It’s Not Easy Being Green: Wicked (Part 1)
I was unsure about seeing this as I’ve never seen the musical. But the sheer off the scale energy of Dancing Through Life convinced me, plus wonderful director Jon M. Chu, got me infront of the big screen.
There are some lovely homages to the 1940’s classic Wizard of Oz; however this version seems to have gone back to the Baum books too as the overall look is both more whimsical and more steam-punk. The Ozian language is delightful too. The plot was easy to follow as it tied nicely into the end of Wizard of Oz, and then moved into reminiscences of school-days.
The story is deep — a bored wife seemingly has a drunken affair whilst her husband’s away on a business trip, and produces a very green baby, Elphaba. Who, despite being adorably cute, is rejected by her appalled ‘father’ and thankfully rescued by a talking mother bear who cares for her and her sister. (Although the lover plies the bored wife with drink, so this may not be as consensual as the comic song suggests). And all of this is very awkward when your dad is Governor Thropp — and he blames your greenness for poisoning your baby sister and damaging her legs. (Though the eating certain plants to promote non-greenness during pregnancy number two were all his idea!)
However, early on Elphaba shows that she has powers when she gets angry — and keeps doing this. (Although it must be said that her powers are typically used defensively/protectively and get out of control). When her adored younger sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) starts at Shiz University, her dad fusses and sends Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) to watch over her. However, as a paraplegic, she longs for independence from them all! (Finding both her dad and sister embarrassing). Ignored and emotionally neglected by her dad, Elphaba is very much in the background — until she’s spotted as a magical talent by Madame Morrible, Dean of Sorcery (and awesomeness — for it is Michelle Yeoh).
Following school story/boarding school tropes, Elphaba rooms with the very pink and self-focused Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande-Butera), who longs to be a sorceress — and wants to learn all of the Elphaba’s secrets. Mutually loathing, in a magical Mean Girls sequence, they face off against each other in everything — until a dashing disruptor arrives in the form of Prince Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey). An unthinking himbo, he’s been kicked out of every school he’s been to and as a new transfer student is carelessly out to disrupt and corrupt his fellow students again (and never read a book!) Only in a Jane Eyre moment, he’s encountered Elphaba by nearly trampling her with his talking horse in the woods. And he’s shown himself to be much more thoughtful and considered than he presents.
Causing charming chaos in the library and refusing to be shushed, he takes the whole school off to a sort of ‘20’s speakeasy with an animal band. In yet another mean moment, Galinda has offloaded her aunt’s unwanted hat gift to Elphaba and invited her to wear it to the party. Only this turns into yet another moment of shame and ridicule as she can’t dance like everyone else either. Galinda has compassion for her, perhaps seeing the literal results of her actions and appreciating Elphaba’s kindness, and joins her in a dance of empathy. Somehow Elphaba’s moves get taken up by everyone else too. Uniquely (reversing the Cinderella ballroom trope) Galinda leaves her prince to run off with her new BFF— and make a glow up ‘Popular’. Cue lots of swishing hair (and whiplash!)
In the background is a story about how talking animals are being treated and mistreated in Oz, losing their rights and their voices. Dr. Dillamond, History teacher, has been disrespected by Galinda in his lesson for his accent and pronunciation — and even the focus of his teaching content. Only he’s a talking goat and trying to highlight the worrying cultural shift in Oz as talking animals get sidelined, removed from public posts and perhaps caged and silenced. Voiced by a delightful Peter Dinklage, the teacher is a literal scapegoat and subject to some horrific go home and go silent messages in his classroom. Elphaba has overheard him holding a meeting of talking animals where they worry over not being able to speak and being removed from society — ‘preaching owls are removed from the pulpit, and snow leopards no longer can be overheard doing calculus’. In a classic moment, Galinda asks why her professor can’t just teach history and stop going on about the past!!! Later, influenced by her new friend, Galinda shows solidarity to her departed history teacher by changing her name to Glinda.
Meanwhile, Madame Morrible has plans for Elphaba — she’s off to meet the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz. And impress with her magical arts. Elphaba really feels for those who are hurting or oppressed — sending everyone to sleep with the poppies she bought for her teacher to rescue a very fearful lion cub from a cage. (*Wink*) Curiously, the Prince also stays awake and joins her in the rescue. Romance is hinted at, but never comes to fruition — and he’s very much Glinda’s man, even though he’s started brooding and thinking!
Invited to Oz, Elphaba persuades Glinda to join the train — and off they go to the Emerald City. Impressively including dancing citizens in a fountain (with arms under inflated dungarees), the friends explore the city and meet the Wizard. In her long-awaited moment, Elphaba impresses by reading an unreadable magical text. Only her compassion gets in the way as she sees the monkey guards, wants to help them/free them and gives them wings — only the transformation hurts and can’t be reversed. It’s also very annoying for them as they suddenly have to deal with flight, new wings and gravity all at the same time!
