For 20 years, a film adaptation of Wicked was bandied about, teased and then postponed time and again. For ardent fans, debates around potential casting were a never-ending source of enrichment, with countless names thrown into the air before, almost inevitably, circling back to the same nostalgic conclusion: "Well, they'll never be Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, of course."
As Wicked, Part One finally soars to the big screen as the most anticipated film of the holiday season, director Jon M. Chu has taken the time to honor what came before. In the film's widely extended "One Short Day" sequence, which sees Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba and Ariana Grande's Glinda arrive at the decadently designed Emerald City, four familiar faces can be spotted in the middle of a new song.
In the "Wizomania" section, which comes squarely in the middle of the "One Short Day" sequence, Elphaba and Glinda are ushered into a special theatrical celebration of the Wizard of Oz's origins. In the Broadway show, "Wizomania" contains these lyrics:
Who's the mage
Whose major itinerary
Is making all Oz merrier?
Who's the sage
Who sagely sailed in to save our posteriors?
Whose enthuse for hot air ballooning
Has all of Oz honeymooning?
Woo
Wiz-n't he wonderful? (Our wonderful wizard!)
For the film, composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz has written a stunning new section, paying tribute to the history of Oz itself. The new lyrics are as follows.
Presenting the absolute factual story of our Wonderful Wizard of Oz, starring the Emerald City Players!
Long, long ago, long before we can recall
There lived here in Oz
The Magical Wise Ones (the Magical Wise Ones!)
The Wisest of them all!
We will not live forever
That I can foresee
So let us set down all our magic
In a strange and secret language
In a book! The Grimmerie (The Grimmerie)
But time ticked ever onward, day by day
And all those who could read it, passed away
'Til, one day, no one could
But! The Wise Ones left a prophecy
In Oz's darkest hour, though we can not say when
There will come one with a power
To read the Grimmerie again!
And Oz, which had been sad and blah
Once more will sing a joyous Ah!
Look! A man in a balloon, arriving from the sky!
Maybe he is here to fulfill the prophecy? But can he read the Grimmerie?
This man who comes out of the blue, is he the prophecy?
There's one way we'll know if it's true
Fetch the Grimmerie! (The Grimmerie!)
O-Ma-Ha
O-Ma-Ha
He can read it! He must be a Wizard!
The prophecy fulfilled
What merriness he'll bring
Now every Ozian, raise your voice and sing!
And sing!
And sing!
Who's the mage
Whose major itinerary
Is making all Oz merrier?
Who's the sage
Who sagely sailed in to save our posteriors?
Whose enthuse for hot air ballooning
Has all of Oz honeymooning?
Woo
Wiz-n't he wonderful? (Our wonderful wizard!)
Listen to the new song-within-a-song below.
Hear some familiar voices on the film's soundtrack? Your ears don't deceive you, that is Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth as Oz's Magical Wise Ones, and leading ladies of the Emerald City Players!
Welcoming Wicked's original stars back into the fold was no simple task. As the film's costume designer Paul Tazewell shared with Playbill, it takes guts to outfit the in-universe megastars. With Menzel cocooned in gossamer peach and Chenoweth in a color shifting plum, the sequence establishes them both as icons in Oz outside of the characters they originated. Said Tazewell: "Those looks were to make them into goddesses. And indeed, they are goddesses in the Wicked universe. They've become that. I was using the same textures I was using on Elphaba and Glinda, with all of the micro pleating and the wave pattern, but blowing it up into a scale that becomes theatrical for the world of Oz. Everything was in service of raising them up and honoring who they are within this IP."
But surprise! Menzel and Chenoweth aren't the only Wicked legends on display in the "Wizomania" sequence. While their cameos (and Menzel's Elphaba riff) are impossible to miss, the show's original book writer Winnie Holzman can be seen in the crowd as she gives the Wizard of Oz his name after he supposedly reads from the book. Holzman also co-wrote the film's screenplay.
Composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz also has a cameo shortly after the "Wizomania" sequence, stepping in as the Wizard's Guard instructing Elphaba and Glinda that "the Wizard will see you now!" And yes, his costume is a homage to the guard in the 1939 Wizard of Oz film, though with a twist.
"Stephen wears the origami eye that you see throughout my Oz," Tazewell shared, smiling. "The buttons, the emblems, the buckles, they all have an origami pattern that 'Oz' is then set on top of, and is a major part of his design as the source of all of this incredible music. His moment is also a moment from The Wizard of Oz, and that doorman's presence connects you back to the very start. He embraces that mustache, the hair and the hat from 1939, but makes it his own thing, just like he did in 2003."
The "One Short Day" sequence, which has summoned gasps and tears throughout screening audiences, is a love letter to the Wicked fans who have poured their devotion into the musical for the last two decades. Nothing will ever wholly capture the magic of that original spark, but director Chu and the Wicked 2024 team have devoted themselves to getting as close as possible to that whimsically wonderful place that has inspired countless artists and audiences to reach for something emotionally extraordinary.
The soundtrack to Part One of the Wicked film adaptation is available now, via Republic Records. Check with your local movie theatre for film times.
Cynthia Erivo in Wicked
Ariana Grande in Wicked
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked
Cynthia Erivo in Wicked
Cynthia Erivo, Jon M. Chu, Ariana Grande, and production company of Wicked
Jon M. Chu, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked
Ariana Grande and cast of Wicked
Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh in Wicked
Jonathan Bailey and cast of Wicked
