FILM OF THE WEEK: Wicked - by Roe McDermott

Before Cruella, Maleficent and the Joker, there was Elphaba. Wicked:The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West, the 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, was the first in a trend of villain origin stories and re-imagined how the Wicked Witch of the West came to be. Adapted as a stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman and now brought to the big screen by director Jon M. Chu, the pre-Dorothy Oz musical has been a beloved fixture on Broadway, the West End and stages worldwide for two decades.

The all-singing, all-dancing tale explores an unlikely friendship, the story of an outsider who faces stigma and ostracisation due to her skin colour, and the age-old question of whether people are born wicked, if they become wicked, or is their wickedness actually goodness, misunderstood and viewed through a warped lens?

Wicked and Ali Abbasi’s Trump film The Apprentice have a lot in common like that.

Shiz University in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu

The marketing for Chu’s Wicked feels like it’s been going on for years, with endless teasers highlighting not only the vocal power of the two leads, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, but the film’s giant, elaborately built sets, which include the planting of 9 million rainbow-hued tulips, a 16 tonne moving train and of course, the Emerald City. With all the build-up, the pressure was on for Wicked to deliver – and it does, bringing the goods express straight down the yellow brick road.

Jon M. Chu has long proved his ability to direct with style while brilliantly managing large-scale choreography and lush visuals. His work on Step Up 3D was frankly far better than the franchise deserved, his direction of Lin Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights resulted in the most joyous musical to grace the big screen since Moulin Rouge and Crazy Rich Asians showed he could handle human drama against lavish backdrops. His work on Wicked is the culmination of the skills he’s previously displayed, amped up to maximalist silliness and splendour.

Multi-hyphenate talent Cynthia Erivo (who acted in Widows, Harriet and starred in the Broadway revival of The Colour Purple) plays Elphaba, the green-skinned Oz girl who's treated with suspicion and disgust by everyone around her, including her father. When her wheelchair-using sister Nessa (Marissa Bode) attends her first day Oz’s prestigious Shiz school, Elphaba tags along to support her sibling. But when she has an emotional outburst that displays some latent and uncontrolled magical powers, the school’s sorcery professor Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) invites Elphaba to be her protégé.

Elphaba is told to shack up and share a dorm with Glinda (Ariana Grande), the school’s blonde-tressed, pink-clad combination of Elle Woods, Barbie and Regina George. The two initially loathe each other, but eventually strike up a deep friendship. Even though their priorities remain disparate – Glinda is focused on her popularity and attracting the intention of the charming and vain Prince Fieyro (Jonathan Bailey), while Elphaba is fighting an oppressive new law affecting all the talking animals of Oz – the two women bond over their ambition and mutual respect.

L to R: Ariana Grande is Glinda and Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu

Erivo brings strength and defiance to Elphaba, who wraps herself in a protective cocoon of sarcasm and independence. When her peers laugh at her, we see her pain, and when she dreams of working with the Wizard and finally finding acceptance, we see her hope. Evoking such emotions through layers of green makeup is no mean feat (and there’s a separate conversation to have about Black women getting roles in blockbuster movies only if they’re painted another colour – see Avatar, Guardians Of The Galaxy), but Erivo does it beautifully. As Glinda, Ariana Grande is a weapon of comedic timing, bringing a hilariously self-absorbed vanity and try-hard dorkiness. All her flouncing, pouting and hair-flipping is executed with bubblegum pink precision. Her singing talents were never going to be in question, but the marriage of the two protagonists' vocal tones is a joy. Erivo’s deep, resonant power is soulful, while Grande’s high trill emphasises her character's girlishness – a particular joy during the crowd-pleasing makeover song ‘Popular’, which sees Glinda swing from chandeliers and dance through wardrobes.

There are numerous large-scale choreography scenes in Wicked, and Chu’s skill in capturing the joy and movement while remaining smooth and controlled is impressive. Jonathan Bailey brings his irrepressible theatre kid energy to Prince Fieyro’s intro number ‘Dancing Through Life’, which sees the Shiz library become a swirling dervish of revolving bookcases, with students artfully sliding around on books as if they were ice-skates. When Erivo lets loose on the stripped-back, solo songs like ‘The Wizard And I’, the film’s emotional resonance really shines. The production design and group choreography are lavish and fun, but when she's the sole focus, the film captures the chest-swelling magic of live performance, without distracting the audience with all the bells, whistles and Emerald Cities. The climatic ‘Defying Gravity’ is incredible, and sure to bring the house down.

Jonathan Bailey is Prince Fiyero in WICKED, directed by Jon M. Chu

Incidentally, though this is the first of two films, the final scene ends not on a cliffhanger but on a nice moment, potentially permitting viewers to skip the second movie while still feeling satisfied.

The extravagant production design, which should have Oscars thrown at it, is great fun to look at - particularly the beautiful costuming. That said, it can feel a little lacking in depth. Munchkinland and the Shiz campus are presented as facades, without them ever feeling lived in, or that the world really goes beyond what we see on the camera. With films like The Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter or even Chu’s work on In The Heights and Crazy Rich Asians, we could easily imagine how they extended offscreen. While we spend time in Glinda and Elphaba’s dorm room, we don’t get a sense of their neighbours, or come to understand the landscape that surrounds Shiz. It may seem like splitting hairs, but depth, thoughtfulness and attention to detail bring soul to a fantasy world. While In The Heights beautifully married realistic, even grimy settings with gorgeous flights of musical fantasy, the picture-perfect, pastel-hued Oz can feel a too plasticky and perfect at times. There’s a reason that the 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz begins on a black and white Kansas farm – realism and perspective make fantasy sing.

What does feel real is the bigotry that Elphaba faces due to her skin colour, as well as the fascist undertones to the plots against animals – and of course, the idea of the Wizard being a man who lies his way to power is prescient. These ideas and the wonderful imagery make Wicked a great musical for kids to see and discuss - though the flying monkeys remain utterly terrifying.

The film is undoubtedly too long, and characters like Nessa and Ethan Slater’s Boq feel underdeveloped, but these are small complaints about a film that is joyous, immersive and wildly entertaining. This is movie-making with a capital M.

• • Wicked is in cinemas now. Watch the trailer below: