I am old enough to remember whenWickedopened on Broadway.
I was still in high school and what felt like a million miles away from New York City.
Those would have been yourCatsand yourLes Miserables.
And of courseThe Phantom of the Opera.
I understand your pain, Phantom!
Well, at least untilWickedcatches up.
Which brings me to the other intriguing parallels betweenPhantomandWicked.
However, she was also filmingThe Day After Tomorrowwhile auditioning.
MeanwhilePatrick Wilsonwas known on Broadway for playing Curly in a revival ofOklahoma!
Neither though were a household name.
Intriguingly, director Jon M. Chu took almost a diametrically opposed tact when tacklingWicked20 years later.
At a glance, one might think Schumacher took greater chances than Chu.
And yet, thats true in more ways than one.
On the one hand, this seemed to curiously confirm Webbers original vision of the Phantom never left.
But it also was part and parcel of many movie musicals of the 2000s.
And to be sure, Butler is not the worst offender in this regard.
There is, after all, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth inMamma Mia!
(2008) or infamously Russell Crowe in 2012sLes Mis, to name but a few.
And for a character renowned for his musical gifts, its glaring.
Conversely, 20 years later audience expectations from singing talent has seemed to grow.
Meanwhile Erivo is one of the great Broadway talents of her generation.
Twenty years ago, Schumachers goal was to translate everything that made the stage show popular to the screen.
Nevertheless, this is the M.O.
of nearly every Broadway adaptation.
All that, plus the bittersweetending.
MeanwhileWickedhas come out in a very different context.
It is a brand in the same way Harry Potter is or Marvel; Coke and Pepsi.
Its a hell of a mic drop.
So much so, that one wonders if in the long run it might harmWicked, Part 2.
Other creative choices beyond casting played a role as well.
The stage show came out during a period where sweeping Gothic aesthetics and overwrought emotions were in vogue.
Plus, its once seeming window-dressed themes about standing tall against fascismhave grown frightfully relevantover the last nine years.
Hell, just the last month.
They can both have their fans, but it would seemWickeds popularity was built to always defy gravity.
