Wicked: Part 1 Review – A Spellbound Musical

Wicked is one of the biggest musicals in history, with millions of performances all over the world during its 20 years in production. This musical, based on the story of The Wizard of Oz‘s two main witches, is beloved by people to such a degree that I’ll be adding a disclaimer about my experiences with the musical because I’m afraid of the backlash this review might get when it’s published. But with only half the movie out in the world and a year to wait for the other half, is this something that you’ll want to sit through, or should you just wait for streaming to binge it?

Title: Wicked: Part 1
Production Company: Universal Pictures & Marc Platt Productions
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Directed by: Jon M. Chu
Produced by: Marc Platt & David Stone
Written by: Winnie Holzman & Dana Fox
Starring: Text
Based on: Wicked (Musical) by Stephen Schwartz & Winnie Holzman / Wicked (book) by Gregory Maguire
Release dates: November 22, 2024
Running time: 160 minutes

My History with Wicked

Since Wicked has one of those types of fanbases—aka rabid fans who will hear no negativity about any version of the musical in any form—I am required to explain that the following review, including any critique of the story, characters, or production, comes from a place of high praise for the musical and the phenomenon that it is.

I am a fan of the musical. I have seen it live during its most recent Australian theater run and watched a bootleg of the original Broadway version starring Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. I own and have read the book, and I’m reading through the other three books in the series. I also own the soundtrack… twice! The soundtrack is a regular feature in my wife’s car, where we sing along to “Popular” and “Defying Gravity.”

Again, I am a fan.

So before you jump into the comments, send angry emails, or try to blow up a review that isn’t an automatic 5-star praise fest of the show, remember that all this is done because I hold Wicked to some very high standards due to my personal history with the musical and a background in theater and audio design. I don’t mean to be hostile, though I may come off that way at times; it’s all done from a place of love.

But She’s Green…

Wicked: Part 1 Story Summary – SPOILERS

Story Review – Some Vague Spoilers

It’s always hard to review the story of something that is only halfway done. Wicked: Part 1 is one of those stories that does a great job of establishing the land of Oz and the two main characters: Galinda and Elphaba. We get to see a bit more of Elphaba’s childhood than we do in the musical version, showing that her powers were something that occurred from birth and that she used those powers to protect her sister, Nessa, making the reasoning for Elphaba to attend Shiz more meaningful.

The set design and framing are extremely well done in Wicked, making both the influences from the musical and The Wizard of Oz pop through the replication of sets and the use of color… even if it is a bit muted compared to the technicolor wonder of The Wizard of Oz. There are a lot of practical effects and props used in Wicked that make things stand out well, giving a more grounded experience than what we would expect. However, there is a fair use of CGI shots that, while looking great, have the ability to break the immersion a bit, as they are not of the same quality as the practical sets and effects. (Also, Wicked fans, stop with the lie that every shot is 100% practical. Just because the train was real in two shots does not mean everything is real.)

Outside of anything to do with the two mains, the story does very little with anyone else. Nessa and Boq’s relationship gets a couple of small scenes, but they are blink-and-you’ll-miss-it. The same goes for anything to do with Fiyero. Speaking of Fiyero, for those who know the whole story of Wicked, you’ll be upset that he gets very little screen time. The audience is just meant to know there is a love triangle going on because… reasons? The establishment of this story element is very muted but might pick up more in Part 2.

And that’s the problem with the story: we have all the build-up here in Part 1, and without Part 2 available, we can’t see how things pay off and get a full view of the story.

A Wicked Broadway Cast

• Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp
  Acting-wise, Erivo does an amazing job with Elphaba, she does embrace the role and channels those who came before her. She doesn’t do too much to break out of what we know and love about the character, something I was afraid of given Erivo’s background, but seeing her be so faithful to the character was a great thing to see… That being said, for someone who has a musical theater background, the way she does some of the songs in Wicked comes off as hit-and-miss. Singing “The Wizard and I” suited her slower, almost jazz-style singing, but when she needed to pull off the power ballad style needed for Defying Gravity, she wasn’t even close to anyone else that has done the role before her, not meeting the minimal standards required for such songs. This is troubling headed into Part 2 where there are more powerful songs that need powerful performances.
• Ariana Grande as Galinda Upland
  Can someone tell Grande that there is a difference between theater singing and pop music? I know she is a decent singer and that she has a lot of respect for Galinda and Wicked as a whole, but every song she is involved in just feels off. Then there is her acting. My god, Grande is so deadpan and robotic for someone who has done the “dumb spoilt child” character before (She played Cat in “Sam & Cat”), so I know she can be a lot more animated with this type of character. I understand that Grande also has a background in musical theater, but how can someone with all that training come off as someone who phoned things in so much for a role she “loves”?
• Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible
  The Headmistress of Shiz University comes off as that great villain that is a slow build. Yeoh does a great job of providing the guiding hand of someone who is using someone else for their ends without showing it to those she is manipulating. When the “turn” comes, Yeoh goes from cold to frozen, making the character look even more villainous at the end of this part of the film. This is a great introduction for a character who is going to play a bigger role in the second half.
• Jeff Goldblum as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  As much as I’m not a fan of this man’s singing (Someone please tell me it wasn’t him singing in the “No One Mourns The Wicked” scene with Elphaba’s mother), his awkward acting style just works with The Wizard like very few have done before him. His little “uh” and “ah” mannerisms really show a man who is pretending to be someone he isn’t. I know this isn’t the last we’ll see of Goldblum, or of his singing, so I hope he has been practicing between filmings.
• Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar, Ethan Slater as Boq Woodsman, & Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp
  I’m going to bundle these three together as I have the same thing to say about all three of them. 100% completely underutilised. The biggest upset is that Fiyero was basically tossed aside, reduced to mere mentions of what his character is doing by the mid-point of the film when he should be a bigger part of the story heading into that point. I’m guessing we will get more given his role in part 2, but we should have felt more connections between him and others in part 1. Speaking of connection, what the hell happened to Boq and Nessa? We got the moment where Boq was manipulated into asking Nessa out, a small moment of them dancing together, and then Nessa wheeling away when she finally noticed Boq’s obsession with Galinda. Again, these two play a bigger role in part 2 of the film (hopefully) and we should have spent more time seeing their relationship happen rather than just those three moments. They might as well remove them or rewrite their roles given how little they cared about these characters.

