“Wicked: For Good” Is A Wonderful Rendition And Beautiful Conclusion To The “Wicked” Franchise

“Wicked” begins with Glinda Upland (Ariana Grande) announcing the death of The Wicked Witch Of The West (Cynthia Erivo). It’s the story of Glinda and Elphaba’s youth as they attend Shiz University together. They meet Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), and the pair begins to develop feelings for him. The plot is driven by Elphaba’s longing for partnership with the Wizard, and ends when he betrays her.

The cast of these movies has some of the best vocalists in music and musical theater. Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba Thropp, who won a Tony Award in 2016 for her role as Celie in “The Color Purple”. She stars alongside Ariana Grande, who started her career in the musical “13” and 2 Grammys and 1047 award nominations overall in the pop music field.

Every side of this movie has a passionate professional behind them. The film’s director, Jon Chu directed “In The Heights” which is another movie musical, which received a Golden Globe award. The film’s orchestrator Jeff Atmajian worked with an 80 person orchestra and adapted the original score to fit a bigger orchestra.

“Wicked: For Good” is the story of Elphaba and Glinda’s lives after the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) turns Elphaba into Oz’s public enemy. Along the way, it goes into Nessarose Thropp (Marissa Bode) and Boq Woodsman’s (Ethan Slater) relationship after they graduate from Shiz University. The movie also tells a different perspective on “The Wizard of Oz” when we meet The Cowardly Lion (Colman Domingo), the Scarecrow, and the Tinman.

With the movie giving the second act a longer runtime, “Wicked: For Good” adds two new songs to the soundtrack. “No Place Like Home” is sung by Elphaba, which is a motivational ballad convincing the animals to stay and fight for Oz. “The Girl In The Bubble” is sung by Glinda, a sadder toned ballad which she sings in her house reflecting on her life after the Witch Hunters leave to go kill Elphaba.

Going into this movie, I was very scared of how they were planning to act out the changes they made, with new songs being added and characters being added to songs that they weren’t previously in. Walking out of the theater, I was left with a deeper understanding of how Glinda was used to manipulate the people and Nessarose’s heartbreak in regards to Boq’s inability to love her.

My favorite thing about how Chu directed this movie was his ability to pace the songs. “Thank Goodness / I Couldn’t Be Happier” takes place over about 15 minutes, and it provides so much depth for how the people in Oz perceive Glinda. Songs with a larger cast show multiple dynamics, like Fiyero and Glinda’s relationship when they aren’t acting.

This movie showed a lot of the range that the actors have, the tone is more mature, dark and serious compared to the hopeful, bright, and young nature that the first movie has. Specifically, “No Good Deed” compared to “The Wizard and I” shows how Elphaba has grown while under the attack of Oz, and Cynthia Erivo is able to portray both the hopelessness of being unable to be perceived good and the hope of being accepted by her community perfectly.

With the current political climate of the world, the movie’s ability to show oppression and the distribution of political propaganda is very straightforward and shows it in ways that are comparable to our world as it is. The Wizard is a lying dictator and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) is a manipulative propaganda machine that follows his every command.

The costuming for this movie is so perfect. Grammy winner Paul Tazewell does a phenomenal job with tying in elements from the musical it’s based upon, while still making them timely and dramatic to adapt the costumes to the big screen. His designs on “Wicked: For Good” feel very mature, while still being dramatic and immersive into the wonder of the Oz.

As a long time fan of the franchise I really enjoyed the conclusion and portrayal of the second act of “Wicked” as it is my favorite act in all of musical theater. They really did the musical justice and it brought me to tears multiple times; it’s insanely beautiful in every aspect.