From movies to musicals to movie musicals, ‘Wicked’ provides an exciting narrative where the sympathetic villain trope is applied to the childhood classic, ‘The Wizard of Oz’. We flip the page on this well-known tale and, as it is supposed to act as a prequel to the original story, see it from the Wicked Witch of the West’s perspective. Through some marketing magic, it has become one of the most anticipated films of this year, or so we may initially think. As everyone has their eyes on our two leads – our ambitious and dedicated Elphaba, Cynthia Erivo or little miss ‘Eternal Sunshine’, Ariana Grande, there have been many controversies and criticisms that have followed the actresses. For good or bad, for better or worse, it’s time to adjust our witch’s hat and hold on to our broomsticks. It’s going to be a long ride.
For America’s sweetheart, the path she walks on certainly isn’t a regular yellow brick road. More than her costars, Grande has faced a lot of criticism from fans of the musical. Their primary concern lies with the fact that her pop star singing was not translating to on screen soprano, even though she debuted on Broadway in ‘13: The Musical’. Speaking of co-stars, this good witch has proven how words spread like wildfire, often in the name of love. With an unexpected divorce and a blossoming relationship with the actor behind ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ the musical, sensationalist stories added fuel to the fire to the extent an astonishing album was released as a direct response to all the criticism received during her hiatus, trying to put out this ‘monstrous fire’.
But what happens when a good witch suddenly goes bad in the media’s eye?
It’s rare that we get a live action adaptation of a musical on the big screen to this scale, but one might argue that it’s even more rare to see an adaptation of the story in real life, like we see with critically acclaimed actress Cynthia Erivo playing the protagonist. One may defy gravity, but one can certainly not deny the public’s perception of an ‘overdramatic actress’ after a surprising reaction to a fan edit of the film’s poster covering her eyes. The actress commented ‘This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting … None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us’.
Regardless of all the controversies we’ve seen behind the scenes of this movie, the show must go on. So, let’s put on our ruby slippers, grab some popcorn and head to the cinema. Only time will tell how ‘wicked’ the story turns out to be.
Edited by Zara Ahmed.