Stealing the text and a hot air balloon, Elphaba and Glinda seek to escape and build their own city — only Glinda realises that she can’t follow her friend into this brave new magical world. Rather than wings (perhaps having learned the lesson of her twitcher monkey magic), Elphaba grabs a broom, has a literal crash course in flying and buzzes off to do her own thing, singing that song. (Though sadly turning wicked along the way).
Emulating Barbie, much of the musical sets were physically built rather than green screened. Impressively the revolving library is real , as are the people on it — and the one acrobatic take that a dancer does. (Sadly, real books are being chucked about and skidded on). The tactile set adds to the visually impressive and immersive feel of the world — and it’s great that it isn’t Disneyfied. Equally enjoyable were all the scene setting props telling us about character — such as Glinda’s bedroom furnishings, including her many many packing boxes, trunks and floral mirror.
The choreography is tremendous and inventive; again I love how character comes through, such as Fiyero’s charm and athleticism, and Glinda’s energy and wanting to impress (mimicking Fiyero at points). I wish that Elphaba had had a better dance number than the Wednesday Adams-ish one she was given — however, perhaps this shows that this is another area where she falls down in society by being obviously different and judged for this.
Equally enjoyable were the diva-ish cameos from the original Glinda and Elphaba. In a lovely moment they get to interact with the new screen versions.
Equally fantastic was the costuming and hair — we get such a sense of place here, including subtle genius touches such as the individual interpretations of the school uniform. I loved Ariana Grande-Butera and Cynthia Erivo’s interpretations of their characters, and their beautiful (and vocally impressive) singing. Also the delightful Disney Princess moment when Elphaba scampers about the campus scattering basking frogs from stepping stones and weirding out fellow students. But she doesn’t care — nor does she harm the frogs! Both actresses bring depth to their characters so that neither are cliched or one note. Equally delightful was Jonathan Bailey — who can sing, dance and act — as well as being more than just eye-candy Prince Charming or a privileged royal rebel. Michelle Yeoh brough queenly gravitas to Madame Morrible, going Rex Harrison in speak-singing, whilst Jeff Bridges is a marvelously chipper dancing Wizard. Though will he go to the dark side as Madame Morrible appears to have done?
Unlike Ridley Scott’s starved and irascible apes, the monkeys (grounded and flying) were much better realised and rendered in this movie. Although they got to do their scary thing when pursuing the girls. Though there’s a sad sub-plot as they faced having their families threatened with retribution if they didn’t do as they were bid by the less welcoming (and much less wonderful) Wizard.
Disparaged by some, I thought there were some deep lessons to take away from this fairy tale movie — slavery was hinted at through the treatment of the grounded/flying monkeys; ethnic cleansing in the treatment of the talking animals. Elphaba showed us what everyday discrimination, othering and colourism did to her soul, her personality, her feelings; whilst Glinda showed us how we need to use the privileges and gifts we have wisely. She used her popularity and voice (to begin with) to sneer, belittle, disparage, dissemble and other — and to boost her own ego, complete with a cheer group of follower friends. She also acknowledged that she was constantly used to getting her own way — even her giving is done with selfish and self-centred motives. She knows how to be popular (and how to manipulate others, just like her perfect Prince). However in helping (albeit with wrong motives) Nessarose to go to the ball and experience her first dance and romance, Elphaba begs for a trainee magical wand for Glinda — and all of this causes Glinda to see how she’s behaving and the fruit of her actions. Ultimately to act differently, to repent a little.
Enjoy too the diversity of casting — look and you’ll see someone who looks like you, (if you’re under 60). Equally enjoyable was how integrated Nessrose was into the society she inhabited — great accessible sets. And the fun of watching Doctor Dillamond make tea with hoof friendly tea pot and cup!
Overall, this movie is a warning to parents, to society about not exasperating children by unreasonableness, unkindness, harsh treatment and cruelty; about not othering lest the people we’ve othered turn ‘wicked’ and come back to bite us. Or magic us into non-talking frogs. Also, some subtle stuff about how we treat obvious differences such as accent and speech, and really, being kind.
The friendship with Dr. Dillamond did alarm me a bit as Elphaba was so isolated and vulnerable and it screamed of grooming (with her trying to impress with thoughtful gifts and being alone secretively with her teacher). He was, thankfully, a trustworthy authority figure — one of the very few in this movie. But would have liked to have seen this interrogated a bit more. Not sure about women fighting over the same man — or chalk and cheese friends trying to steal each other’s man. I do like that it celebrates female friendship, but really — do they really have to fight over the same handsome prince? And does the prince really have to dither between the two of them?
It will be intriguing to see how Part 2 turns our heroine wicked — and how we go along with that as we’ve developed so much empathy and camaraderie for her. Also given how selfish and mean Glinda is — how she can possibly be considered ‘good’.
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