Wicked movie: The journey from Broadway to the big screen
Times of discover News: That's always been the case for Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, who played the roles of Elphaba and Galinda in the Broadway production of Wicked. The two theater icons are enjoying a moment as the first part of a two-part film adaptation, Wicked, is set to release in theaters on November 22. And it's a chance to relive some memories.
Join Entertainment Weekly for an exclusive conversation (full video coming soon!) between the original stage witches and the new movie witches, Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba) and Ariana Grande (Glinda), while Menzel and Chenoweth sing cues from the show and perform their favorite. song, guess. — and it's not what you might expect.
When Erivo noted that she had only sung Glinda's second-act number, "Thank God," to a public audience before auditioning for Elphaba, Menzel interjected, saying, "That's my favorite song of all time. Don't say that!" "Of course, I love all of Elphaba's songs," she said. "But when you're doing eight shows a week, you start to like [songs that aren't your own]."
Similarly, it turns out that Chenoweth's favorite song isn't technically a Glinda number (though she does sing it in her Act II encore). "'I'm Not That Girl' is my favorite," Chenoweth said, before Menzel jokingly asked Erivo: "Did they test to see if she wasn't like [voice drops] could you beat that for a little girl?", .
Menzel is referring to the infamous last note of Elphaba's stirring song, which suddenly drops to a low note. The tone is slightly lower in the film version, which director Jon M. Chu says was a mutual decision between original composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and Erivo.
Want more movie information? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, movie reviews and more. But Chenoweth has her own memories of that low note. On Glinda's reprise of the ballad, she says, "After [Elphaba] left she asked me to do it in front of a live audience." "I have two verses of it."
"Oh, okay," Menzel said. "Put it at the end of the set change." Chenoweth confirmed Menzel's memory, saying, "I heard the clunk, clunk, clunk in the background and I thought, that's not that girl [sigh]. That's fine. She's perfect."
Wicked premiered on Broadway in 2003. Based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire and with music and lyrics by Schwartz, The Wizard of Oz musical prequel follows two witches, Elphaba, a student at Shrewsbury University, as she becomes the Wicked. Witch of the West. The show received 10 Tony Award nominations in 2004, including one for Best Musical, winning three.
