Delightfully Wicked: A Movie Review by Aviv Snowberry

As a musical theater lover, and by extension, critic, I was excited to see the new blockbuster musical movie: Wicked. Wicked directed by John Chu, music by Stephen Schwartz, and starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Glinda respectively, was a delight if ever there was one. Now it must be said that I didn’t enter Wicked with the most positive feelings towards it. Firstly, I am not a fan of Ariana Grande, in general, and the promotional videos I had seen of her in the movie did not inspire confidence. I also had no warm fuzzy feelings for Wicked as I have other musicals like The Hunchback of Notre Dame or Falsettos. So imagine my surprise when I fell completely in love with this movie musical.

Movie musicals often have a bad rap. Seen usually as a lesser form of the medium since the golden days, they struggle to amass their audiences, especially of those who are ot already predisposed to enjoy a musical. Further still they often struggle with how to adapt such works from stage to screen when the audience’s suspension of belief functions differently. Yet none of these seemed a barrier to whimsy as Wicked transported us to the Land of Oz with ease. Grande’s performance was, while not my favorite, an excellent and original take on the character of Glinda, and Erivo gave a performance that will come to define future Elphabas, in my opinion.

Even the performances from surrounding characters such as Marissa Bode as Nessarose, Ethan Slater as Boq, and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero all had their time to breathe and stand out as the run time for the first part of Wicked grew past the run time of the entire stage production. Yet I dare say we danced through the entire runtime with stellar choreography, real sets, and an expanded book by writers Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. Not only did this movie defy gravity but it defied all odds of justifying the expanded run time. Yet not once did I personally feel like the film dragged.

If you like sumptuous costumes, deeply moving performances (my friend who I saw it with cried about four times,) classic toe tapping tunes, and an expertly crafted story, I highly recommend seeing Wicked, and if you can, see it on the big screen, I promise it’s worth it.

KSUA GM