Earlier this week, I watched the theater fill with “Wicked” fans of all ages, genders and races: kids in pink and green, men in shimmery shoes and themed shirts, women in matching merch, tiaras or black hats.
Part 2 of “Wicked,” the musical adapted from Gregory Maguire’s novel of the same name that reimagines “The Wizard of Oz” and humanizes the story’s iconic witches, Elphaba and Glinda, is finally in theaters.
When the lights dimmed and a pre-recorded video of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo welcomed us back to the world of Oz, everyone clapped, filling the theater with a palpable anticipation. However, a lingering question hovered in the space between their message and the opening sequence: Would Part 2 do this much-loved story justice?
The answer is yes. The film is nothing less than spectacular in scope and theme. It’s obvious that it was intentionally crafted to continue telling the story while simultaneously celebrating both the legacy of the Stephen Schwartz-composed musical and the impact it has had on fans since Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked: Part 1” was released last November, democratizing the story for a larger, global audience.
“Part 1” is the musical’s first act and explains the backstories of Elphaba (Erivo) and Glinda (Grande). It shows how the green girl, who is to become the Wicked Witch of the West, befriends the blonde girl, who is to become the Good Witch of the North.
The first movie ends at the climactic moment when Elphaba is being scapegoated by the nefarious Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) as a wicked witch whose green skin is an “outward manifestorium of her twisted nature.” She becomes a common enemy to distract from the wizard’s subjugation of the animals he has caged and his tactics to control the Ozians — namely, his plan for the yellow brick road, which will allow him to spy and track his citizens’ movements.
The film ends when Elphaba rises into the sky above the city, proclaiming that she is “unlimited” and refusing to let the wizard ground her. Erivo leaves audiences with her iconic riff in “Defying Gravity” while Glinda turns away and is ushered back into the safety of the Emerald City, cementing the dichotomy between wicked and good.
For the past year, fans have been forced to “hold space” for Elphaba’s empowering act of defiance, but one can only fight gravity for so long. The fall is where “Wicked: For Good” begins. It unspools the consequences of every characters’ actions and how each grapples with the reality of their choices.
Elphaba has built a hideout in the forest and is living in exile, determined to unveil the wizard’s destructive lies single-handedly. The wizard and Madame Morrible have placed Glinda on a pedestal, and she has pulled Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) up with her, so their wedding can give the people something to celebrate. To complicate the plot further, Fiyero is in love with Elphaba; Nessarose (Marissa Bode), Elphaba’s sister, has stepped into her deceased father’s shoes to govern Munchkinland with the help of Boq (Ethan Slater). Also, a female child and her dog are about to fall from the sky.
Despite these difficulties, it would be easy for “For Good” to feel anti-climactic and overwhelmingly dark. After all, it is about Elphaba’s descent, or, to put it another way, her melting. The first act of the musical, when Glinda and Elphaba become friends, is the easier part of the story to tell. It can be summarized as “pink goes well with green,” and the story’s opposites-attract nature is epitomized through clever bops like “What Is This Feeling?” “Dancing Through Life” and “Popular.”
The second act doesn’t have as many catchy musical numbers, but “For Good” does an amazing job of navigating this potential disappointment by revamping the soundtrack. According to Schwartz, who co-produced it, at least half of the music is new in some way. “Every Day More Wicked,” a brand-new song, serves as the film’s opener. It is a well-executed medley that weaves together memorable pieces of songs from the first film to situate viewers in the story. There are also two completely new songs: “No Place Like Home” sung by Erivo as Elphaba and “The Girl in the Bubble” sung by Grande as Glinda, and “Wonderful” was revised to include Glinda.
Ultimately, the music unifies the plot. Unlike the first film, in which the characters spend most of their time together at Shiz University, in “For Good” they are mostly on individual journeys that intersect at key moments. The music is what ties these threads together and prevents the plot from feeling choppy.
The consistency it creates also gives the story more room to explore the different places and people of Oz, showcasing the true magnitude of Nathan Crowley’s production design. From Elphaba’s forest hideout and her crumbling castle to Glinda’s quarters in the Emerald City, the level of detail in each scene is hyper-realistic, surpassing what most movies accomplish using CGI or AI. This realism is enhanced through Paul Tazewell’s impressively detailed costumes and Frances Hannon’s hair and make-up design.
The result is that everything in “For Good” feels exceptionally realistic, and the cinematic scope heightens the story’s stakes. It is bigger than Elphaba coming to terms with who she is. Now, it is about what will happen to every person and animal in Oz.
There are obvious political parallels between the fascism taking over Oz and what is happening in the United States today under Trump. That was true in “Part 1,” and it is even easier to make those connections in “For Good.” Last spring, HuffPost contributor Jake Kleinman proposed that, “Perhaps the curse of ‘Wicked’ is that its fascist allegory only becomes more potent as time goes on, and the movie is no exception.”
While this rings disturbingly true, it also feels like a byproduct of any story pitting good against evil because books, like all art, have always offered societies the chance to look in the mirror, to see a reflection of themselves that can reveal injustice, foster empathy and incite change.
However, where “Wicked: For Good” really stands out is not in its depressingly accurate allegory of a society falling to the manipulative whims of a despot but in its depiction of the capacity every individual carries, of the multitudes we all contain.
This is easiest to see in the arcs of Elphaba and Glinda’s characters. While most current adaptations of books and musicals tend to simplify or water down the original story, “Wicked: For Good” develops and heightens it. This complexity is unique to see in a blockbuster, but it’s the scale that being a big-budget movie offers that makes this doubling down even more effective than on stage.
“Part 1” is about Elphaba redefining what it means to be “wicked.” What the second film has done for Glinda is give her the same space. “For Good” is her chance to be more than a girl given a bubble in which she is forced to float. Instead, it is about her learning to steer it, to use it, to pop it, to step out of it and to redefine the munchkins’ perceptions of goodness because of it.
This is only possible because of what Elphaba and Glinda have learned from each other and how they have shaped each other “for good.” Without spoiling the movie for those who haven’t seen a stage production, the ending is not happy, but its imperfections are what make it so impactful.
“Looking at things in another way” becomes a common refrain in “For Good.” Maybe I’m just an overly sentimental fan like those who sat next to me in the theater, but it seems to me that seeing a depiction of the complex way our relationships change us, of the ways we adapt to our limits and inabilities to defy gravity, is what has made “Wicked” the musical resonate for more than 20 years.
It’s why “Wicked” — in both of its parts — has changed so many people, for lack of a less clichéd phrasing, “for good.”
“Wicked: For Good” is now playing in theaters.