The first half of director Jon M. Chu‘s stirring and audacious two-part adaption of the smash Broadway musical Wicked was so accomplished it actually stood on its own. Ending with Cynthia Erivo‘s Elphaba soaring into sky and song as she starts to morph into the Wicked Witch of the West, I could have easily settled on that as the complete end of this tale. In fact, I worried how could Chu and these magnificent artisans on his team top themselves, not to mention the Oscar-nominated performances of Erivo and Ariana Grande whose Glinda charmed and dazzled?
Here in fact is how I opened my review one year ago: “The movie version of Broadway’s beloved musical Wicked has been a long time coming since the show’s opening in 2003, but it is finally here — and quite frankly, not only does it soar cinematically, it exceeds all expectations. What director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights) does here ranks with the best movie musicals, an innovative and quite stunning take that will not disappoint even the hardest-core lovers of the stage version. And this is only Part One.”
Wicked went on to score 10 Oscar nominations, winning statuettes for its costumes and production design. It also became the highest-grossing Broadway musical adaptation of all time. This would be a tough act to follow under any circumstance, but with Wicked: For Good we are in wickedly good hands. As it opens Elphaba is in full WWW mode, living in exile in the Ozian forest and trying desperately to be a force for protection for all of Oz’s banished animals, as well as threatening to unleash her fury and the truth of the phony that Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) really is. Glinda, no longer Galinda, is a hero to the residents of Oz, fully transformed into her goodness and working with Michelle Yeoh‘s Madame Morrible to keep up appearances. She is also set, in pure storybook fashion, for the wedding of weddings to dashing Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey, who now has in real life ascended to the throne of People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive since the first part opened a year ago). He is sent into action to hunt down the Wicked Witch of the West, but to say it gets complicated is an understatement.
The estrangement of former BFFs Elphaba and Glinda may get a reprieve thanks to Glinda’s efforts to go back to the way they were as they do get together once more in order to confront and perhaps make nice with the Wizard. This doesn’t go well as Elphaba’s crusade against him will intensify, but before we get to that, a scene in which the Wizard sings about his secret sauce of success, “Wonderful” becomes the musical highlight – for me at least – of this concluding chapter, as Goldblum’s wizard sells the method to his madness: “Elphaba, where I’m from we believe all sorts of things that aren’t true. We call it history,” he sings to her while praising himself as wonderful, no matter what he does. This lively musical number is pure showbusiness with an underlying truth to it that is just one of many things throughout this film that play in a world slowly turning authoritarian. Although real life politics can be read into much of this film (think of the animals as immigrants being tossed aside without reason). Wicked: For Good lets it all simmer without pounding the message home, but it is definitely there if you want to interpret it that way, and that makes this musical an important one on other levels. It has something to say, and says it effectively. Mostly it is just a wicked good time.
Of course this part of the story is where the yellow brick meets the road, with those legendary characters of Dorothy, the scarecrow, tin man, and cowardly lion (Colman Domingo does the voice for the latter) making their entrance into Oz as we see the town quickly laying the bricks and preparing for the connection to 1939’s classic The Wizard Of Oz. Ethan Slater’s Boq lays the groundwork for his emergence as the Tin Man, the Lion is one of the mistreated animals, and the scarecrow… well the scarecrow is where things really heat up, including romantically, in a surprising turn of events for those who haven’t seen the play, and a satisfying one for those who have. As for Dorothy, one of Chu’s and Screenwriters Winnie Holzman (who wrote the musical’s book) and Dana Fox’s innovations is that we never see Dorothy’s face, we just think we do.
Although this two part film version is slavishly devoted to every nuance of the broadway musical, still thriving as the fourth longest running of all time, there is much that is new or even improved. However most of composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz’s best songs in the show were frontloaded into part one, leaving just a handful of musical highlights left over including “For Good” and “Thank Goodness/ I Couldn’t Be Happier”, as well as the aforementioned showstopper, “Wonderful” (Donald Trump might try to license that one for his next rally). There are two new songs, the best being “No Place Like Home” sung by Erivo. Grande’s new tune, “The Girl In The Bubble” is a bit more forgettable.
What can we say about the performances that hasn’t already been said? Both Erivo and Grande could not be better, and in fact Grande really gets a chance to shine here and runs away with the picture whenever she is on screen. Erivo’s Elphaba remains the juiciest role and she defines it with the mortality only movies can bring. Bailey is terrific again, and Goldblum’s Wizard really comes into deep focus now and he’s got it going on. Marissa Bode’s wheelchair-bound Nessarose is given some key screen time and delivers in a piece of casting that is as inspiring as the character she plays.
Nathan Crowley outdoes his Oscar winning production design this time around, as does Paul Tazewell’s Oscared Costumes. The visual effects are first rate. So is this whole splendidly realized and cinematic musical adaptation which if you add up the running times of both films comes in just two minutes shy of 5(!) hours. To be honest I wanted more.
Producers are Marc Platt and David Stone.
Title: Wicked: For Good
Distributor: Universal
Release date: November 21, 2025
Director: Jon M. Chu
Screenwriters: Winnie Holzman and Winnie Holzman & Dana Fox
Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Colman Domingo
Rating: PG
Running time: 2 hrs 18 mins
