Glitz, glamour, singing, and drama are the key elements that make any good musical movie, but the musical adaptation of “Wicked” may have gone a little overboard in the element of drama. Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” released in theaters November 22, and has sparked more controversies than expected.
The movie is an adaptation of the Broadway musical “Wicked,” which was inspired by the book of the same name, which was made as a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. The Broadway musical first opened in 2003, being beloved by many and instantly becoming a Broadway classic.
The film stars several notable celebrities, including Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, and most notably, Ariana Grande as Glinda. The choice to cast Grammy winning pop artist Ariana Grande as Glinda had many “Wicked” fans questioning whether she could portray Glinda well.
Director Jon M. Chu stated in an interview with Wall Street Journal Style that when Grande was first auditioning he only saw her as “Ariana Grande,” but only after asking Grande to perform a second audition without makeup, did he begin to see Grande as the character Glinda.
“I saw her in a totally new light that I’d never seen her in,” Chu explained.
Drama also began to stir when Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo recreated the original poster for the Broadway musical rendition of “Wicked,” and a fan edited the photo. The fan made changes to the photo, including moving Elphaba’s hat so that her eyes were hidden, matching the way the characters posed in the original Broadway poster and posting it to social media.
After being posted to Instagram, Cynthia Erivo responded to the photo with an angry retort, detailing how she considered the fan edited photo to be an attempt at erasing her image by having the photo covering her eyes. Erivo took to Instagram to voice her opinion, claiming that the edits were extremely disrespectful and comparable to AI.
“The original poster is an illustration. I am a real life human being, who chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer…because, without words, we communicate with our eyes. Our poster is an homage, not an imitation. To edit my face and to hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful,” Erivo claimed.
As the “Wicked” cast prepares for its November release, fans of both the book and musical are eagerly awaiting its arrival. Now that the film has been released, it is clear that “Wicked” continues to captivate audiences and evoke strong passions, both on and off the screen.
