BY ISABELLA BEELER

The movie musical “Wicked Part 1” came out recently, and it is amazing! Wicked is the untold story of the witches from “The Wizard of Oz”. The Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz” is named Elphaba. Her sister, The Wicked Witch of the East, is named Nessa Rose. Glinda The Good Witch of the North is still named Glinda. The main characters are Glinda, played by Ariana Grande, and Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo. Nessa Rose, Fiyero, Boc, Dr. Dillamond, Madame Morrible, The Wizard of Oz, and others are supporting characters. The movie touches on themes ranging from not everyone is all bad or all good, and we should accept people no matter how they look. The book by Gregory Maguire came first, then the musical, then the movie. The movie is broken up into two parts. Part one is out now. Spoilers might be ahead.

Wicked starts after Dorothy melts Elphaba. Everyone is celebrating that the witch of the west is dead. Glinda gets asked if she was really friends with Elphaba, and she tells them the story of when their paths crossed. The first thing Glinda talked about was why Elphaba is green. Her mom had an affair and drank a green elixir while pregnant. Glinda talked about Elphaba’s family life and how her family didn’t accept her. Then they went to Shiz University for Nessa, and because of Elphaba’s protective nature, her powers acted up and she was invited to Shiz, too.

At Shiz, Glinda and Elphaba met and became roommates that loathed each other. Elphaba was getting special training for her magic, and Glinda was jealous. One day Glinda and her friends have the idea to give Elphaba an ugly hat and invite her to the Shiz ball to wear it. Elphaba thinks Glinda is being nice, so in return she gets Glinda the opportunity to have special magic as well. Then Glinda feels bad and starts helping and being friends with Elphaba.

With all that happening, something bad is happening with the animals in Oz. Elphaba and Glinda go see the wizard and find out he is responsible and so is Madame Morrible. Elphaba doesn’t want to help them, she wants to help the animals. Elphaba leaves and Madame Morrible makes it seem like Elphaba is Wicked. Glinda doesn’t leave with Elphaba, she stays and they go their separate ways. Then Part 1 ends. 

There are many songs in Wicked. They are “No One Mourns the Wicked”, “Dear Old Shiz”, “The Wizard And I”, “What Is This Feeling?”, “Something Bad”, “Dancing Through Life”, “Popular”, “I’m Not That Girl”, “One Short Day”, “A Sentimental Man”, and “Defying Gravity”. I like all of the songs a lot. I’ve danced to “What Is This Feeling” and “Popular”. 

The original cast of Wicked the musical was Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda. They guest starred in this movie and sang “One Short Day”. It was funny and they gave hints that they played Glinda and Elphaba. That was one difference from the musical. Another difference was in the musical, Dr. Dillamond was a human that turned into a goat. In the book and movie, he was an animal with human abilities  that got taken away from him.

The movie was great and pretty similar to the musical and book. The movie has good messages and amazing songs. I summarized the movie, but there is still more to the story, even for just part 1. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo did a fantastic job on portraying the characters and so did the other actors. I am so excited for Wicked Part 2, where it goes more into the story.