“Wicked,” Jon M. Chu’s musical adaptation starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, defies the odds – and, yes, gravity.
There are two kinds of people in the world: People who hate when I start a review by saying there are two kinds of people in the world, and people who don’t read my reviews. The point is there are always dichotomies, and a film like “Wicked” — Jon M. Chu’s two-part adaptation of the popular (excuse me, “-lahr!”) Broadway musical prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” — makes these dichotomies clear. Fans of the Broadway musical are likely to be enchanted by this epic production. People who are only vaguely aware of it, but have probably at least heard “Defying Gravity” unless they’ve been living in seclusion for two decades, may also find it familiar … and not necessarily in a good way.
Because hey, of course it’s familiar. It’s a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” one of the most culturally ubiquitous works of art to emerge from the 20th century. Even though the original film was a box office dud that didn’t make its money back for a whole decade — i.e. the exact kind of film that Warner Bros., which now makes unthinkable amounts of money from “The Wizard of Oz,” would delete for a tax break today — the film’s metaphors, imagery, characters and songs are now recognized all over the world. It’s classic Hollywood entertainment of the highest order.
But “Wicked” is a prequel, not just an homage. And like most modern prequels, it goes out of its way to generate dramatic backstories for the characters and everything they’ve ever said, every article of clothing they’ve ever worn and just about anything they’ve ever touched. It’s a dramatic approach that congratulates the audience for remembering the source material and, often, little else. If the story was told in chronological order, there’s no way all these typically incidental details would be fetishized. (Unless there’s a scene in “The Godfather” where they make a big deal out of how they built the boat where Fredo dies in “Part 2,” and somehow I missed it.)
“Wicked” does, to be fair, predate many of the movies that drove this cliché into the ground. Gregory Maguire’s novel was written in 1995, the stage show was first produced in 2003. But like many stories that take a long time to get adapted to the screen, “Wicked” got lapped by its own imitators. One might roll their eyes at watching the so-called “Wicked” Witch of the West receiving her iconic pointy hat as a dramatic plot point, or when Glinda the “Good” Witch muses about why wands need to have a point at the end, explaining why her own wand will later boast a chintzy starburst instead.
