Wicked
Cert: 15 | ★★★★✩
It is there in Stephen Schwartz’s musical and before that Gregory Maguire’s novel. But in this film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz origin story there can be little doubt that the green and pleasant land in which it is set has a lot more in common with Nazi Germany than it does the Cotswolds.
An early sign that this is the case is the wanted poster of the green Wicked Witch of the West known as Elphaba. The caricature of evil portrays her with grasping hands that might throttle an innocent passer-by. The image is pure Der Stürmer. As the the ruddy-cheeked crowed celebrate news of her death, the good witch Galinda floats down on her preferred mode of transport – a bubble – and is asked by an inquiring child why does wickedness exist?
Rather than deploy Woody Allen’s answer to a similar question concerning Nazis (“How do I know why there were Nazis? I don’t know how a can opener works”), Galinda’s response takes a little longer: the two hours and 40 minutes of this film.
Suppressed friendship: Ariana Grande as Galinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba
The movie is the first of two instalments, the second of which is scheduled for release in a year. This is going some when you consider the stage version of the musical lasts about the same time as part one of the double bill. Yet if the first part is anything to go by such investment of time is richly rewarded.
The director is Jon M. Chu, who proved his ability to transpose stage shows to the screen with Lin Manuel Miranda’s thrillingly urban musical In the Heights. Thanks to some inspired casting the story’s central love-hate fremeny relationship is supercharged. The uncannily Aryan Galinda is played by the American pop star Ariana Grande while her opposite in all things Elphaba is performed by Cynthia Erivo.
Both are excellent. Erivo’s more persecuted and likeable role is the easier of the two performances to praise. The British performer conveys wisdom where others might accentuate victimhood. Just as importantly Erivo delivers the hugely challenging vocals of Shwartz’s massive number Defying Gravity with the power and accuracy the number demands. True, it doesn’t eclipse Idina Menzel’s original version in the stage show, but it is good enough to stop you missing it.
The cherries on this deceptively nutritious confection include Jonathan Bailey’s dashing prince Fiyero, who will come into his own in part two; Jeff Goldblum’s oddly amoral Wizard and Michelle Yeoh as his henchwoman Madame Morrible.
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba
Also worth a mention is Andy Nyman, who does a fine job as Elphaba’s embittered and cruel father. With the film’s release coming after Nyman’s starring role in Hello Dolly! opposite Imelda Staunton, and before his Max Bialystock in the forthcoming revival of The Producers, it appears that Nyman is having a moment.
However, for me it is Grande’s narcissistic Galinda that is the pick here. The pop star turns spoilt vacuity into art. If Paris Hilton ever inspired a performance that reveals a beating heart beneath blonde banality, this is it. Anyone who eyes do not tear up at the party scene where Galinda and Elphaba realise that a great friendship has been suppressed by their mutual antipathy does not deserve the heart-swelling emotional rush felt by the more sensitive and insightful souls among us. Part two has a hard act to follow.
