With its iconic show tunes, masterful choreography, and elaborate costuming and set, “Wicked: For Good” is more than a movie; it’s a spectacle. It’s loaded with Hollywood stars and a $150 million budget, but falls short of perfection in a few of its casting choices.
Let’s address the elephant in the room: Michelle Yeoh. I fell in love with her acting in “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” and truly believe that she is extraordinarily talented, but she should not have been Madame Morrible. She has even said herself that she declined the offer several times and only finally accepted her role when heavily persuaded by director Jon M. Chu. On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she said “I call him back and I say, ‘Jon, my love, it’s a musical and I don’t sing’. Not properly or professionally or anything like that.”
After watching the film, I can see why she was hesitant to join the cast. Yeoh has never claimed to be a singer, and unsurprisingly, cannot sing. As talented an actress as she is, Wicked is a musical, and her inability to produce music brings the film’s quality down significantly, especially when paired with such incredible talents as Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Several verses and lines originally sung by Madame Morrible had to be cut for the movie, and the moments that were kept are painful to experience.
I don’t blame Yeoh for her lack of singing ability, but rather Jon M. Chu for casting a non-singing actress in a singing role. Madame Morrible could’ve easily been played by a double or triple threat like Hannah Waddingham, who would be my personal pick for the role. I will note, however, that Yeoh’s “Madam Morrible, MM, flip it around, Wicked Witch (WW)” joke that she says in every interview is hilarious.
This take may be a little more controversial, but I also do not enjoy Jeff Goldblum’s portrayal of the Wizard. I understand that his character needs to be subtly evil, while coming across as just a friendly face, but Goldblum’s Wizard has no malicious intent at all. He seems to me like a wacky grandfather who spends his time creating models of the city and playing with them like toys.
Even after it’s revealed in the first film that he’s a fraud and cannot read the Grimerie, I didn’t get the sense that he was a conman. While the Wizard of Oz needs to be charming, it is also vital to the story that his evil plans are visible behind the grand facade. Otherwise, it’s not believable that the Wizard is the one caging the animals and turning Oz into a dystopian society. And in Goldblum’s portrayal, it is certainly not believable.
Aside from these two questionable casting choices, the actors and actresses in “Wicked: For Good” portray their characters perfectly. Jonathan Bailey is a perfect Fiyero and Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are a power duo of incredible musical ability. They nailed their roles as Glinda and Elphaba, so much so that I cannot imagine a better choice for this iconic musical theatre duo.
While I won’t deny that this film has its flaws, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching this Broadway spectacle come to life on the big screen. “Wicked: For Good” didn’t “change me for the better,” but it was “wonderful”.