STACK #244 February 2025

MOVIE FEATURE

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GENRE: Musical fantasy RUN TIME: 2h 40m

Wicked stormed onto the big screen with the force of a full-blown tornado, dazzling audiences with a spectacle of razzle-dazzle. Now, you can own it in all its multicoloured splendour.

imagined that, 20 years later, I would get my dream job of directing it for the big screen,” says Chu, 45, becoming visibly emotional while talking about his dream project at CinemaCon, before the film’s release. Despite his passion, Chu doesn’t believe the film would have been possible without his two leading ladies. “We wouldn't make the movie if we didn't find two people who could embody what this movie and what the songs deliver,” he says. “So when you find two singers like Ariana and Cynthia, you just know it's destiny. There’s just a spiritual connection between these two. We went through such a journey together with them going into very personal things in their life to find the truth in these two characters,” he adds. Gill Pringle

• Wicked is out Feb 26

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande

W icked is the first of a two-part 1995 revisionist novel and characters from L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). Directed by Jon M. Chu, the epic musical fantasy features Ariana Grande as Glinda, and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, along with Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard. Set in the Land of Oz, largely before Dorothy Gale’s arrival from Kansas, the plot covers the events of the musical's adaptation of the stage musical, itself inspired by George Maguire’s

For Chu, landing the job of directing Wicked has been a long journey - more than two decades, having accompanied his mum Ruth to an early workshop of the musical in San Francisco in 2003. “People have different relationships with Wicked ,” says the Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights director. “But Wicked had a real impact on me as a young filmmaker. I went with my mom, who had just gone through chemotherapy. Every weekend when I was growing up - even though we were five crazy kids - she would take us to the theatre, opera, or a musical in San Francisco. “It was before Wicked hit

From misunderstood to popular!

When Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire was first published in 1995, it received a lukewarm reception and mixed reviews. Its dark reinterpretation

of a beloved story polarised critics and upset many fans.

FUN FACT

first act, following green-skinned Elphaba’s studies at Shiz University and the beginning of her path to becoming the Wicked Witch of the West, alongside an unlikely

It wasn’t until the musical adaptation debuted on Broadway in 2003 that the novel became a literary phenomenon, spending 26 weeks on the New York Times' bestseller list in 2005. Many felt the book’s themes of oppression, feminism, and corruption were inappropriate within the context of a children’s classic. However, both the novel and the musical found an adult audience that embraced its complex reimagining of Oz. Since then, Wicked has become a cornerstone of modern Broadway, inspiring merchandise, three sequel novels (plus a prequel titled Elphie due next month), an epic motion picture, and an upcoming graphic novel.

Broadway and it imprinted itself on me permanently. I related to the story of Elphaba, the witch who is judged because of how she looks. "I could have never ever

A non-musical television adaptation was almost made in 2009, with Salma Hayek and her production company behind the project. Sadly, plans were scrapped and it never went into production.

friendship and rivalry with her roommate, who later becomes Glinda the Good.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande with Wicked director Jon M. Chu

22 FEBRUARY 2025

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