‘Wicked′ review: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo deliver in a dazzling movie-musical

I was 10 when “Wicked” first debuted on Broadway. By the time I was in middle school, my drama and choir classes were buzzing with anticipation — we’d listen to the soundtrack, pour over the lyrics and hope to see the musical ourselves one day.
While I am pleased to report that I have seen “Wicked” since, I felt a similar buzz of anticipation when it was announced in 2019 that a “Wicked” movie was in the works.
My excitement quickly turned to skepticism when it was announced in 2021 that pop megastar Ariana Grande had be cast as Glinda — alongside the wildly talented, Tony-award winning actress and singer Cynthia Erivo.
But when first-reactions to “Wicked” trickled out earlier this year — saying it was excellent and on-par with other successful movie-musicals like “Chicago” and “Mamma Mia!” — my excitement began to build again.
Readers, I am delighted to say that those first reports were right.
“Wicked,” directed by Jon M. Chu, is a delight. It’s full of dazzling musical numbers and packed with talent, and it even has a few surprisingly touching moments.
“Wicked: Part 1″ closely follows the first act of the musical. We open to a sumptuously colorful and lush Oz that’s celebrating the aftermath of the events of “The Wizard of Oz”: the Wicked Witch of the West is dead and the inhabitants of Oz are overjoyed.
Glinda (Grande), carrying a wand and floating down in her signature bubble, celebrates with her “fellow Ozians.” Glinda dives into Elphaba’s (Erivo) backstory, revealing that she was born under dubious circumstances and had green skin since birth.
When asked if Glinda knew Elphaba, we flash back to their time at Shiz University, where most of the movie takes place.
It’s here we meet the other players: Nessarose (Marissa Bode), Elphaba’s sister; Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), the headmistress; Doctor Dillamond (Peter Dinklage), a goat history professor; Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), a handsome Winkie prince; Boq (Ethan Slater), a Munchkin man; and more.
While I was initially doubtful about the news that “Wicked” would be split into two parts, I appreciated Chu’s choice — it allowed the first movie to dig deep into Glinda and Elphaba’s time at Shiz, their rivalry and their eventual (very touching) friendship.
Erivo is unsurprisingly excellent as Elphaba. She serves up strong performance, adding a vulnerable depth to the at-first defensive and prickly green witch.
Elphaba, always an outcast, is especially passionate about advocating for those who are different (namely the rights of the various speaking animals throughout Oz) and Erivo plays this conviction with passion.
And when Erivo lets us see through the cracks — particularly when Elphaba shows up to the Ozdust Ballroom, clad in her soon-to-be signature pointy hat — it’s incredibly moving.
Again, it’s unsurprising that Erivo gives a formidable vocal performance — she is a Tony award-winning Broadway actress, after all. She manages to put her own spin on her performance with some unexpected riffs and tweaks to the original music.
Mostly this works, but sometimes it doesn’t. I’ll let you decide for yourself — although, social media seems torn on the now-infamous riff at the end of “Defying Gravity.”
But the biggest surprise of the movie was Grande as Glinda. Anyone familiar with the show knows that Glinda often serves as the comedic foil to Elphaba, and Grande more than delivers, drumming up some of the biggest laughs in the theater.
Grande has some hilarious moments particularly with Pfannee (Bowen Yang) and ShenShen (Bronwyn James), her two doting minions and welcome additions to the film.
Grande has excellent comedic timing and impeccable range. She leans into comedy in one scene and helps carry some of the most poignant and touching moments in another, all the while convincingly shouldering meaningful character development throughout the film.
How’s her singing? Well, it’s certainly pretty — and sometimes even impressive, soaring to impossibly high notes — but it hardly holds a candle to her Glinda predecessors.
Her voice lacks the oomph that you’d expect from a Broadway show and it will likely be compared to Kristin Chenoweth, the original Glinda on Broadway, by Broadway fans — but comparing Grande to the once-in-a-lifetime talent that is Chenoweth feels a little unfair.
(Broadway fans will be delighted to learn that both Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, the original Elphaba, have excellent cameos in the film.)
Luckily, Grande’s voice blends beautifully with Erivo’s, making their duets excellent. And Erivo and Grande have incredible chemistry, convincingly transitioning from enemies to best friends, and serving up more than one poignant moment together.
Another pleasant surprise was Bailey as Fiyero. Best-known for his role in “Bridgerton,” Bailey isn’t as well-known for his singing chops, but he deftly carries one the most dazzling musical numbers of the whole show, “Dancing Through Life,” serving up both impressive vocals and dancing.
Beyond his musical talent, Bailey is charming and roguish as the Winkie prince, while hinting that there’s a little more to him beyond his care-free persona. Bailey also has the unique ability to have chemistry with practically anyone he’s a romantic lead with, so he has great chemistry with both Grande and Erivo.
The few, briefly swoon-worthy interactions between Fiyero and Elphaba specifically will likely have fans excited to see Fiyero and Elphaba’s relationship develop in “Wicked: Part 2.”
“Wicked,” while an excellent movie-musical, is not without faults.
Chu has a habit of breaking up musical numbers with dialogue and action. While this sometimes works narratively — like in “Dancing Through Life,” a number where Fiyero convinces the students of Shiz to sneak out to a dance club called Ozdust Ballroom — it doesn’t always.
By far the most egregious choice was to break up “Defying Gravity” with slivers of action and dialogue, prolonging it to seven minutes and causing the iconic musical number to lose some steam.
Additionally, as is the often the case with movie-musicals, singing ability varies across the cast. Slater as Boq is serves up some decent vocal moments, as does Bode as Nessarose and even Dinklage as Doctor Dillamond.
Yeoh as Madame Morrible, on the other hand, only sing-speaks a few lines — luckily what she lacks in singing she makes up in acting — while Goldblum is only a passable singer (but a surprisingly delightful dancer).
My only other gripe is that the movie is quite long — “Wicked” comes in at two hours and 41 minutes (the entire run-time of the Broadway show is two hours and forty-five minutes, for reference), and could easily benefit from shaving off at least 20 minutes.
And because 12 musical numbers are stretched out over an almost-three hour run time, 10 to 20 minutes often go by between songs. At times, “Wicked” felt like a movie with a few musical numbers sprinkled in, instead of a full-on movie-musical.
Whether you’re a musical fan or not, you’ll likely enjoy “Wicked.”
Not only is the movie wonderful to look at — the set design and costuming are all beautiful and whimsical — it digs into deeper themes like identity, friendship and societal acceptance, all themes that might even resonate with your kids.
At the very least, “Wicked” will be a fun watch over Thanksgiving week, and at most, it’ll be cemented as a movie-musical classic.
One thing’s for sure — you’ll likely find yourself humming one of the show’s catchy tunes long after the credits roll.
“Wicked” is rated PG and is in theaters Nov. 22.