Over the past year, “Wicked” has taken the world by storm—or rather, by tornado. In its opening week, “Wicked: Part I” became the highest-grossing movie based on a Broadway musical to hit the domestic box offices and the biggest global and domestic opening for a movie based on a Broadway show. The soundtrack hit over a billion streams on Spotify in February of this year, and, as of its closing in theaters, the film beat out “Mamma Mia” for the highest-grossing film adaptation of a Broadway musical, totaling over $750 million worldwide. All of this smashing success means that “Wicked: For Good,” the second installment in the two-part movie series, has some big (ruby red) shoes to fill.
Luckily, as both a born-and-raised Kansan who has experienced many a tornado and a dedicated thespian who saw the first installment three times in theaters, I am somewhat of a “Wicked” expert. Thus, I am here to offer my honest review of “Wicked: For Good” and let you know that I do believe you will be changed for the better.
Although I had faith in director John M. Chu’s ability to translate the musical’s second act from stage to screen, I still went into my viewing of “Wicked: For Good” feeling a bit nervous. How could the second movie live up to the pure greatness of the first? What if it was not any good at all? Why, that would be positively scandalocious!
However, I decided to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap, and on Saturday, Nov. 22, I hopped on the Emerald Express (my friend Hannah’s car) and made the long trip to Oz (the Poughkeepsie Galleria Regal Cinemas). Popcorn in one hand and pink bubble slushy in the other, I leaned back in my seat and let the opening notes take me somewhere over the rainbow.
The first track, “Every Day More Wicked,” draws us right back into the intensity of the opener of the first movie, “No One Mourns the Wicked.” This time, instead of rejoicifying, the people of Munchkinland are feeling afraid because of the misinformation they are being fed about the “wicked” witch of the west. This darker rendition of the earlier song immediately sets the tone of the movie. This is not about the glory days at dear old Shiz, and nobody is dancing through life this time around.
The next few songs get us acquainted with where our characters are now. It has been five years since Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) flew off into the western sky and left Glinda (Ariana Grande), Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), Nessa (Marissa Bode) and Boq (Ethan Slater) on the ground. Songs like “Thank Goodness/I Couldn’t Be Happier,” “The Wicked Witch of the East” and “No Place Like Home”—one of the two new additions from the musical’s original composer, Stephen Schwartz—align with the somber tone of the movie’s opener and catch us up on how all of these characters have changed since their time at school together. While these songs were enjoyable, none of them stood out in the same way as the hit songs in the first movie.
However, things really started picking up from Elphaba and Fiyero’s love duet, “As Long As You’re Mine,” onward. I have always thought the songs in the first act of the musical were better than the second, so I was not expecting to come out of the movie with any new favorites. However, after hearing Erivo and Bailey’s rendition of this ballad, my ranking of top favorite “Wicked” songs is definitely going to shift. I might even go as far as to say that this version is better than the original Broadway version.
After this point, the movie just keeps getting darker and darker. Although I was familiar with the storyline from watching poor-quality videos of the stage version on YouTube, the way the intensity was portrayed in the movie version brought a whole new level of sadness. Most notably, the way the scene cut back and forth between Elphaba casting spells and Fiyero being attacked during “No Good Deed” made it much more emotional than how I have seen it portrayed on stage.
After about two hours of buildup, the movie reached its long-awaited conclusion with Elphaba and Glinda’s emotional goodbye in “For Good.” Cue the waterworks! This is my favorite song in the show—and objectively the best song in the show—and I think Erivo and Grande definitely did it justice. While this song is not the most vocally demanding, the acting made it a standout of the movie. It is not just Elphaba and Glinda’s final song together but also their final conversation. Erivo and Grande really captured the weight of that moment, and there was not a dry eye in the theater. I think it is safe to say we were all changed for good.
Once the movie was over, my friends and I wiped our tears and relocated to Chili’s for a very important conference about our thoughts on the film. About half of the group thought it was just as good as the first one, and the other half thought it was even better. I think I will have to see it a few more times, which I will be doing over both Thanksgiving and Winter Break, before I can fully decide my ranking. Nonetheless, I definitely think that “Wicked: For Good” reached the high bar set by the first movie and lived up to expectations.
So, let us be glad, let us be grateful, let us rejoicify that “Wicked: For Good” is just as good as—if not better than—its predecessor. Hop on your broomstick and defy a little gravity: whatever it takes to make it into theaters to see “Wicked: For Good.” I could not be happier to report that this is one you do not want to miss.