Wicked

Elphaba: she was great. When her character was strong, she was strong. When her character hurt, she showed it. It's her character's weakness that didn't come across so well. When her character was desperate, or giddy, the depth evaporated too quickly. Maybe that's just the nature of people her age. Maybe my maturity standards are too high in this coming-of-age story, and I just want a stronger character than this movie should allow. But it felt a little incongruous.

    I'd say the same for her singing. This is an interesting actress, flipping between strength/maturity and desperation/youth in her personality and her singing voice. I can't quite pin her down, not exactly in a good way, but not too bad either. She had moments of powerful black alto, while much of the time she sounded like Sara Bareilles. I was impressed how she flipped back and forth, hitting notes in one voice not suited for the other, or delivering lines in the correct tone. Her versatility in song was just slightly uncanny.

Glinda: other than a few moments when her voice was too soft to enunciate through a choir (this was rough in the first scene with the munchkins; not sure if I should blame the mixers), and other than the fact that they basically had to whiteface her, Ariana was a good match for this role. Though I don't always love her tone, she's obviously top-shelf as a technical singer. It's her comic chops I didn't expect. I forgot she was a child actor. So she can sing, she can act, and she seems easy to get along with. I guess she's one of those hyper-talented yet realistic people that people would envy.

    Though I despise some of her songwriting, I'm going to go ahead and go ahead and having had said sit there and say that I like Ariana Grande. As the as-said, however, I'm not yet sure how I feel about Glinda. She's juuuust turning around... big Jaime Lannister vibes. An utter tool for so long, and still cocky, and with a heart potentially in the wrong place, it's hard to fully come around on them. Jaime finally humbles, and then more finally, goes home to meet his maker. Glinda had such a brief foray into authentic goodness, it's hard to know how authentic. I love them as best friends, though that friendship seems so overshadowed by the "loathing" and by Glinda apparently abandoning Elphaba at the end?? I didn't understand that at all. Glinda for some reason didn't want Elphaba to go. Why? Obviously Elphaba didn't belong there. Then for a moment it seemed they were approaching the ledge together. Then Glinda stayed back. She supported Elphaba's journey, with a cape and a smile, but she stayed back. And Elphaba was not offended. I don't understand that dynamic. It seems that Glinda ultimately does not support Elphaba's leap, and by not supporting it, she doesn't empathize with Elphaba to any depth. That's a big blow to their friendship, and it's strange they parted so lovingly. I don't understand how much Glinda will continue supporting Elphaba. She embraces the Madame at the end. She obviously becomes the "good" foil to Elphaba's "wicked." She rejoices Elphaba's death. I have a theory on that, but I don't understand the immediate dynamic.

Here's my theory on that. Remember when Snape avadakedavra'd Dumbledore, but later we saw the backstory and we loved him for it? What if Elphaba wants Glinda to publicly celebrate her death, out of the same deception that inspired Snape to avadakedavra Dumbledore and Jon Snow to kill his sworn brother? Deception of the enemy. What a moment if GoT wouldn't have explained Jon killing his brother until after the fact. What a moment when we renew faith in our beloved character, when all is vindicated. What a narrative device! In Harry Potter, it melted millions of plastic minds. That generation is intellectually and emotionally founded on the knowledge that Snape was deceiving the dark lord the whole time. That's why they don't trust a single body. Most of those characters turned good or ill; few turned not.

    I wonder if Glinda is deceiving the audience and deceiving the spiteful public by denigrating the wicked witch at said witch's own request. Maybe Elphaba thinks Oz needs Glinda, and they'd never follow her if she allied with Elphaba. That's a sad fact. It's hard to imagine that's the right thing -- for Glinda to malign a good witch to appease a public she should scorn entirely. Maybe there's something deep about how Oz is worth saving even if it can't accept Elphaba. Sounds like Gotham.

    Maybe Elphaba isn't dead, then. Maybe she and Glinda are forever friends, though only in secret, if they ever see each other. Oz can't accept Elphaba, yet Oz is worth saving, so the only solution is to fake Elphaba's death and pretend Glinda helped kill her.

    OR maybe Elphaba actually goes wicked, and Glinda is a right tool. I just doubt this. The beginning of the movie would be so grotesque, actually regardless whether Elphaba went wicked. Even if she went wicked, I don't think that's how they'd paint Glinda. I don't think that's how a good Glinda would act. And I doubt the story abandons both Elphaba's and Glinda's goodness. I think it's more likely it saves both. It would be so astonishing if Elphaba actually went wicked, in anything other than public image. I don't remember enough about The Wizard of Oz to guess whether Elphaba truly goes wicked or whether her wickedness in that movie could be feigned for some obscure higher purpose (Gotham needs a hero, and it must be Glinda, so Elphaba must play the villain). But that only works if her actions in Wizard are not inevitably wicked.

Wicked did a decent job of pandering mainstream humor without sounding absolutely stupid. It bested the new Lion King, probably Barbie, and so many other mainstream movies lately. I hate where comic relief is going in pop movies. It interrupts the action at length for bad jokes. Bad jokes have to be quick. You can't backburner your whole movie for them. Wicked had a few like that, but it wasn't so indulgent, and it had a bunch of decent jokes to offset. Ariana's comic timing helped. She only really indulged the bits where the whole humor was in the indulgence, like fluffing her hair too long. Mostly she was quick. Some people are too quick. I hate that. They mutter a witticism too quickly and quietly and expect everyone to laugh. If you're going to do that, you can't expect people to laugh, you have to just say it for its own sake. Justify the joke in and of itself.

Wicked flew by. When it ended, I thought maybe it was just intermission. It was continuously entertaining. 

I truly have no idea what happens in Part II. Everything I knew about Wicked already happened: Popular, Defying Gravity, meeting the wizard... All I have are guesses. Which is exciting. Unfortunately it'll be long enough till Part II that I'll forget a lot of the details, as well as my emotions for Part I, and I won't want to spend another ~3 hours rewatching Part I, so I'll consider skipping Part II, like I skipped Folie a Deux, after being pretty excited for it.

Wicked wasn't phenomenal; it was successful. I'm not the target audience to connect with Elphaba anyway. The music is pretty good too. It's like Les Mis and West Side Story -- a sort of sophisticated version of pop.