Spoilers ahead for Wicked. It was probably always safe to assume that the film adaptation of long-running Broadway musical Wicked would find a way to incorporate the original Elphaba and Glinda, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, alongside the actresses taking over their roles, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, respectively. It’s die-hard theater fans who maintained enthusiasm for the film through countless delays — and director Jon M.
Chu knows where his bread is buttered. But until Wicked hit theaters, it wasn’t clear how, exactly, the legacy stars would appear in the movie. Both Menzel and Chenoweth show up in the “One Short Day” sequence, which takes place after Elphaba and Glinda arrive in the Emerald City.
Their section is also the one new bit of music in the film, an expanded performance of the musical-within-a-musical Wizomania . In the Broadway show, Wizomania offers a brief glimpse into pro–Wonderful Wizard of Oz propaganda, with the Flatheads (stumpy fellows with flat heads, blame L. Frank Baum for this) sharing how great the Wizard is.
“Wiz-n’t he wonderful?” they sing (and you can blame composer Stephen Schwartz for that). The film’s version of Wizomania offers a more comprehensive — albeit still heavy on the propaganda — history of Oz and the Wizard’s role therein. Menzel and Chenoweth, sans flat heads, appear as actors in the performance, with both basically taking on their respective OG roles of Elphaba and Glinda.
No, Menzel is not g.
