Wicked review: Ariana Grande steals the show in bewitching blockbuster

Created by Stephen Schwartz, it’s the ultimate super-villain origin story. Except that, as the film shows too, it’s never quite that cut and dried, even if you are always the centre of a commotion.

Playing Elphaba is Cynthia Erivo, the British-born actress who won a Tony for her stage turn in The Color Purple. Here, right from the off, she’s more the colour green, born that way. As ostracised as she feels, Elphaba determines to study sorcery at Shiz University in Oz, the fantasy land with its yellow brick road and, of course, the gleaming Emerald City.

There she meets Galinda (Ariana Grande-Butera), the pink-frocked would-be witch who is utterly self-absorbed (and, in Oz lore, will one day become the Good Witch of the North).

Despite Galinda’s seeming popularity, it is Elphaba who is singled out by the school principal, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) for special tutoring.

Plus, there’s a love interest in the shape of the oh-so-handsome Fiyero (Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey), who both Galinda and Elphaba will be stirred by.

Bubbling away in the background is the notion that not all is what it seems in Oz, a place where suddenly the coterie of highly intelligent animals are being turned on.

Among them, Dr Dillamond, a professor at Shiz University who also happens to be a goat. Voiced by Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, Dillamond becomes a symbol of defiance as the human characters look to overpower their animal counterparts.

Largely, though, political undertones are kept very much to the side in a story that is driven by big musical numbers like The Wizard and I and the barnstorming Defying Gravity.

Erivo has to bide her time in the film, knowing that Elphaba’s transformation into the black hat-wearing crone will come; she graciously lets Grande steal every scene going as Galinda, a girl who simply loves flopping on a bed in fake consternation. It’s a hilarious performance, one of the year’s most enjoyable.

Directed by Jon M Chu, whose CV includes the excellent Brooklyn-set musical In the Heights (2021), Wicked comes in two parts (the second due in November 2025) – which, given that the first film runs at 160 minutes, feels rather indulgent.

Still, despite the length, it’s hard not to get swept up in its rich evocation of the world first created by L Frank Baum, the author of 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Key to this is the work of Nathan Crowley, the production designer famed for his work on Christopher Nolan films including the Dark Knight trilogy and Dunkirk.

The larger-than-life sets, from Shiz University to the Emerald City, with its looming golden-coloured Wizard figure, are quite staggering. Even the emerald-coloured steam train that chugs along through Oz is an instant design classic.

All of which means Wicked feels like the best of old-school and new-school filmmaking. And if that’s not enough, there’s Jeff Goldblum to enjoy, making a late appearance as the Wizard of Oz himself, his delivery perfectly in tune with the charlatan illusionist.

Finishing with what feels like a nod to the original Christopher Reeve-starring Superman, on a note of empowering strength, this mouthwatering musical will leave you desperate for the arrival of Part II.

Wicked: Part I comes to cinemas on Friday 22nd November 2024.

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