Recently, the movie “Wicked” came out in theaters. It is based on the Broadway musical of the same name, which is based on a book written by Gregory Maguire. The story is about the Wicked Witch of the West before she became who we know her as. Cynthia Erivo plays the lead, Elphaba, and Ariana Grande plays Galinda. The movie came to theaters on November 22nd. Also, the film was nominated for 4 Golden Globe Awards. Also, they have received 11 nominations for the Critics Choice Awards.
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The movie is part one of the musical that is currently playing on Broadway. The movie takes place after the Wicked Witch of the West has died. Glinda tells the story of The Wicked Witch’s life from childhood to where they are now. She begins with the childhood of Elphaba. Elphaba was an outcast growing up because she looked different from everyone else: she’s green. Then goes to where they met at Shiz University. Madame Morrible teaches Elphaba how to harness her powers and tells The Wizard about her and what she can do. While all of this goes one, a new student by the name of Fiyero. He takes the students to the Ozdust Ballroom. Elphaba receives an invite to go to the Emerald City. She tells Galinda to go with her and she does. They both get to meet The Wizard and Elphaba uses her powers to open the Grimmerie. Elphaba is lied to which causes her to leave the city.
The rest of the cast besides Erivo and Grande are Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Dinklage, and Marissa Bode. Bailey plays Fiyero. Slater plays Boq. Yeoh and Goldblum play Madame Morrible and The Wizard respectively. Dinklage plays the voice of Dr. Dillamond. Lastly, Bode plays Nessarose. Jon M. Chu directed the movie. Stephen Schwartz created the music. Winnie Holtzman and Dana Fox wrote the movie.
A lot of people have been waiting for this movie to come out and people have had high expectations for the movie to be good. The movie has reached up and beyond the expectations set. Even though this movie has surpassed expectations, one drawback to the movie is that the movie is almost 3 hours long; however, the movie flies by. It seems like an hour because it is so easy to lose the sense of time while watching the movie.
I think that if you get the chance to see this movie you should take it. Even though it’s a musical, the songs fit well into it and make it seem like the conversation that was once going on is continuing. I fell in love the second the first song started because it has much more to it than the Broadway cast album can have. If you get the chance to see it, you should take it.
Entertainment Weekly
Written by Megan Rentfrow