Are you still pulling out the ‘Defying Gravity’ riff at the function? Get used to it. With the recent box-office and cultural successes of Wicked and Wicked: For Good, we’re sure to see even more stage to screen adaptations in the future. The movies directed by Jon M. Chu are based on the musical of the same name by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz, which is inspired by Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz, which all circles back to essentially being fan-fiction of the original Wizard of Oz. If anything knows something about an adaptation, it’s the Wicked team. The duology follows Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West in other Oz-centered media, and her story of not *actually being wicked, Glinda the Good not being so great, and the Wonderful Wizard being anything but. As much as we’ve seen these characters, whether you saw Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow in The Wiz (1978) or Johnathan Bailey as him in Wicked: For Good, the cultural phenomenon of Wicked can’t be understated. The two films grossed over $1.2 billion combined and showed an intrigue in the genre like never before. The appeal of having a ‘must-see’ musical is back, and theatre fans are hoping it will stay for good.
Well, why right now?
The culture is constantly shifting, in the theatre, film, and general societal world, we have different markers for what we like to see. Musicals like Singin’ in the Rain (1953) and The Sound of Music (1965) in the mid 20th century relied on Broadway-level showtunes and jazz, the shiny bright spectacles with happy endings. As the world changed, audiences wanted musicals that evolved with it. They were hungry for darker, more realistic stories, representation, and different styles of music. Musicals evolved to be a medium rather than a genre. Then it hit the world of film. Again.
Chicago (2002) directed by Rob Marshall was thought to bring back the dying culture of movie musicals with its awards success, snagging 6 Oscars, including Best Picture. It sticks out like a sore thumb with its semi-recent release date, on a list of movie-musicals from 1968 and earlier. Chicago used its technical feats to garner its success, the dazzling effects setting it apart from other films, but worked with more realism than the movie-musicals we typically see. When you walk into a theatre, no matter where you are, there’s an expectation that you’ll will a suspension of disbelief— that’s not your niece on the stage, that’s really Cinderella, or believing that when the pulley system goes up, Elphaba really is flying over Oz. We carry that suspension with us when we know we’re going into a movie musical as well, but some directors do work to ‘realize’ a movie, in Chicago’s example, making the intensely theatrical dance sequences parts of Roxie’s crazed daydreams and delusions. Wicked, however, proves that sometimes people can get into a musical with a goat professor. There have been, and may very well continue to be, some movie musical busts. Into the Woods (2014) was criticized for the adaptation lacking a lot of the original musical’s darker elements that made it so popular in the first place. Filmmakers are pushed to make decisions on maintaining what’s special about the source material and balancing it with the demands of a feature-length film. While Chicago and Les Misérables showed a bit of that financial and critical success, movie musicals are not yet a goldmine and still require a lot of passion and care for the original.
2002, though? You might ask yourself, ‘what about Hamilton? I couldn’t get that out of my head a few years ago!’ There, is the difference between a movie musical and a pro-shot. A pro-shot of a musical or stage play is the recording of the piece put to digital or shown in cinemas just as it is on the stage. A movie-musical adaptation reconstructs the story to fit the screen, often adding new elements to fit the medium, and taking away certain pieces that don’t work when translated to film.
The big screen and the stage require certain things, and those requirements aren’t always in line with one another. For the stage, you have that live energy of audience reactions and participations, as well as a big emphasis on imagination, but there’s the limitations with the set. In a movie, you have free reign on things like locations, flashbacks, editing, and closeups, but it gets tricky with realism, runtime, and establishing a theater-y audience.
The line is blurry on what to keep and take, especially to keep the authenticity behind the pieces. In Wicked: For Good, there are two original songs ‘No Place Like Home’ sung by Cynthia Erivo, and ‘Girl in the Bubble’ sung by Ariana Grande. Fans had wildly different opinions on both songs, but there was assurance behind the quality with composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who made the music for both the Broadway show, returning to do the music for the film adaptation. The goal with creatives adapting anything of any kind should be to stay true to the source material, and with Jon M. Chu taking that extra step to ensure the authenticity while adding something new avoided a slew of problems not just from fans of the original, but the creatives behind the original musical and novel.
However, it’s important to highlight that a separate adaptation creates a new space for different kinds of creatives to work on a piece not thought possible before. You no longer need lighting designers for the stage but can transition those roles to different film technicians— the gaffers and SFX artists get their own hand at a piece typically reserved for off-Broadway technical designers. Art can be created as well as re-imagined, and by having an adaptation with as many visual effects as a musical creates an avenue for more artists to get involved.
Movie musicals do something the stage can’t or won’t— reach everyone. Take my personal favorite musical, Next to Normal. It’s been a popular musical for years but has skyrocketed back into the sphere after the pro-shot from PBS Great Performances. Before, you’d have to secure pricey seats for the show on the West End in London. Now, you can watch the entire musical recorded from the stage for free on YouTube if you didn’t have the funds to pay for PBS subscription last year. Movie musicals and pro-shots make live theatre accessible for people who want to see more than the local high school level production but may not have funds or a thriving theatre company near them. Seeing Chu’s adaptation was my first introduction to Wicked because of its ease and availability, and that’s a sentiment shared by many viewers. Other movie-musical adaptations like Hairspray (2007) and The Color Purple (2023) are all readily available to stream to millions of homes that can’t get seats at the Marquis.
Even if it’s not your thing, it’s important to see the value in musicals becoming accessible both for artists and audiences. While the hype dies down, and you may not see ladies in pink ballgowns dressing up as Glinda this Halloween, do those vocal warm-ups and get ready for more movie musical movements in the future.