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Changes the Wicked Movie Made From the Original Musical, Explained
Not all Wicked tales are the same. We track the differences from the musical to the screen.
Spoilers for the big screen adaptation of Wicked
In every adaptation, changes are made from one medium to the other and that's certainly the case for director Jon M. Chu's Wicked.
Gregory Maguire's novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, is very different from Wicked the Musical, and there's expanded material that harkens back to the book and the musical in the first Wicked movie.
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The book, the musical and the film tell the epic "untold" back story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda (Ariana Grande), the Good Witch of the North first introduced in L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
If you're a diehard Wicked the Musical fan, you've likely seen and noted everything that's even slightly different from composer Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's Wicked musical adaptation. However, if you're coming to the Wicked film pure, with less exposure to the book or the musical, NBC Insider is here to help you clock where the film diverges so you're read to compete in ant future Wicked-themed pub quiz, or just impress your musical theater friends.
The Prologue
With Wicked's run time at 2 hours and 40 minutes — which is the run time of the Wicked musical currently on Broadway and at the West End in London — that means there's plenty of extra material to find that isn't seen in the stage production.
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Right from the top, after Glinda the Good admits she was friends with the Wicked Witch of the West, the film goes into flashback mode to show pieces of Elphaba's birth and childhood in her very strained household. Elphaba's green skin exposed that her mother had had an affair, which made her husband, Governor Frexspar Thropp (Andy Nyman), despise Elphaba for reminding him that he was deceived. It also reveals Elphaba's protective nature for her wheelchair-bound sister, Nessa Rose (Marissa Bode).
Madame Morrible's Tutoring
While Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) knows there's something magically special with Elphaba from the moment she lands at Shiz University with her family, the musical doesn't really walk us through how she coaxes that out of the young witch. However, the first film gives us several scenes, either in montages or actual added sequences, featuring the two of them working on Elphaba's issues with channeling her emotions.
Elphaba and Fiyero's Meet Cute
In the musical, hot Winkie prince Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey) struts into Shiz University and grabs the eye of both Elphaba and Glinda at the same time. Jon M. Chu said, "What fun is that?" and orchestrated a whole new sequence where a solo Elphaba is walking back to campus in the dark and literally stumbles into Fiyero and his talking blue horse. It certainly sets up their separate chemistry and connection in a much stronger way.
The Ozdust Ballroom
The Ozdust Ballroom, where Fiyero lures the naughty Shiz students to leave campus after dark and have a night of dancing and fun, gets a major expansion in the film. In Jon M. Chu's version, the Ballroom is not only a swanky hotspot featuring fish in the ceiling and a band comprised of Animal players and singers, but it's also the backdrop for a huge emotional turn in the story.
It's on the dance floor after the students try to humiliate Elphaba for her clothing that she goes into a solitary expressive dance moment that Glinda joins. They have a bonding moment and their friendship becomes true.
The "One Short Day" Musical Within a Musical
When Elphaba and Glinda arrive in the Emerald City, they're swept into the hustle and bustle of the metropolis with the song "One Short Day," which is meant to highlight how magical a place the Wizard of Oz's seat of power has become.
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In Wicked, the sequence has been augmented by the Wiz-o-mania show within a show. The local theater troupe — featuring lots of Wicked the Musical performer cameos (most notably Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth) — sings about the history of Oz after the Wizard landed and the power of the magical book, The Grimmerie.
Wicked is in theaters now! Click here to pick up tickets for yourself and the whole family!
