The cast of the 1975 “Chicago” musical make the sounds “pop, six, squish,” representing how dramatically and quickly circumstances can change. In this situation, it represents how quickly the lives of the jailed women changed after they killed their partners. The Broadway musical “Chicago” was adapted into a movie in 2002. This illustrated how it wasn’t only Roxie and Velma’s circumstances that dramatically changed but also the way the show itself was presented to audiences.
A “movie musical” is a movie with musical songs and numbers. These movies are often adapted from Broadway musicals. “Jazz Singer,” the first movie musical, premiered in 1927. “42nd Street,” premiered in 1933, was the first highly successful movie musical. The movie’s director, Busky Berkeley, was talented in his ability to manipulate sound and visuals, increasing revenue to the film genre.
In 2023, new films like “Mean Girls,” “Wonka,” and “The Color Purple” seemed to cause negative audience reactions for disguising their musical status in early premiers and trailers. However, another new movie musical, “Wicked (Part One),” which premiered in November 2024, has seemingly revived this genre. The movie version of “Wicked” has grossed more than $700 million in revenue worldwide—making it the most successful movie adaptation of a Broadway musical. It also brought success to its original theater version, which became the first Broadway show to gross over $5 million in a single weekend last winter.
“Wicked” is a retelling of “The Wizard of Oz,” a 1939 film starring a little girl named Dorothy and her dog as they explore the magical land of Oz and eventually liberate it from an evil witch. “Wicked” follows the perspective of the witch, Elphaba, who is more misunderstood than evil. She attends school, makes friends with a fellow student named Glinda, and eventually becomes an enemy of Oz.
A lot of thought went into the musical development and casting of the film. “Wicked” stars experienced actress Cynthia Erivo and pop celebrity Ariana Grande. A celebrity musician might sound like a peculiar choice for a movie, but it has become far more common in recent years; Grande is preceded by music celebrities like Taylor Swift in “Cats,” and Lady Gaga in “Joker: Folie à Deux.”
In her interviews, Grande describes how she had dreamed of playing Glinda since she saw the show at 10 years old. Her early adoration of the musical likely led her to reject producers’ original idea to remake Glinda’s main song, “Popular,” into a hip-hop cover. Grande shared that she thought of Glinda as too “vanilla” for a hip-hop cover and felt that doing so would cause the musical to lose some of its original flavor.
Erivo also fell in love with “Wicked” early on, sharing that “[she] had never heard or seen anything like it” when she watched the show on her 25th birthday. Erivo even held a broomstick while auditioning for Elphaba, in a three hour audition process immediately after she performed at Disney Hall. Erivo contributed greatly to the movie—she even co-wrote her own song, “I Don’t Know If You’re Ready For It,” for the sequel of the movie.
The film set of “Wicked” doubled as a recording studio, and the cast sang their songs live while acting. Erivo even performed her own stunts while singing. In interviews, she describes her daily routine of waking up at two every morning to work out before getting ready to film at four. Many music producers agree that recording music live can help capture the rawness and energy of a performance, and it likely contributed to the movie’s success.
“Wicked” struck a high chord that most newer movie musicals have seemingly failed to reach. Its success might be a byproduct of the cast’s dedication to the movie, commitment to keep the original music’s charm, and the fact that music was performed live. However, “Wicked” is not the final movie musical of the year to be released. For instance, a newer version of “Snow White” is set to release March 21. The sequel to the “Wicked” movie, which runs through the events of the musical’s second act, releases in November. The question is, will any of these newer films hit the same high note as “Wicked,” in both flight and audience?
