The show “Wicked” doesn’t need a movie adaptation to be relevant — it’s already a cultural phenomenon, even before this first part of a behemoth two-film Hollywood version hits theaters. The beloved Broadway musical is taken from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” a revisionist history of both Frank L. Baum’s 1900 fantasy novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and that book’s iconic 1939 film adaptation.
So this new film comes heaped high with a century’s worth of heritage, in the traditions of literature, screen and stage, plus the massive expectations that come with that. While Dorothy’s tornado twirl into Technicolor is burned into our collective consciousness, so too is the massive note at the end of the musical’s first act, sung by the witch at the plot’s center, Elphaba, in the show’s signature song, “Defying Gravity” (written by Stephen Schwartz, who created all the music and lyrics for the show). Director Jon M.
Chu’s oversize movie adaptation takes every second of its 2 hours and 40 minutes to build up to that one note. The battle cry that emerges from Elphaba (played here by the Tony-winning, Cynthia Erivo ) is a moment in which the anti-tyrannical ethos of the film snaps into focus with such crystal clarity that it’s breathtaking. It’s just the preceding rising action that feels a bit underwhelming.
“Wicked” seeks to explain to us the Wicked Witch of the West, and th.
