Lamar Reviews - "Wicked" (Airdate 12/6/2024)

Lamar Reviews - "Wicked" (Airdate 12/6/2024)

For the record, I have been maintaining for years that I do not like musicals. I did see Grease multiple times and loved it, but I don’t consider that a musical. I refused to watch the Sound of Music until last year, and it was great. I’ve enjoyed Wonka Not the one with Johnny Depp), Sweeney Todd, Beauty and the Beast, and The Greatest Showman, and I still maintain I don’t like musicals.

I took my wife Carla to see Wicked on Broadway a few years ago and we really enjoyed it, and since it was a play and it was on Broadway, being a musical was ok. I didn’t think I needed to see the movie version since I had seen the play. The movie is 2 hours and 40 minutes, which is long, plus this is only Part 1!! We have to wait almost a year to see the rest of it. That was the quickest 160 minutes I’ve spent in a theater, and a year from now I’ll be waiting for Part 2!!

There is a reason Wicked is the second highest grossing Broadway show of all time.

It was a bold move on Jon M Chu’s part to take on the production and try to put it on the big screen, and he really pulled it off. So many things about this movie are amazing. It is an absolute spectacle; it is hard for your eyes to take in everything that is happening. But the biggest standout is the singing of Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Galinda. You truly have to experience it to believe it, and to appreciate their talent. They both insisted on singing live during the filming, they refused to pre-record it. Direct Chu was skeptical since there would be a lot of wind in their air pipes as they performed the more complex dance sequences while maintaining their singing voices. Their answer, “Yes. That’s what we do.” And they did.

Both the stage show, and the film are loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

The film focuses on Wicked’s early years and the two young witches to be: green-skinned outcast Elphaba, who will go on to become the Wicked Witch of the West, and vain, popular Galinda, who will eventually blossom into Glinda the Good. Her voice is not all that Adriana Grande brings to the movie, her physical comedy is a bonus that adds so much to her character. And Erivo’s eyes are like separate characters that tell her story of rejection and ridicule better than words. Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey is fantastic as Prince Fiyero, and you can’t take your eyes off of Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible. And wait till you see the Wizard!

There is so much happening on the screen you could watch this movie 5 times and still see something you missed.

If you have not seen the original Wizard of Oz, you can still enjoy this movie. As I walked out of the theater to my car, I had a revelation. Evidently, I do love musicals.

My Score: A full 6pk of ice cold Budweiser

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