For decades, the fantastical land of Oz has enchanted audiences with its songs, characters, colorful landscapes, and intriguing plot lines. With The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked book and Broadway musical, it seemed about time fans received a movie adaptation of the most successful work of fan fiction.
Wicked by Gregory McGuire was published in 1995 and portrays a backstory for the iconic Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. In 2003, Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman turned the book into a musical. By now, almost everyone is familiar with the story and characters of Wicked, as the Broadway production has thrived for 30 years.
On November 22nd, 2024, fans of Wicked were finally entreated to the long-awaited movie adaptation, bringing the beloved story to life on the big screen. Director Jon M. Chu reimagines the tale of Elphaba (The Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda with stunning visuals, a talented cast, and the iconic songs that have captivated audiences for decades. As one of the most anticipated musical adaptations to recently meet the big screen, the Wicked movie promises to introduce a new generation of fans to the story and provide old fans with a fresh perspective.
Due to the musical’s sacred reputation, Chu knew it was very important that he preserved the original story while changing it to fit a film standard. In an interview, he acknowledged that this challenge stumped him and his team for a while as they decided whether they should part with certain moments from the original script.
Either way, it was clear that the story itself was a top priority. After an endless back and forth, the team decided to extend the story so as not to disrupt the original plot. Nowadays, it can be difficult to please a large fanbase with a remake. “I didn’t think anything could compare to the musical,” Wicked fan Erica Rubinstein admitted.
However, after watching the film, fans were more than pleasantly surprised. The music emulated the Broadway soundtrack that everyone knows and loves and every classic Wicked song was included. But the film did more than just accommodate for the silver screen; Chu took advantage of his ability to play around with camera angles and lighting, to not only present this story in a new medium, but retell it using the elements of filmmaking to enhance the already magical plot.
One of the most iconic scenes in this movie was the moment shared between Elphaba and Galinda in the Ozdust ballroom. For context, Galinda invites Elphaba to a party and gives her a pointy black hat to wear. The intention was to embarrass Elphaba when she came to the party but when Galinda finds out that Elphaba did something nice for her, she instantly regrets it. As she enters the Ozdust ballroom, Elphaba is immediately laughed at and she becomes a spectacle as she dances in front of everyone. Full of guilt, Galinda joins Elphaba’s ‘weird’ dancing as a way of showing respect. Before this point, the two girls were roommates but also nemeses. This scene is a turning point for the entire movie because it was when Galinda finally started to understand Elphaba.
The scene is gut-wrenching to watch, as there is barely any music in the background and encapsulates the awkwardness and isolation of Elphaba’s situation. Erivo (who plays Elphaba) brings this character to life in a more serious and heart-tugging way than the actresses who portray Elphaba on stage. On Broadway, this scene is seen as comical: we watch the weird green girl in her witch hat perform a strange, interpretive dance in front of a group of kids.
In the movie, however, this scene is taken much more seriously. “Watching Elphaba try to dance and be a part of something while being entirely unique as an individual and to see Galinda join her and step away from her popular girl persona is emotional and so beautiful. It’s something that cinema is able to capture so beautifully,” Erica Rubinstein said.
Chu’s attention to tone allows the audience to see these characters in a different way than the live production portrays them. “The perspective of a movie audience is very different [from a Broadway audience]. When you walk into a movie you have to be convinced,” Chu explained on the ToolKit podcast.
Due to the unique atmosphere of a movie, this 90-minute Broadway act was almost seamlessly transformed into a full-length picture. As certain scenes are needed in a movie to make it cohesive, Chu was able to add more minute details and themes among the plot points to make the film a memorable experience.
For example, in the song ‘The Wizard and I,’ Elphaba fantasizes about what her life could be like if she met the famed wizard of Oz. Instead of being seen as a green outcast, she is surrounded by green as she sings; frogs, dragonflies, lily pads, and grass. This is the first time we see Elphaba in an environment where she fits. When she is first introduced as a baby, her skin is a very bright green and contrasts heavily with the neutral colors around her. At Shiz University (the fictional school that the main characters attend), the bright lighting and stark difference from Glinda’s pink ensemble causes her to stick out like a sore thumb. However, once we see her in nature, her green skin seems to develop much softer undertones and she looks more natural and more human.
I might argue that the lighting decisions in this movie were just as essential to driving the plot as any scene or musical number. Without realizing, our perception of Elphaba was being steered by how much green was displayed on her face. When we were supposed to understand her, the green was dimmed down, and when we were to view her as different and as an outcast, her green skin was emphasized. Playing around with the prominence of Elphaba’s green skin added more depth to the film and subconsciously pushed the viewers into seeing the character a certain way.
When I asked people what they thought of the movie, most mentioned the music and the colors. When I watched the film, the first thing I noticed was that many scenes lacked particularly ‘good’ lighting. Notably, in the musical number, “Dancing Through Life,” rebellious Prince Fiyero urges his fellow students to not take life too seriously. During this song, Fiyero dances with a bright light shining behind him. This sort of shot would normally be avoided in a film as it tends to make the actor blend in with the background. This creative choice of lighting is a shock to the average movie goer’s system as they are used to key lighting, the most common lighting in movies, because it emphasizes the character and darkens the background.
While Jon Chu is known for his particularly well-colored movies (Notably Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights), The Oz universe has always had a special tie to colors. The Wizard of Oz was one of the first movies to be filmed in color and played around with color by making Dorothy’s thought to be boring Kansas life in black and white and the magical Oz in color.
Wicked has always been more than just a quirky backstory to a classic villain; it is a story about good and evil, how people become a certain way and what drives them to do so. Though euphemized through the music and magic, Wicked contains deep themes that are relevant to our society today such as corrupt government, discrimination, disabilities (both physical and circumstantial), and peer pressure. These themes are present in the musical but seem to be much more apparent in this adaptation.
Wicked has always been more than just a quirky backstory to a classic villain; it is a story about good and evil, how people become a certain way and what drives them to do so.