‘Wicked’ was the first musical I ever saw in my life, in London’s West End. It was impressive. For almost three hours I was absolutely subjugated for ‘The wizard and I’, ‘Popular’, ‘I’m not that girl’ and, of course, the well-known ‘Defying Gravity’, one of the most famous songs in the history of theatre. This is precisely what they used (in the background) in a first trailer for ‘Wicked’ which feels like a dream come true, except for Hollywood’s mania for hiding their gender.
Something has changed within me
Just as it happened in ‘Mean Girls’ or ‘The Color Purple’, the film industry tries to deceive us so that we do not find out in any way that a musical is a musical. Seen this way, ‘Wicked’ seems like a simple reinvention of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, but in reality, this adaptation of the musical based on the spin-off novel of the original work by L. Frank Baum (nothing is easy to explain today in the entertainment industry) it is much more.
In fact, another thing that the trailer hides from us is that This is just the first part of ‘Wicked’, which will cover the first act of the original work, with a second already filmed and on the way. Not in vain the filming has lasted more than a year (from December 2022 to January 2024, with breaks forced by the strike), but it seems that The entire team is working quickly to have it ready on November 27, prepared for Thanksgiving. The second will be released in 2025, we’ll see if in style or swept under the rug.
The budget has been 145 millionabsolutely crazy for a musical, yes, but there was no other way to adapt a work like this, full of effects, flying people, spectacular makeup and, of course, songs with the potential to steal our hearts (and the throat singing, some time later). It’s time to try defying gravity…
In Espinof: