www.hollywoodreporter.com: Jon M. Chu’s musical Wicked (Part One), starring Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, is set to defy gravity over the coming weeks as the blockbuster event of the holiday season. Adapted from Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s long-running Tony and Grammy Award-winning Broadway musical, itself based on Gregory Maguire’s fantasy novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Wicked has the kind of built-in fan base most Hollywood musicals can only dream of.
3 comments:
I’m glad wicked is seeing such financial success in the box office, it’s truly a spectacular movie with some of the best direction I’ve seen for a musical movie in a while. Wicked shows that musical movies can be a hit in the box office and I hope this inspires more studios to take a chance on them(there are tons of great musicals I think would really be suited for the big screen). Discussing wickedness is weird since it’s already based on a pre-existing ip but I think wicked the movie does a good job of remaining true to the stage play while also making a unique identity of its own. It wouldn’t make sense if it was a carbon copy of the stage play since that would justify its existence (I mean why even make a movie if your just gonna repeat the same choices as the original) but wicked makes a few tweaks that I really enjoy and really elevates the world of oz
I’ve been an incredibly big fan of the musical Wicked for many, many years at this point - it was one of the first musicals I saw come through the touring circuit in my hometown when I was younger and was one of the first shows that really made me be in awe of what theater can be. The story being one that is relatively familiar is useful in growing the fanbase quickly, but the ubiquitousness of this story is what I think really drives its popularity. It has been around for such a long time these days that many people know what to expect but they keep going, and I think that’s a testament to the show itself. I had the privilege of recently seeing the production in New York, and it still took my breath away even after all these years. It’s an incredible experience overall, and the people around me seemed to enjoy it as well.
I once found a book in my local library about the filming of the 1939 The Wizard of Oz and upon opening it I looked at the table of contents and wasn’t too surprised with the addition of a chapter detailing the mishaps and accidents that happened in relation to the production of the movie. I had heard of a few of the mishaps, but I wasn’t prepared to read about the sheer amount of people permanently injured by the filming. From Bubby Ebsen, the original actor cast as the Tin Man, ending up needing an iron lung to breathe after breathing in aluminum dust from his makeup to Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch of the West, and her stunt double Betty Danko both had extended hospital stays due to fire-related incidents. If nearly being burned alive wasn’t enough Margaret Hamilton was also green for months after filming due to the TOXIC copper-based makeup she wore for filming.
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