Crafting a good movie musical is a delicate art. To find a cast that can carry a tune as well as they can emote is just one of many miracles that have to materialize — but when the stars align with sweeping set design, good cinematography, and great songs, it’s obviously magic.
That brilliance comes in fits and starts in Wicked. The long-gestating adaptation of the Broadway juggernaut, itself an adaptation of an adaptation of the original Wizard of Oz, Wicked’s ambitions are set appropriately high. Director Jon M. Chu, himself no stranger to a musical, samples from many different pots here: his Wicked belongs to two worlds, invoking the knowing urgency of its on-stage predecessor and the Old Hollywood grandeur of its source material. And were it not for some overindulgent pacing choices and an unfortunate reliance on backlights, this new incarnation of Wicked might have been perfect.
