The Journey to Wicked

I remember watching the Tony Awards with my Mom and Grandma in 2004, and seeing Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth sing “Defying Gravity” and being obsessed with that song. I was ten and loved musicals and I couldn’t believe their performance. YouTube wasn’t a thing at the time, so I couldn’t look up Wicked clips and become totally obsessed. So I never forgot “Defying Gravity” but Wicked didn’t consume me yet. 

Fast forward to 2009 (when I was in grade 9) and I joined musical theatre because we were doing Sound of Music, which is one of my favourite musicals. I got cast as Brigitta von Trapp, which for any of you who knew me back then when I was too shy to talk to anyone and always had my nose stuck in a book, tracks. I was so excited to perform in my first musical until my arch enemy got in my way: math. Grade nine math was harder than I was used to and the homework was eating up a lot of my time, and so my parents strongly encouraged (read: forced) me to drop musical theatre. Don’t fear guys, I joined up again in grade ten and stayed in it through to grade twelve, but that’s not what this story is about. 

Anyways, so many people were unhappy with the roles they got that they also dropped out of musical theatre. They ended up deciding not to do a musical, but do a musical revue instead. I may not have been in the class anymore, but I certainly went to the show. One girl came on stage dressed all in pink and sang Popular. Well, I was obsessed. It was now 2008, so YouTube was a thing that existed. 

To my surprise I found out Popular was from the same musical as the song I heard at the Tonys years before. Next thing I knew I was YouTube to mp3ing the Wicked soundtrack and watching shaky, poor quality bootlegs on YouTube. Idina and Kristin were spellbounding. 

I haven’t done theatre since grade twelve, but I’m still a theatre kid at heart. I get a pass to Broadway Across Canada every year and have seen most of my favourite musicals at this point. Back when they announced the 2020 season, I was so excited because Wicked was coming. Yeah… I’m sure you all know where I’m going with this. The 2020 season was cancelled and most of the shows were rescheduled. Wicked wasn’t. So, no, to this day, I still haven’t seen a live stage performance. 

When the movie was announced (or rather, when they finally confirmed it was actually happening after being in the works for almost a decade) I was… skeptical. I knew Cynthia had what it took to be Elphaba, but I was more than a little worried for Ariana playing Galinda. Also, movie adaptations of broadway shows have been so hit or miss over the past few years. In the Heights and Tick Tick Boom were great but Mean Girls was just okay, and the less we say about Cats and Dear Evan Hansen the better. And when they announced it was going to be two parts, I was even more worried. The entire stage musical is the length of the first movie… I haven’t read the book cause honestly, it scares me, but were they making it longer to add book stuff? 

Yeah, I would like to personally take back all the criticism I unfairly gave before seeing the movie. I was delighted the whole time. Pretty sure I started crying at the first notes of “No One Mourns the Wicked” (aka the first song) and stopped after the final notes of “Defying Gravity” (aka the last song). The casting was perfect. Cynthia is a powerhouse, Ariana embodies the comedic nature of Galinda, and Jonathan Bailey is basically the sluttiest Fiyero I’ve ever seen and has chemistry with everyone. 

I can’t get over how funny and heartbreaking it was. Galinda’s sidekicks were just as funny as she was. Elphaba being played by a woman of colour hit extra hard. All the practical effects and sets. Even the CGI animals were good. Because so much was done by practical effects, I forgot there even was CGI animals. 

“Defying Gravity” was so powerful. Cynthia killed it! “Popular” was charming as always and Ariana’s toss toss was fantastic. “Dancing Through Life” was the best I’ve seen. The choreography in “What is This Feeling” didn’t have to go so hard! That song has always been my favourite. But the one that shocked me was “No One Mourns the Wicked”. I normally like that song fine, but Ariana’s vocals were incredible and the anguish in it. No wonder I was crying. Also, if you didn’t cry in the Ozdust ballroom scene, you’re heartless.

I am probably going to go see it a couple more times in theatres (especially once they release the sing-along version) because I loved it so much. I can’t wait until the second half comes out and I will be watching Johnathan Bailey’s smirk on a loop until then. If you watch it, let me know if you’re holding space for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity” (iykyk) The theatre kid in me is happy.