Universal has tapped Broadway star Cynthia Erivo and mega popstar Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Galinda, respectively, the two leads in the studio’s upcoming film adaptation of the long-running smash Broadway hit musical, Wicked.
A film adaptation of Wicked has been rumored to be in the works for over a decade, but things heated up recently when Jon M. Chu, the director of Crazy Rich Asians and the recent film adaptation of another Broadway musical, In The Heights, officially signed on to helm the project, about the “secret” backstory of the two most prominent witches in The Wizard of Oz.
Like the hit Maleficent films, Wicked is a re-framing of the story of the main villain of The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West, as well as the heroic Glinda the Good Witch. In Wicked, we learn that the green-skinned Elphaba and the pixie-like Galinda were school rivals turned best friends and that much of Elphaba’s “wicked” reputation was due to propaganda fostered by the corrupt government of Oz headed up by the manipulations of the Wizard. Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth were the original stars of the Broadway musical, which debuted in 2003 and has since grossed over a billion dollars at the box office.
Erivo, who is playing the lead role of Elphaba, is an acclaimed singer and actor, having won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for The Color Purple (famously being the only non-Hamilton actor to win an acting award at the 2016 Tonys). She also won a Grammy and a Daytime Emmy for her performance in The Color Purple (for the cast album and an appearance on The Today Show, respectively).
Grande, who is playing Galinda, also got her start on Broadway, appearing in Jason Robert Brown’s musical for teenagers, 13. She then became a regular actor on Nickelodeon, on both Victorious and then Sam & Cat, before becoming one of the most successful pop stars of the past decade, with five number one albums and six number one singles on the Billboard charts (plus 13 more top ten hits, as well).
Here is Grande performing “The Wizard and I” from the musical at its 15th Anniversary celebration a few years back (it is one of Elphaba’s songs)…
Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the music and lyrics for the musical, is doing the screenplay for the adaptation, along with Winnie Holzman, who wrote the book for the original musical (which was based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West).
Source: Variety
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