by Navina Bekheit

Short answer: Yes, yes it was! On Friday, November 22, Wicked fans from across the country heard Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo belting out the tunes that they have waited so long to hear in theaters. 

Wicked depicts two witches, Elphaba and Glinda, or Galinda before her name switch. The musical goes through the backstories of the two witches before Elphaba became the infamous “Wicked Witch of the West.” Originally they both went to a college known as Shiz. It was Glinda’s dream to study sorcery, but she didn’t possess the same natural ability that Elphaba did. Elphaba originally just wanted to drop off her sister, but then the professor of sorcery saw her raw talent and insisted that she stay. Of course, the only room with available space was Glinda's. They HATED each other. However, the more time they spent together the closer they became. Soon, they became best friends. That is until the wizard and Elphaba’s professor betrayed Elphaba and turned the whole of Oz against her. That was how she became known as ‘wicked’.

I was fortunate enough to see the movie on opening night, and the theaters were packed! People had a difficult time finding tickets because most theaters were sold out. I bought tickets for Showcase Cinemas at the Hanover Crossing. The only showtime that had two seats together was at 9:20 PM. Fellow senior Courtney DeRenne and I went to see it and had nothing but raving reviews.

During filming both Grande and Erivo insisted on singing all their songs live on set, so the vocals you hear in the movie are their live vocals. Just to put it into perspective, most songs are usually recorded ahead of time in a studio in order to add autotune or to edit it as much as needed if at all. They opted out of this. Looking at the songs from a vocal standpoint, this is incredibly hard to do, Grande in the opening number how to dance, while singing whistle notes. Erivo sang “Defying Gravity,” which is arguably one of the most challenging songs, while doing her own stunts, which included flying through the air. 

The movie was nearly three hours long and is only one of two parts. The first part follows only Act 1 of the original musical. It ends with a bang on “Defying Gravity”. The work that went into this movie is astonishing. Most of the sets were real and not CGI. There were over 2,000 flowers planted in order to make the field in Munchkinland, the bullet train leading to the Emerald City was a real train that production had constructed, and they built the college along with all the rooms shown. 

Overall, the movie was incredible - incredibly long, but also extremely worth it. It encompassed the musical beautifully and keeps its original beauty intact. According to senior Courtney DeRenne, “It was perfect! I wouldn’t change a single thing."

Truthfully, the energy in the theater was like nothing I had ever experienced. You could feel the excitement from the fans who had been waiting for this all year since it was announced.