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All the Reasons Why You Should See Wicked the Broadway Tour if You Loved the Ariana Grande and Cynthia Ervino Film Adaptation

By Jan 13th, 2025, 5:32 am
L-R: Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda for the upcoming Wicked movie. Both are staring at the distance, in awe.

Although both the stage and film versions of the musical Wicked are based on the same novel by Gregory Maguire, fans of each know that there are fairly significant differences between the two (and that the novel itself is also very… unique).

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Buy now: Tickets to Wicked the Musical on StubHub

Like the musical, the movie is split into two parts. The first was released in November 2024, and the second will be released in November 2025. Director Jon M. Chu previously told USA Today that he first saw the musical onstage in San Francisco before it went to Broadway and was hooked on the story.

The musical’s Composer Stephen Schwartz and Wicked screenplay writer Winnie Holzman also spoke to the outlet about their own attachment to the source material. Schwartz and Holzman admitted to USA Today that when their show opened on Broadway in October 2003, they didn’t imagine it would last a month — let alone for years.

Wicked the movie vs Wicked the Musical

Though the first Wicked movie follows the first part of the musical closely in terms of the songs performed — nothing was cut for the film — there are a few key differences between the two:

The movie is much longer than the play: The first part of the film is nearly three hours long, longer than the entire musical. Schwartz pointed out that the movie is the “equivalent” of the musical in terms of “storytelling” and Holzman added that Chu felt “really confident” about splitting the movie into two parts.

Elphaba and Nessarose have a more detailed story: Unlike the musical, the film version of Wicked dives more deeply into the childhoods of sisters Elphaba and Nessarose.

The movie offers nods to The Wizard of Oz: Wicked is a prequel story to the novel and film The Wizard of Oz, and the film references this much more than the stage production does. The movie opens with Ariana Grande’s Glinda announcing the death of the Wicked Witch of the West, which happened at the end of The Wizard of Oz.

Later in the movie, Elphaba accidentally causes her entire class to fall asleep with the aid of poppy flowers — a reference to the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her friends also fall victim to the colorful florals.

How to see Wicked the Musical

Wicked the Musical began its tour on Oct. 16, 2024, at the Keller Auditorium in Portland, Oregon. The tour will conclude a little over a year later on Oct. 26, 2025, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Stephanie Kaloi

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