Okay, how was SNL’s ‘Gladiator II’ musical sketch better than both ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’?
Somebody get Paul Mescal into a musical, STAT!
Say what you will about Saturday Night Live, but once in a while there will come an SNL sketch that will remind you of what made her THAT girl of late-night TV in the first place.
Recently, Paul Mescal made his SNL debut. And a sketch featuring him turned Gladiator II into a Wicked inspired musical that has defied gravity, the entertainment value of both films, and audience expectations.
With Mescal hosting SNL, the sketches ranged from challenging Irish stereotypes to him being Daddy. But the best sketch of the night, hands down, was the one where Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II was given a musical makeover, seeing as musicals are such a rage right now thanks to Wicked. And of course, Paul Mescal flexed his vocal cords while waxing poetic about being misunderstood as a “killing machine” when he was so much more underneath.
He didn’t just sing, he swashbuckled, slashed, and chopped while belting showtunes. And he was joined by Bowen Yang (who plays Pfannee in Wicked) as a Roman senator and Kenan Thompson, who reprised the role of Denzel Washington’s Macrinus. Thompson brought the gladiators to the city and sang, “There’s No Place Like Rome,” which could’ve become the anthem for Glicked had it gone as explosive as Barbenheimer!
The sketch featured a couple more songs, and parodies of other characters like Fred Hechinger’s Emperor Caracalla, culminating in a group chorus in the arena and Mescal’s gladiator flying out from the Colosseum on a broomstick singing the “Defying Gravity” riff pitch perfectly!
The sketch drove fans into a frenzy as they laughed and imagined how Gladiator II the musical could’ve been what Joker: Folie à Deux was trying to be. Additionally, the production value of the sketch and Mescal’s “Defying Gravity” riff convinced them that this was a better lit and musical than Wicked (which had a major backlighting issue) and that Mescal needed to be cast in a musical, STAT!
The fact is that despite their acclaim and popularity, both Wicked and Gladiator II had certain issues that inhibited fans from fully submitting to these films. For Gladiator II, particularly, there was lack of commitment to grandiosity that kept it from being as great as its predecessor. But looks like fans have found a middle ground with SNL’s Gladiator II – The Musical that gives them the best of both worlds!
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