On Screen: “Wicked: For Good”
Wicked: For Good
“Wicked: For Good” had the biggest global opening for all time for a Broadway musical adaptation — so this second installment continues the saga of Magic School pals Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) — last seen in mid-air “Defying Gravity.”
Now, while cruelly persecuted Elphaba is bemoaning the cruel injustices foisted on the animal kingdom under the increasingly authoritarian charlatan Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and her sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) spews resentment, Emerald City is celebrating Glinda’s engagement to Prince Fiero (Jonathan Bailey).
Problem is: Fiero has been commissioned by manipulative Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) to catch and kill exiled Elphaba. Which he will not and cannot do.
Meanwhile, Dorothy, a teenager from Kansas, lands in Munchkinland as Glinda glides in on a motorized bubble. That’s where this backstory intersects with L. Frank Baum’s book, introducing Boq-turned-Tin Man (Ethan Slater) and the Cowardly Lion (voiced by Colman Domingo).
Once again, audiences will be dazzled by Nathan Crowley’s spectacular production design and Paul Tazewell’s fanciful costumes, duly depicted by cinematographer Alice Brooks. And there are new songs: “No Place Like Home” and “The Girl in the Bubble.”
Directed by Jon M. Chu from a screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, the conclusion of the film adaptation has already out-earned the first installment. The two-hour-18-minute spectacle cost roughly $150 million to make — and at least $100 million was spent on worldwide marketing.
Yet what many don’t remember is that the yellow brick road had some bumps along the way. When the musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, based on Gregory Maguire’s novel, held its first tryout in San Francisco in 2003, it was savaged by critics. Even when it opened in Manhattan, many dismissed it as “a kid’s show with aspirations.”
Undaunted, Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel soldiered on even though the Tony Award for Best Musical went to “Avenue Q.” Today, “Wicked” is the fourth longest-running Broadway musical of all time, following “The Lion King.”
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Wicked: For Good” is a bewitching 8, playing in theaters.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.