We are living in challenging times. And what comes naturally when that happens? We turn to our memories, letting nostalgia take over from the difficult present. Because everything in our past can be reworked, re imagined and beautified and that’s just what our weary soul needs. And the film ‘Wicked’, releasing this week, allows us to dream too.
Perhaps no story is as indicative of the power of nostalgia and yearning for a different place and another time than The Wizard of Oz. I mean, how much more wistful can we get than “There’s no place like home” — Dorothy’s sentence says it all.
Wicked, “initially started as a film because [the story] was cinematic,'“ as producer Marc Platt explained during an online press meet. And because “it wasn’t working,” initially as a film, as Platt continued, it became a musical because “music elevates it and brings whimsy” — only to become a film again 22 years later. Yet this is not the story of Dorothy and her travels to Oz to meet the Wizard, instead focusing on what in modern cinematic lingo is called “an origin story,” — where it all began.
Wicked tells the story of how Elphaba (played by Cynthia Erivo) AKA the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda (Ariana Grande) AKA the Good Witch of the North met at Shiz University in Oz as young women and became unlikely friends and allies. One green skinned and with a goth sense of fashion, one all pink and pretty blonde from head to toe, the girls go about using their different superpowers to make the world around them a better place. While this first installment of the film Wicked, directed by Rich Crazy Asians filmmaker Jon M. Chu only touches on what happens in the Broadway musical up to the end of Act I, the film is a joy to behold and makes one wonder how we’re ever going to manage waiting another year to watch part II. Yes, the second installment is due in late 2025.
“I remember being a young USE student in San Francisco,” Chu admitted, “and going to watch Wicked the musical with my mom at the Curran theater and that was my first experience” with the story. The filmmaker continued, “I remember being blown away by this story, The Wizard of Oz meant so much to my family who came over from China and this represented the American dream.” He gushed about how he imagined then that “one day a filmmaker would make an amazing movie out of this, I didn’t know it would be me.” And an amazing movie Chu has made.
Wicked x Aldo line at the Doha Festival City mall
Walking around the mall here in Doha, where I find myself for the annual Ajyal Film Festival devoted to young audiences, I discovered a line made especially by Aldo celebrating the film. Wicked x Aldo has accessories in both pink and black/green combos and what a sense of yearning that created in me! I’m missing the premiere of the film in London this week but ever since watching it inside a special screening room a couple of weeks ago with a cool colleague of mine, I haven’t stopped thinking about it. The power of magical moviemaking strikes again, I say.
Both Grande and Erivo sing live in the film and, while challenging, Erivo admitted that “we are singers, it’s what we love and it allowed us to get closer to the characters — singing live gave us the chance to play with the characters and with the music and have more fun.” Grande added, “in solidarity with our sister witches, the material demands it be spontaneous.” Perhaps it is this sisterhood and spontaneity that add to the mix, making Wicked a personal adventure for each and every spectator who watches it.
When asked about the message of the film, which betrays a very serious subtext under the magic and beauty of the story, Erivo said “it couldn’t be more perfect, it has arrived right on time,” adding that the story addresses what should be the human “capacity to accept people, which is always going to be relevant.” I’d add that Jeff Goldblum’s character is Trumpian in style and ability, a man who pretends to be grand but is really hiding behind a mask of grandeur and his Wizard could not be more timely. Apart from the actor’s great talent and his obvious ability to wear the emerald green clothes of his character with style and panache, Goldblum’s particular way of talking befits the part in every way.
Speaking of themes, Grande added about the many lessons that the Wicked story offers, “friendship and love and family, whether by blood or chosen family, have always been the things that help us survive challenges.” The actress also admitted a personal connection with the character “I was always a big Wizard of Oz fan from a young young age. I had a little Dorothy dress which I strangely would wear with a Scream mask. It was always an escape for me. I think The Wizard of Oz and Dorothy have been a safe space for so many who felt alone.”
Erivo also disclosed her own personal connection, “The Wizard of Oz was the Saturday movie I would watch when I was younger, I was maybe 6. And the music, I’m still a big fan of Judy Garland. And then The Wiz came along and Diana Ross made me feel really seen. I connected. And Wicked — I came in contact with at Uni, at 23, I sang it before I even watched the musical.” Erivo also felt attracted to a character that shared many personal similarities with the Emmy, Grammy and Tony winning powerhouse and Oscar® nominee, who also had a fractured relationship with her dad and tried to give her younger sister the space needed, as Elphaba does with Nessarose (Marissa Bode in her feature debut).
“As a Black queer woman playing this green woman, I know what it means to feel the world is not made for you and having to reckon with that,” Erivo admitted candidly, and “accepting it for yourself and fully and using that as your power,” holds the key to personal success. What makes us different also makes us special, as Pharrell Williams recently explained to me when I asked him about the message of the recent film made about his life. They are these differences that social media’s algorithm don’t allow for and in the younger generations, can prove a source of discomfort and feelings of awkwardness. But our differences are what make us unique, what prove the most beautiful assets we have, our very own personal superpower.
What was also quite heartwarming was that during the interviews, Grande and Erivo seemed really bonded, beyond the kind of warmth one sees from people who have spent time together making a film. This was a friendship, a mutual kind of “big-up” where each referred to the other with terms of endearment.
As a final message, Erivo admitted her own hopes for a message the viewing public would take away from Wicked. “I hope that people see themselves in this movie and celebrate their friendships, their differences and the film gives them the permission to change their minds — if these two women can find each other then others, millions of people can find each other too.”
And with that message, Wicked won me over, with every fiber of my soul.
Wicked also stars Oscar® winner Michelle Yeoh as Shiz University’s regal headmistress and Dean of Sorcery Studies Madame Morrible; Oliver Award winner and Emmy nominee Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, a roguish and carefree prince; and four-time Emmy winner Peter Dinklage as the voice of Dr. Dillamond, a talking goat.
Wicked opens in theaters on November 19th.
All images courtesy of Universal Pictures, used with permission.