It’s Musicals Week at IndieWire. With “ Wicked ” about to sparkle over theaters, we’re celebrating the best of the movie-musical genre. We’ll get the big question out of the way first: Do you need to have seen “Wicked” on the stage to appreciate and understand Jon M.
Chu’s long-promised cinematic adaptation of the smash-hit musical? No. And yes. Either way, this spin on the magical story of a kinda magical land will push its audience to hit the Wikipedia (the Wickie-pedia ?) long and hard after it wraps up its stretched-to-the-breaking-point two-hour-and-40-minute running time.
Even that might not help contextualize all of the mythology at play in this latest journey to the Land of Oz, but — ideally — it will help gloss over some of the film ‘s more awkward parts and crystallize the achievements within Chu’s big swing of a two-part epic . And there are indeed achievements here : Cynthia Erivo ‘s singing is unparalleled, Ariana Grande is wonderfully funny, and the musical sequences are not just handsomely, but whimsically mounted. You don’t need to have affection for the stage show to delight in Jonathan Bailey spinning around a magical library while basically imploring everyone to be a selfish asshole, though it can’t hurt.
In terms of raw spectacle, the all-singing, all-dancing meat-and-potatoes of the musical, “Wicked” absolutely delivers. Both existing fans and newbies will swoon over the iconic bangers, like the fizzy fun of “Popular”.