After twelve long years, the beloved Broadway musical, Wicked, has finally been released in theaters worldwide on November 22. It has become one of the highest grossing musical movies in history, and is just shy of surpassing Grease.

Wicked, a musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz, is a classic story of “brains, heart, and courage” that has been dear in the hearts of many theatergoers for the past twenty-one years. The show opened on Broadway at the Gershwin Theater

in New York City on October 30, 2003, starring renowned singers Idina Menzel as Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Kristin Chenoweth as G(a)linda (the Good Witch of the South). 

The musical is loosely based on a novel published in 1993 called The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, which predates the events in the timeless 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and provided a backstory for the so-called wicked witch explaining why she is so evil. 

The story follows Elphaba, a girl born with a green skin color due to her mother intaking a magical green elixir during her pregnancy. Ever since the minute she was born, she has been discriminated against due to her abnormal skin color. When she got older, she attended Shiz University–a prestigious school for magic, conjuring, and science–with her younger sister Nessarose, who is a wheelchair user. There, she faced even more hatred than she had previously experienced from her father, but met a girl named Galinda (or Glinda) who would change the trajectory of her life “for good,” as a later song reveals. Although at first they loathed each other due to their polar-opposite personalities, conflicting beliefs, and Glinda’s pure discomfort of Elphaba’s skin color, they eventually grew to care for each other and pushed aside their differences to support the other. 

Despite the musical’s upbeat songs, bright colors, perky characters, and fun costumes, the prominent theme centers around racism, fascism, and politics that mirror issues in the world today. These examples include an individual being hated and silenced just for the color of their skin, propaganda posted all throughout the land of Oz glorifying a powerless and oppressive leader, and personified animals (minorities) being stripped of their rights. The musical is timely and depicts real-world issues weaved into fun dance numbers and powerhouse songs, but also shines a light on female empowerment and sisterhood.

Now, twenty-one years after the musical debuted and twelve years after the film adaptation was initially announced, the movie musical has finally come to the big screen on November 22 and has done impressively well in a limited amount of time. It has surpassed almost every movie musical ever made within the last century in only one week, and grossed the highest amount of money at the box office. The movie made $25.2 million domestically, and $75 million globally; in total after opening weekend, it collected about $164 million (globally and nationally combined), which was more than the $145 million budget set for the film. As of December 4, the movie had accumulated $385 million.

In truth, one of the biggest things to take away from the musical movie is not only its incredibly impressive set – which was ALL hand-built – but also the talented cast. Stepping into the role of Elphaba–a misunderstood, feisty, and intelligent girl trying to navigate life while dealing with bigotry –  is Cynthia Erivo: an incredible singer and actress who brings intense emotion, power, and passion to every role she plays and every song she sings. She is best known for her role as Harriet Tubman in Harriet (2019), and singing the dynamic song “Stand Up.” She was also part of the ensemble in The Greatest Showman (2017), originated the role of Celie in The Color Purple on Broadway in 2015, and played the Blue Fairy in the live action Pinocchio (2022). 

The role of Glinda–an extroverted, bubbly, and popular student at Shiz–was played by Ariana Grande-Butera, regarded widely as one of the greatest pop vocalists of the twenty-first century and a big fan of Wicked herself. She is best known for her singing career (releasing songs such as No Tears Left to Cry, We Can’t be Friends, and 7 Rings), but is also loved for her role in Sam & Cat and Victorious as the ditzy, dimwitted Cat Valentine. She played Penny Pingleton in Hairspray Live! back in 2016, and was an understudy for Patrice in the 2008 Broadway production of 13 the Musical.

Playing Fiyero–the handsome and careless prince of Winkie Country–is British actor Jonathan Bailey, most famously known for his role as Viscount Anthony Bridgerton in the hit Netflix series Bridgerton. Most recently, he starred in a thrilling drama series alongside Matt Bomer in Fellow Travelers as Tim Laughlin, and also made a cameo in the LGBTQ+ romance Heartstopper. He played Sam in a hilarious Netflix sitcom Crashing, and in 2025 he is set to star in Jurassic World: Rebirth as Dr. Henry Loomis.

The Wicked stage show on Broadway has a running time of 2 hours and 45 minutes, including a 15 minute intermission. The Wicked movie is approximately the same length without an intermission, however, the movie only covers the First Act. It ends with the show-stopping Act 1 finale “Defying Gravity”, a song about Elphaba realizing that the Wizard (and spoilers ahead!!) is not the heroic figure everyone deems him to be, and rebels against him and his menacing plans against the animals of Oz who are slowly losing their rights and ability to speak. The reason being: Elphaba and the animals are too intelligent and easily have the ability to realize what the Wizard is doing is wrong, so he uses that to silence and oppress them, while the unaware citizens of Oz blindly follow his evil plans. Sounds familiar, right?

Although the movie ends with the Broadway show’s Act 1 finale and there is still the whole rest of Act 2 to cover, the movie’s crew decided to split it into two parts because it would just be too long. And frankly, it was a good decision. With a movie adaptation, you are able to do things you can’t necessarily do in a maximum two and a half hour Broadway show, such as having the freedom to expand into each scene, provide more context, give longer and more detailed backstories, and maybe add new scenes, which would make a combined Act 1 and Act 2 movie painfully long. The second part of the movie will be released on November 21, 2025 and will probably be just as long as the first movie, if not a bit longer. According to Jon M. Chu, the director of the movie, there will be two brand new songs and POSSIBLY make Dorothy a minor character. The musical’s Act Two slightly overlaps with the end of the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy melts the wicked witch with a bucket of water, but we never really see her in the musical, only through a silhouette. However, since Jon M. Chu is expanding deeper into the story, it is very possible that Dorothy will appear as more than just a shadow or faceless figure, and it’s guaranteed we will see some other familiar characters…

All around the world, fans and even people who simply just wanted to see a good movie have given very positive and enthusiastic feedback by praising Ariana and Cynthia for their outstanding performances, constantly singing or humming the songs, and creating trends on TikTok. Because of the excitement radiating from the fans, some felt compelled to sing along in the movie theater. In the weeks leading up to the movie’s release, people who respect theater etiquette and simply just want to enjoy the cast’s amazing singing have been begging people to NOT sing in the cinema. However, this issue prevailed. Fans were singing along and being loud while watching the film, causing others to complain. When asked what they thought about this, Ariana and Cynthia both said that they don’t have a problem with it, however it is still breaking theater rules in terms of behavior. In response to this, Jon M. Chu has officially announced that a singalong version of the movie will be released on December 25, so fans will finally have the opportunity to freely sing their favorite Wicked songs without being disruptive.

After Wicked’s wildly successful opening weekend and all the hype it got on the internet in the months leading up to its release, there’s no question that it will easily become one of the greatest musical movies of all time. Ever since its opening on Broadway it has been loved by many and became very popular over the years, bringing in thousands each week. It teaches lessons of following your own path and the importance of friendship in one’s life. Not only is it valuable, but it is also a very realistic piece of media, despite its aspects of fantasy, and reflects a lot of what is happening in our world today. It seems that Wicked is poised to be the winter’s hottest movie as Broadway fans and movie-goers alike frequent the theaters to see the highly anticipated film.