‘Wicked’ is an energetic delight that soars on the charisma of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Too bad it has one big problem

The show-stopping tune “Defying Gravity” has never seemed more appropriate than it does in Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked,” the exuberant new big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical.
The song about finding your wings celebrates a character’s airborne independence. In Chu’s “Wicked,” it also salutes the lifting of what I call the Oz curse: the tendency of films inspired by Victor Fleming’s 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz” — such as “The Wiz,” “Return to Oz” and “Oz the Great and Powerful” — to attempt high flight before crashing back to earth, victims of their own hubris.
“Wicked,” the first part of a planned two-movie prequel to the saga before Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion command attention, gets a lot of things right the failed Oz wannabes got wrong. Among other things, we discover the backstory of a witchy Oz rivalry and the genesis of the flying monkeys, sleep-inducing flowers and Yellow Brick Road.
The picture isn’t perfect (we’ll get to that) but it respects the source materials — the stage musical derived from Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked” novel, extrapolating from L. Frank Baum’s original novel, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” — while bringing its own energy to the proceedings.
The film’s most notable achievement is its charismatic lead casting of Cynthia Erivo (from Broadway’s “The Color Purple”) as Elphaba, and pop star Ariana Grande as Glinda, the fateful friends (with complications) whom we’ll come to know as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.
Erivo and Grande have the pipes to deliver the award-winning songs by composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz; they’re simply the best Oz tunes since the Fleming film. Erivo’s soulful power and Grande’s multi-octave glide sound great alone as well as when the two are harmonizing.
The pair also have the acting chops to carry a story that is more tragedy than comedy, one that poses an existential query voiced by a character: “Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?”
“Wicked” points to the latter explanation, as Elphaba — whose rare green skin has made her an outsider, even within her family and a commendably diverse Oz — struggles to find her place in the world.
Unlike Margaret Hamilton’s cackling dognapper from the Fleming film, bespectacled Elphaba is a mild-mannered (although sarcastic and goth-attired) animal lover who isn’t out to cause any trouble.
Central to the plot of “Wicked,” she’s what Shakespeare’s King Lear self-describes as a person “more sinned against than sinning.”
The popular Glinda, for her part, is more like the good witch of the 1939 film, although much less of a Goody Two-shoes. Dressed in shades of pink like a “Barbie” extra, and flipping her hair like a “Mean Girls” menace, she’s not above making mischief to have things her way, such as competing with Elphaba for the attention of Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), a roguish prince with a roving eye.
The film begins with famous Oz event: the vanquishing of the Wicked Witch of the West by a water-flinging Dorothy and a celebration by singing, dancing and torch-carrying Munchkins who had suffered under the witch’s brutal regime. It’s like a scene out of the horror film “The Wicker Man.”
Then the action flashes back to when Elphaba and Glinda met at school. Both were students at the hilariously named Shiz University, which in the film looks like Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as designed by Mattel. Shiz is similar to Hogwarts in that it recognizes and develops magical talents, although not all students have them; Glinda, then called Galinda, struggles to learn how to use a training wand.
Elphaba has significantly more magical prowess, which she has trouble controlling. She comes to the attention and mentorship of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), the headmistress and dean of sorcery studies, who has plans for her uneasy scholar.
We are also introduced to Elphaba’s younger sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), whom her father adores; a nerdish Munchkin student named Boq (Ethan Slater); and a pair of Glinda stans, Pfannee and ShenShen (Bowen Yang and Bronwyn James), who will do anything to please her.
A serious subplot emerges along with the introduction of Dr. Dillamond, a Shiz prof who also happens to be a CGI-crafted goat, voiced by Peter Dinklage. In “Wicked,” animals can speak and teach, although their voices and freedom are threatened by unseen “dark times” that bedevil the supposedly marvellous land of Oz.
All of these characters and occurrences happen before we get anywhere near the Emerald City, which resembles Disneyland’s Magic Kingdom covered in green paint. A cool Art Deco train takes us to the fanciful green metropolis where we are ushered into the presence of the Wizard of Oz. He’s played by Jeff Goldblum, whose default position is to be blissfully weird.
Long before this regal encounter, the wheels begin to figuratively seize up on the “Wicked” train — and here come the qualms about this otherwise impressive epic.
The film’s production design is not a delight, being more shopping mall than cinema marvel. The cinematography by Alice Brooks seems overexposed, with lens flares that are a distraction rather than an artistic flourish.
More of a problem is the strategy by Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”) and the film’s producers to make “Wicked” a two-parter (the second arrives at Christmas 2025). This means stretching a story that in its Broadway version ran in its entirety for less than the film’s bladder-challenging 160 minutes.
Chu’s first “Wicked” chapter ends at roughly the conclusion of Act One of the Broadway version. Is there enough story to keep this going for another 160-odd minutes, for a total runtime exceeding five hours?
I’m skeptical. Fleming’s “The Wizard of Oz” clocked in at just over 100 minutes to become the masterpiece it is.
With such a bloated length, “Wicked” risks becoming another Oz wannabe that crashes to earth. But for the moment, I have to agree with Glinda that “pink goes good with green.”