Just how Wicked will the highly anticipated 2024 film be? Things often get lost in translation, especially when a story starts off as a book, makes its way to the stage, and then ends up as a movie. Fans love Elphaba and the far-too-cheery Glinda, but will they love a Hollywood adaptation? Will this upcoming film do justice to the Broadway musical?
In 2003, Wicked opened on Broadway. It instantly became a hit, winning a Grammy, and a Lawrence Oliver Award. In 2004, it was nominated for ten Tony Awards. To date, the musical has amassed over $5 billion in worldwide ticket sales. 11 years later, it’s back in San Francisco, and the movie adaptation is coming out this November. According to the Seattle Times, Wicked has sold over 50 million tickets worldwide since its debut in 2003. MV Freshman Ellie Moen, who has gone twice, shares her opinions.
“I saw one in San Francisco and saw the other one, on Broadway, and definitely the Broadway one was my favorite,” Moen said. “The sets were phenomenal, the actors were really good, you could tell how much work they put into it…All things considered, Broadway is Broadway.”
The musical was adapted from the standalone novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. Over 5 million copies were sold, and 4.5 million of those copies were sold after the debut of the musical. For one, the ending of the book wasn’t used in the musical, among other things. While change is often great and much needed in certain cases, how far do alterations extend until the source material has little to no resemblance to the subsequent adaptations and interpretations?
The Hollywood adaptation will be released in theaters on November 22 this year. The cast will feature Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum along with some budding Broadway stars. The story follows schoolmates Elphaba and Glinda who are unlikely acquaintances and become close confidants. The story takes place in the land of Oz and the Emerald City, where conflict arises and the malicious Wizard of Oz puts Elphaba to the test. Musical numbers “Dancing Through Life,” “No One Mourns the Wicked,” and fan-favorite “Defying Gravity” will return, performed by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
“…for all we know, in a recorded movie the singers could all be fake, it could be an entirely different person in place of that actor,” said MV Freshman Minnah Maqsood, who recently saw the musical in San Francisco. “But in a play, you know it’s really them, and it takes a lot of talent to do that.”
Cynthia Erivo, who joins the Wicked cast as Elphaba, was previously a Broadway actor. Her experience will add to this production, along with her other co-stars with similar expertise. Ariana Grande, on the other hand, is a huge pop music star.
She has invaluable experience given how long she has remained popular and prolific in her songwriting. Grande has also been in several Hollywood productions including Sam and Cat and Don’t Look Up.
The success stories of films as musicals-turned-films are real, however rare and spontaneous they may be. Examples include West Side Story (1961), Les Miserables, Little Shop of Horrors, The Sound of Music, and The Phantom of the Opera, which ran for 35 years on Broadway until 2023.
Unfortunately, the latter side exists as well. IMDb provides that Cats, The Wiz, and Mame produced horrendous box office numbers. Recent movies like West Side Story (2021), Dear Evan Hansen, and In the Heights did poorly in overall ticket sales, leading many to ponder whether or not Hollywood has lost its ability to transform stories. Will Wicked join this list of recent disasters, or will it become one among some of the highest-regarded musical-to-movie adaptations?
