Wicked: For Good

Who's ready to get Wicked again?

Last year, Wicked's expanded first act proved wonderful for the box office. We now have the second act, Wicked: For Good, ready to send its Broadway fanbase, casual filmgoers, Oz fans, and every combination thereof, back on the Yellow Brick Road. Let's see what they'll find.

Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) has now fully embraced her unwanted destiny as The Wicked Witch of the West. By that, I mean that she's actually fighting against the Wizard of Oz's (Jeff Goldblum) oppression of Oz's animal population. Meanwhile, Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande) is pushed into an arranged marriage with Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who actually loves Elphaba. 

There’s a lot of stuff that happens here. Elphaba tries to reconcile with her sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), but that ends badly. Elphaba considers joining the Wizard, but that ends badly. Fiyero and Elphaba have a secret affair, which, you guessed it, ends badly. It gets complicated when Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) brings along a certain farmgirl from Kansas and her little dog, too. Still, Glinda and Elphaba try to save their once promising friendship.

I haven't seen the stage musical - I wish I did - but I've heard it said that its second act isn't as good as the first. Of course, all of Stephen Schwartz's popular songs have already been handled, which are reprised in the opening medley. But more importantly, we not only have the plot points I mentioned above, but the fates of Fiyero and Boq (Ethan Slater) to consider. Most productions tend to tell all of that in about 55 minutes! Maybe the filmmakers were on to something when they split it into two movies. Yes, I was skeptical when they announced the split, but its profound finale justifies it. It's quite a technical and emotional achievement.

With the fun songs over, we now get to the more dramatic ones. There's not a false note from Grande and Erivo as their characters are put through the ringer. Both of them get new Oscar-Bait songs, "No Place Like Home" for Elphaba & "The Girl in the Bubble" for Glinda; I prefer the latter over the former. Even as they fight, particularly in a weirdly silly brawl, you'll still hold out hope that they'll reconcile, which they do during the titular song. I surprisingly sympathized with Nessa, who turns out to be a deeply insecure control freak. She makes that clear during her powerful song.

Let's talk about the villains. You'll loathe and admire this Wizard for his casual callousness. Yes, he's got one of the score's lightest songs, Wonderful, in which he almost wins Elphaba over. But he also thinks that locking up sentient animals and depriving them of speech is a good thing. What redeems him is his how he processes one last bombshell: no words, spoken or otherwise. His devastation maybe the best bit of acting of Goldblum's career. Yeoh gets her best moments as Morrible when she gets to overact, even a little.

We now get to Dorothy and her friends. We never get to see her face, save for a few glimpses, but we hear her quite a bit. She's played by Bethany Weaver, and she's fine in the role. The Tin Man not only proves to be heartless, but ruthless, when he rallies the Ozians against Elphaba. He and the Scarecrow are marvelous feats of costume design and practical makeup; you'll have to see them for yourselves. And finally, we have the Cowardly Lion (Colman Domingo), whose ungratefulness towards Elphaba's kindness is surprisingly understandable.

Since both parts were filmed together, Jon M. Chu retains pretty much everyone on the technical side. Visually speaking, it's pretty much the same as last time, though Oscar winners Nathan Crowley and Paul Tazewell's new designs are still cool. Besides the Scarecrow and Tin Man's designs, we now see Fiyero's abandoned castle, Elphaba's own castle and the Deadly Deserts outside Oz. What makes me prefer The Girl in the Bubble is how it follows Glinda in and out of every mirror in sight. You'll have to see this amazing feat of cinematography and editing for yourself. The expanded score by Schwartz and John Powell accentuates the magical action quite nicely. Still, a few moments have the score overpowering the dialogue, especially during the beginning.

I don't know if I've been changed for good by this two-part musical. But I've had as much fun with Wicked: For Good as I did its predecessor. It's thankfully shorter than its predecessor, at 137 minutes, so it doesn't overstay its welcome too much. If anything, I hope that if Hollywood will learn all the essential lessons the next time it does this again. Maybe not, but it's worth a thought. I think I said enough.