In 2023 my wife and I had the pleasure of seeing the musical play Wicked at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina. It was a very expensive set of tickets, but it was such a marvelous show. I knew that this movie was coming eventually and I was a little surprised that Ariana Grande was not going to be the Wicked Witch (Elphaba) but Glinda the Good Witch.

While this is based on the musical, the musical is based on a novel which twists the original Wizard of Oz story into something very unique. Basically centering on Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda when they were going to school. And very surprisingly enough, they were friends.

Just like the musical, what really sparks the antagonism is that the Wizard of Oz is basically being racist to talking intelligent animals. And it’s definitely Elphaba and not Glenda that’s the most appalled by this injustice.

I will say that I liked Ariana Grande as Glinda more than I expected. She was a big fan of the musical herself and even implemented the song Popular in one of her actual songs. And she wanted to play Glinda for longer than anybody really remembered until now.

Cynthia Erivo on the other hand… I’m not as impressed with. She’s not bad at all by any means, but I don’t think she was the perfect choice for this role that Idina Menzel had perfectly hit out of the park.

And another strange casting choice was Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz. It works, but he just doesn’t give off the vibe you would think you would. Especially if you remember how The Wizard of Oz was in the most iconic movie version.

Originally Titled Wicked Part 1, Wicked is now just Wicked and the part 2 is going to be Wicked For Good. While I watched this one at home, I definitely want to see the next one in the movie theater. One of the best things about the movie is that it’s just plain gorgeous. You can tell that every dollar IN the budget was spent very very efficiently. But I do prefer the musical, especially when it comes to the songs. As it’s common for characters to talk instead of singing and some of the flow the songs get interrupted very wrongly by what’s going on.