The Fanfic of a Fanfic of a Fanfic

I finally went to see Wicked. That inescapable and endless marketing campaign was more than enough to get me into a cinema - bucket of popcorn in hand. I’m a big fan of Cynthia Erivo’s work - she’s arguably one of the greatest singers of our generation. And while I’ve never been the biggest Ariana Grande fan, she’s also undeniably an A-listed vocalist, and her enthusiasm for this role was so infectious that I had to see it for myself. But boy, was I misled.

Let me start by saying that I’ve always found the American fascination with The Wizard of Oz movie—and its impact on American gay culture—somewhat perplexing. It has never changed my opinion that the film is overrated. Fortunately, where I grew up, it wasn’t considered indispensable or unmissable. That said, it is a piece of cinema history, so I’ll concede that in popular culture, some people really do worship every aspect of it.
Also, I have never actually understood revisionism in literature and film.
The Wicked novel, published in 1995 by Gregory Maguire, has always been a little bit of a mystery to me. The idea of exploring the origin story of wickedness, and to imagine where the Wicked Witch of the West came from, is certainly commendable as an attempt to study evil in literature. However, I can’t help but feel it’s a bit like cheating to write about someone else’s creation as if it were your own. Especially considering that L. Frank Baum left us over ten novels about Oz. Why anyone would feel the need to circle this immensely successful and lucrative treasure trove in search for inspiration and imitation, I will never understand (wink wink).

I understand that this might not be the most generous premise to start with, but it made me reflect on the fact that the Wicked musical is essentially an adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s revisionist, borderline “fan-fictional” work. How cringey would it be if, in 70 years, somebody wrote a revisionist Twilight-inspired novel and it ended up being adapted for the stage? Wouldn’t that feel like a self-referential easy money grab? After all, the characters, worlds, concepts etc. are already there. It would be unoriginal. A sin worth forgiving only if the product is truly masterful.

The Wicked musical and its accompanying book, however, are far less compelling than the “original” novel. They effectively “disneyfy” the entire exploration of evil and the gravity of its themes by injecting saccharine melodies and ‘80s inspired songs.
This approach seems tailored primarily to theatre kids who love nothing more than hearing the sound of their own voices. Kinda like a gigantic masturbation session.
If I recall correctly, the musical received mixed reviews when it premiered 20 years ago.
Its longevity likely has less to do with the actual plot, characters and story and more to do with the high-belting crowd-pleasers that Elphaba shouts at the top of her lungs, alongside the audience’s fascination with the leading actresses. Who genuinely thinks this story carries any weight or depth here? At least Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel did that right.

The musical is shallow, to say the least. Its reflection on wickedness and the nature of evil—the whole point of this revised story—has been condensed by ridiculous and insufferable theatre singers into the final three or four notes of “Defying Gravity”. These embellishments are less about musicality and more about showing off vocal range, to the point where people forget the purpose of a melody: to serve the song. Most of these 5th-octave stretches are as musical as a donkey fart. As Patti LuPone famously said, melodies should be left untouched - so at least someone agrees with my repulsion. At least Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth, the originators of the roles of Elphaba and Glinda, are good at self-restraint. And they were rightfully iconic in their roles - especially Kristen Chenoweth, who I always thought to be a criminally underrated singer.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, photographed by Dana Scruggs for The New York Times. Available via IG @arianagrande © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

So. Here I go to see the movie. As soon as 5 minutes in, though, I go from being gently levitated into an interesting world by the first few shots, to brutally crashing down on earth as soon as, after the first few lines, it finally clicks that this movie is going to be full of Marvel-level humour and derivative characters. Don’t misunderstand me, I think Ariana Grande as Glinda is great to watch, her scripted “comedic” moments probably read as such only to the youngest and, excuse my bluntness, most American audiences. It’s not hard to miss though, that most of the actually funny and lighthearted moments came from Ariana completely being herself and (probably) improvising off script. All the nuances and little things she adds onto the character read much more genuine than her actual lines. Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba really well, though this character is written for the screen in such a cliched and predictable way that it’s even pointless to actually go back to the Wicked novel to check if Maguire wanted to portray the Wicked Witch as actually morally good or bad. But this script is written as a fanfic too, judging from the lack of overall depth and sycophantic reverence with which all the people involved in making this movie seem to be so high on. The set-up, the university, Glinda’s friends, Fiyeroh and Madame Morrible are all so irrelevant and add so little to the emotional charge of the whole thing, that I am not surprised or taken by any of their individual moments on screen. As Bowen Yang is cast in this, the reader will forgive my cheekiness in saying that this whole movie feels like it was written by the current staff of SNL. This whole thing is so preoccupied with being immersed in itself that it completely fails to present the viewer with any sort of moral conundrum, any differing perspective and, ironically, any thought on wickedness. I would’ve much preferred if instead of planting 9 million tulips just for a few shots, these people had spent some time actually writing some good lines into this. I get it though, this movie is supposed to be an easy watch. Even easier than the musical.

Let’s talk about the score. Stephen Schwarts, the original composer, was of course involved in the soundtrack, which is very much appreciated. The songs do sound like the musical, which I guess is what fans wanted, though they do sound a bit dated. I get that it’s supposed to be ‘80s inspired, but it’s starting to read as uninspired. Plus, 2 hours and 40 minutes of part I just for a handful of the songs feels like a huge stretch that will only please the fans who want to be able to rewatch every second of this, in search of easter eggs and tiny details. The singing is done live, which adds to the overall acting, as you can actually see the muscles on the actors' necks moving realistically. Though, apart from Ariana and Cynthia, who are without a doubt worthy of praise for their vocal performances, the rest of the cast delivers poor singing. Jeff Goldblum’s vocal performance is giving ‘Les Mis’ movie flashbacks. Boq is good, but sings for about 30 seconds. Jonathan Bailey adds very little charm here, and while I get that his song is supposed to make audiences fall at his feet, as a gay person, I was not swayed, and cringed every time he looked at Glinda. ‘Popular’ was good, although it’s just another make-over scene full of simple jokes. Let’s be honest, ‘Defying Gravity’ is what we were all waiting for, and the singing doesn’t disappoint, although we have to live through the ever-present falling-from-the-tower-when-she-discovers-she-has-powers scene. I have lost count of how many times I’ve had to sit through that cliche. And then there we go, Cynthia finally lets out her version of the last belt of the song. Stunning. Probably the most stunning version of this song. Now, can we go home?

My overall thoughts on this blockbuster are that the plot is inconsequential and long, things happen at their own disgruntled pace and, even though we spend most of the film at Shiz, we still don’t really understand what they do there, why the animal teachers get hunted down, what Elphaba and Madame Morrible are doing in their seminars except from saying things like “when you control your emotions, you will be so powerful”, etc. I am so lost, and not in a “it’s complicated” kind of way, in a “no, they can’t be this simplistic about this” manner. The director wants us to think that Elphaba is good, Glinda is good, animals are good, Fiyeroh is good, Nessarose is good but angry, so watch out for her in pt. II, Elphaba’s dad is not good, Madame Morrible is not good and Oz is not good. Ok. Right. So the whole reflection on moral doubt is dispelled before we even started. It’s like watching the parody of a Marvel movie. Sorry not sorry, very bad movie. And I do think that most of the praise it’s getting comes from the lore outside of the film, of what people know of Ariana and Cynthia, of what people know of the musical, how it was made… if anything, though, the singing was great.