual finished product—In The Heights was pretty good—but about the studio’s ability to translate what works about the musical to an audience.
Lately, we’ve been hit with an onslaught of movie musicals hiding the fact that they are musicals. See: Wonka, Mean Girls, The Color Purple. Wicked didn’t go in that direction, but it did bury the fact that it’s two movies.
YES, TWO MOVIES.
WHICH NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW, BUT THERE IS GOING TO BE A PART TWO NEXT YEAR.
Instead, the marketing focused on tired method dressing and…hanging out with the Kardashians? Add to this the fact that Grande and co-star Ethan Slater’s relationship threatened to overshadow the narrative and Erivo’s, frankly, bizarre response to a fan edit and I’ve been bracing for it to be more flopular than popular.
…until literally this week.
What is this feeling? They finally got it! The right hook: it’s for nerds. For Gleeks in recovery. Theater kids past and present. Nothing has gotten me more excited about the movie than the clip of Erivo and Grande falling to pieces meeting an original cast member of the cult favorite puppet musical Avenue Q (the show that, actually, beat Wicked for Best Musical in 2004).
There’s finally an element of fun.
No more seriousness and crying, it was enough. The dolls have a porn site on the packaging— haha! Whoops!—and the director live streamed the premiere from the room where his wife was giving birth. Charming!
The cast is being human, and the fans are eating it up. Just watch the reaction to Jonathan Bailey giving one a kiss on the cheek. It’s a better explanation of who Fiyero is than any interview or character poster could ever hope to capture.
X content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
All it takes to win the musical nerds over is to show you’re a fan like any of us; it’s almost pathetically easy. Ethan Slater accepting a friendship bracelet makes him babygirl. Okay!
With any luck (and heart, and brains, and courage), the team will stay on this path for the next week until the movie’s a certified smash. And they key is, eleka namen namen… friendship. The best part of this Today clip isn’t Cyn and Ari; it’s Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie in pink and green—someone finally figured out that these two should be interviewed by pairs of women.
X content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
But the best news? Apparently the movie is really good. Let us rejoicify.
And as an extra treat for Broadway nerds, Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman are getting ready to soft launch, which gives everyone an excuse to go back down the Roger Bart/Christian Borle rabbit hole. Laaaaa laaaaa la la la laaaaa.
The post It Was a Great Week to be a Wicked-Loving Theater Kid appeared first on Glamour.