When Marketing and Bad Ideas Meet…

Here comes the part where I dread the backlash from Wicked’s fanbase.

This movie is not perfect.

While I praised the movie for being closer to the book, adding some scenes to flesh out the early years of Elphaba and Nessa, for example, there were many things added or extended that did not need to be done, including shots that served no purpose. Seeing this made me feel like they were padding the movie to hit enough of a run time to justify splitting the movie into two parts. Anyone with a brain in their head, which I assume is most of you, would know that this is a studio decision to get more money for the dying Hollywood system.

According to the official Wicked musical website, the show runs for 2 hours and 45 minutes, which includes a 15-20 minute intermission. Wicked: Part 1 runs for 2 hours and 40 minutes with no intermission, though it would probably have 15-20 minutes of credits. So guess what this movie has in spades? Padding! While it is known to many that the musical version is an abridged version of the book, I think the movie added too much in places that it didn’t need. Many scenes were extended with extra unnecessary dialogue or shots that lead nowhere…

If Wicked kept to the more abridged version of the story, maybe added an intermission in the middle, and even lengthened the whole movie to a full 3 hours, things might have looked and flowed better. But splitting the movie version into two parts with so much filler just comes off as a Hollywood cash grab for something they know lots of people are going to go see.

Then you have the additions to the musical numbers.

There are two key songs in Wicked that people expect to be nailed perfectly, no matter who the singers are or what type of performance they are looking to make with the production: Popular and Defying Gravity. In this movie version, I hate to say it, but they butchered both of them… There, I said it… Don’t lynch mob me.

I’m not putting the blame directly on Grande or Erivo, though they didn’t quite hit the expectations I personally have for those two songs, the blame is more with the musical director and the way they paced the song. I’ll explain that more in detail later but the musical direction in this movie for these two songs is abysmal.

Defying Gravity is one of those songs that you either need to perfect or the whole show suffers, and when they got to the key moment: “If you want to find me, look to the western skies”, this came after a scene of Elphaba falling and looking at her own childhood form in a reflection. Why? The scene means nothing and there is no context that people can give to justify this addition. When Elphaba begins to fly in a very well-shot sequence, there is an almost 60-second pause between the final lyrics and the iconic high note, which robs the moment of its power. Speaking of that moment, it should have crashed to black after that moment, but no, we get a few more minutes of Elphaba flying around before flying off from the Wiz’s castle before the movie closes. Again, I ask why. Because they needed to pad the shit out of this movie to make sure they could split it into two parts.

Speaking of singing, fuck off with this “oh, they sang all the songs live on the set and that’s the recording they used” bullshit. Yes, they would have sung the songs on the sets, but that was NOT the version used. I have a background in audio design and editing, and I know the difference between live recordings and studio recordings. There is a reverb and echo in live recordings that no amount of tweaking can eliminate, and the music in Wicked was crystal clear. Yes, they were singing on the sets because they needed to ADR over the top of it, but the on-set audio was not the one they used. Stop with the copium.

A Somewhat Wicked Good Time

I can already hear the army of Wicked fans typing at their keyboards to tell me how wrong I am about the show, what things mean, and what to think about the actors involved. I understand that people are hyped to see this version as it is the first time they are seeing the show since going to the theater is very expensive these days, so they will see this version of Wicked and call it the best thing ever, I get that.

As someone who has seen the musical multiple times, including with my wife who is more obsessed with this than I am, I can’t help but make the comparison. It’s not the way the fanbase would want me to review Wicked, but it is my job to be objective and resolute in my reviewing and finding ways for things to improve in all media. As George Lucas said: “Art is never finished, only abandoned”. Wicked is one of those things that could always find improvement and is only “good enough” when it is abandoned.

Wicked does a good job of adapting, if not extending, the popular musical with more from the book, making the most authentic representation of the story as it was written. However, some parts of the execution do not live up to the expectations that people should have for the performances involved. Given the length and split nature of this version, I would recommend seeing the marathon version that’ll appear next year when the other half is released instead of seeing this and spending 12 months waiting for the rest.