On November 22, 2024, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande gave us the performance of lifetime in their roles as Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked. I have never seen two actresses so perfectly fit for their roles as Cynthia and Ariana, giving us a truly breathtaking performance. From someone who has also seen the Broadway production of ‘Wicked’ with Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristen Chenoweth as Glinda I can honestly say Ariana and Cynthia made those women proud!
From someone who has been an Ariana Grande fan for well over a decade, I have never felt more admiration for her than seeing her in this film. In all her years of acting and performing I have never seen her so genuinely happy in a role and it honestly warmed my heart seeing her put on the performance of her life.
The movie opens with the wicked witch dead and munchkinville celebrating her demise until one of the munchkins ask Glinda if she was a friend of Elphaba, throwing us into the story of what happened prior to the events of ‘The Wizard of Oz’.
Glinda and Elphaba arrive at ‘Shiz University’ where they meet Madame Morrible and get their class schedules / living arrangements. Glinda is almost desperate to become a sorceress while Elphaba was not even supposed to enroll as she was only accompanying her sister Nessarose to her orientation but after Madame Morrible discovers that Elphaba has the gift of magic/sorcery she enrolls her into her private magic-teaching seminar.
In the first days of their semester we meet their professor, Dr.Dillamond, a talking goat who tells the class how talking animals are increasingly going missing and no one seems to care, that is besides Elphaba. She forms a bond with Dr.Dillamond stressing how wrong she believes the treatment of animals is to which he agrees. Unfortunately later in the movie, prior to Elphaba’s trip to the Emerald City, Dr.Dillamond is fired and forcibly removed from his classroom as talking animals were effectively banned from holding positions such as teachers.
Due to Glinda’s desperation to gain the favor of Madame Morrible she unintentionally offers to share her room with Elphaba which in turn starts somewhat of a rivalry between the two. Glinda shows no interest in attempting to get to know Elphaba or even be cordial with her and the two share mutual feelings of ‘loathing’ one another despite being roommates. This goes on until Glinda sets up Elphaba to be humiliated at a party by giving her the iconic witch hat but you watch guilt completely engulf Glinda causing her to step in and show Elphaba that she wants to give them a chance to become friends. This scene is so important for the plot as it marks the start of Glinda being Elphaba’s biggest supporter in her journey to meet the wizard.
After the party Glinda and Elphaba return to their room where the iconic song/scene ‘popular’ takes place. What I loved most about this song is how you can see the friendship of Elphaba and Glinda really start to build a foundation here where Glinda is attempting to help Elphaba feel more confident and Elphaba teaching Glinda what real goodness is. Prior to this Glinda only ‘helps’ others when it will also benefit her but at this point in the film we start to see a change in Glinda and we see her start to actually value Elphaba as a friend, even nicknaming her ‘Elphie’ which to me marked the start of the most beautiful relationship in all of Oz.
Later in the film Elphaba gets personally invited to Oz by the wizard, which she excitedly accepts. She invited Glinda to join her and once they arrive in the Emerald City you see despite how different they are, they both feel that they have found a place where they belong. Once in the Royal Palace of Oz the wizard (played by the amazing Jeff Goldblum) asks Elphaba to read from the Grimmerie; an ancient spellbook in Oz that only a small handful of people have been able to read in all of Oz history. Upon her first glance at it she is able to fluently read it and as she does she unintentionally causes the Royal Palace guards (who are monkeys) to grow blue feathered wings giving them the ability to fly. The Wizard and Madame Morrible immediately celebrate Elphaba’s display of her power while she herself is absolutely horrified at what she has done to those monkeys as the growing of their wings seems unbearably painful.
This is the point in the film where it takes a turn and we realize the Wizard has no real powers and alongside Madame Morrible they had both planned to use Elphaba for their own personal gain in ridding Oz of talking animals. After finding out the truth, Elphaba refuses to help them destroy Oz in such a way and she immediately becomes a fugitive with Madame Morrible sending the newfound flying monkeys after her.
Glinda gets separated from Elphaba from the guards as arguably the most iconic song of this film starts ‘Defying Gravity’. Ervio absolutely demolished expectations with her remarkably stellar performance in this song. Her vocals in this song alone absolutely blew me away, she made ‘defying gravity’ a true masterpiece here. As she closes the song her character Elphaba escapes the palace on her iconic flying broomstick and as the scene fades to black the words ‘to be continued…’ take over the screen.
Overall I would rate this move an easy 10000/10. It was the perfect mixture of comedy, musical, classical tale and had the most engaging plot with so many little details that made the story so much more interesting. Even my boyfriend who is not even remotely a fan of musicals like this absolutely loved this movie and immediately after leaving the theater he googled when part two was coming out. If you have not seen it yet I highly recommend experiencing the best musical to movie adaptation in over a decade.