Pink goes good with green! Everyone was saying as they rushed into the theaters to see the first part of the Wicked movies. November 22, people were brought into the musical world of Wicked. Making its Broadway debut back on October 8, 2003, this musical has a strong story told of two friends, Elphaba and Glinda. This show follows the two characters, one green and shunned from others, Elphaba, and the bright
popular pink lover Glinda. Through their story together, we are able to see them go from enemies to friends, and later turn into the wicked witch of the west (Elphaba) and the good witch (Glinda) that we know from the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939).
The History:
The original Broadway show of Wicked was created by: Stephen Shwartz. Shwartz, born in New York, NY on March 6, 1948, would later become a talented musical composer spanning his career for decades. Other musicals that Shwartz has created include Pippin and Godspell. He has also helped write songs for the popular Disney films like Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, as well as the DreamWorks animated film, Prince of Egypt. Shwartz in his career has been awarded one Tony, three Academy Awards, and one Golden Globe. The wicked musical book was then made by Winnie Holzman.
How the musical originated is a short story: Shwartz was on a vacation in Hawaii in 1996, with his friend John Bucchino. Bucchino recommended a book by Gregory Maguire called Wicked. Once Shwartz read the book, he fell in love with the idea of creating a musical after the story. Shwartz was able to persuade Maguire to give him the rights to Wicked, and then he had screenwriter Winnie Holzman re-write the book for the musical. Later, moving on to 2000, Shwartz starts developing Wicked with a series of workshops. Kristin Chenoweth read lines for Glinda, and Stephanie J. Block read lines for Elphaba then later recast Idina Mezel for the role. Joe Mantello came on board as director, Wayne Cilento as choreographer, and David Stone as producer. In 2003 Wicked had its first full production in San Francisco in May, reviews and comments helped take away and add songs to the production and was set to Broadway in October.
Cast comparison:
Director’s choice & Advertisement:
The director of the Wicked movie was, Jon M. Chu. In his career, Chu directed Crazy Rich Asians (2018) one of the first Hollywood produced film with a majority cast of Asian descent. This movie grossed $239 million at the box office. With 91% of rotten tomatoes. Chu has also done another musical adaptation by Lin Manual Miranda, In The Heights (2021). This musical adaptation got a gross of 45 million in the box office. With a 94% in rotten tomatoes.
Some people have been wondering why the movie has been split up into two parts instead of just doing one movie close to the length it is on Broadway. Chu described, quoting from a twitter post he made in the past during 2022, that the movie will have two parts because, “It became impossible to wrestle the story of Wicked into a single film without doing some real damage to it. As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years. We decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie but two! With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked as it was meant to be told, while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters.” The first movie ended the same way act one ended on Broadway, finishing off with the song Defying Gravity.
When advertising for the movie, the color pink and green were everywhere. Universal Studios had been working very hard with their advertisement for this movie. Choosing to partner with more than 400 brands. Some examples of the collaborations are: Target, Stanley, Crocs, & Starbucks.
The Universal chief of marketing office Michael Moses told Variety, “We live in an environment where monoculture doesn’t happen in the way it used to. So, you have to be everywhere.” Moses had meticulously planned to have anywhere anybody looked be Wicked if it is a poster, advertisement, building, or food.
