The big-screen adaptation of the Broadway hit soars to an emotional conclusion
Wicked: For Good
Starring Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh
Directed by Jon M. Chu
Rated PG
In theaters Friday, Nov. 21
Perhaps you’ve heard there’s another Wicked movie coming out. But you likely know that already, if you haven’t been living under a pile of yellow bricks.
The latest offshoot of one of pop culture’s most enduring tales, this one follows the hit 2024 movie, which quickly became the highest-grossing flick ever based on a Broadway show. You probably also know how Wicked, the stage musical, was based on a 1995 book, which in turn was based on the iconic movie from 1939, director Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz, which adapted L. Frank Baum’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, from 1900.
Wicked: For Good is another explosion of expensive-looking color and visual wowza, filled with songs and powerhouse performances sure to become new faves for faithful fans. The story continues to swirl around the complicated relationship of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the green-skinned enchantress unjustly shunned and feared as the “Wicked Witch,” and her former schoolmate Glinda (Ariana Grande), who’s now even more popular as Elphaba’s “good” counterpart.
Most of the cast of Wicked returns. Jeff Goldblum is back as Oz’s titular wizard, now admitting he’s more manipulator than magician. Michelle Yeoh again plays the dastardly Madame Morrible. There’s the dashing Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who’s been promoted to captain of the Wizard’s Guard. And SNL’s Bowen Yang as Glinda’s doting assistant, and Marissa Bode as Elphaba’s wheelchair-bound sister, now the governor of Munchkinland.
There’s a lot going on as Morrible and the Wizard plot to ensnare Elphaba, Glinda prepares for her wedding (and ponders trademarking the word “good”), and Oz’s talking animals flee the kingdom to avoid enslavement. And those flying monkeys, yep, they’re still darkening the sky.
Wicked: For Good often presents a “darker” shade on the golden shine of the Yellow Brick Road, particularly in the origins of the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion (voiced by Colman Domingo) and the Scarecrow. You’ll see how the crash-landing of Dorothy Gale’s farmhouse creates a fateful chain of events. And there’s a nod to very consequential bucket of water.
But although it dances around the well-known plotlines from the 1939 movie, it also colors outside those lines in a couple of significant ways—and if you’ve seen the stage production of Wicked, you know what I’m talking about. But no spoilers here.
And, oh yes, there’s plenty of music. Goldblum gets a feisty showstopper, “Wonderful,” joined by Grande and Erivo, who also intertwine their impressive voices for the soaring closer, “For Good.” Elphaba and Fiyero heat up a steamy number, “As Long as You’re Mine,” during a passionate encounter. There are two new songs, which weren’t in the Broadway production: Glinda’s “The Girl in the Bubble” and Elphaba’s “No Place Like Home.”
The dynamic between Glinda and Elphaba is the crux of it all. They’re old friends who found themselves in wildly divergent circumstances, on opposite sides of Oz’s political machinery and its plans—not to mention the chasm created by their perceived differences. Can they ever mend the fences that now separate them? What does fate have in store for them both?
At the screening I attended, there were laughs, tears and applause. Wicked fans will be over-the-rainbow enchanted and delighted by it all, and how it wraps things up. I can’t imagine any will leave disappointed—except for knowing that there likely won’t be any more Wicked movies after this one.
—Neil Pond
The Media Tourist 