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“Wicked,” part one of the long-awaited screen adaptation of one of Broadway’s longest-running musicals, has a bevy of seasoned experts in the musical genre both in front of and behind the camera. The film is directed by Jon M. Chu, who previously received critical acclaim for his movie version of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s “In the Heights.” Leading the cast as Elphaba is Cynthia Erivo, a Tony winner for “The Color Purple,” while her love interest Fiyero is played by Jonathan Bailey, an Olivier Award winner for a role in a London revival of “Company.” And beyond being one of the biggest pop stars of the last decade, Ariana Grande is a theater kid at heart who got her start in showbusiness in the ensemble of tween musical “13.”
But in two key roles are actors who are probably the most familiar faces for cinephiles and moviegoers — but not ones known for breaking out in tune. Playing a more sinister version of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz is Jeff Goldblum, who fronts his own jazz band “The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra” but who’s best known musical role is as one of Rachel’s dads in “Glee.” And playing the devious Shiz professor Madame Morrible is Michelle Yeoh, who is a complete newbie to the genre entirely.
Speaking to IndieWire before she had seen the final cut of the movie, Yeoh professed that “I don’t know whether I’m in fear or excited.”
“’Wicked’ has been around for two decades, and it’s quite loved,” Yeoh said to IndieWire. “There’s a lot of pressure. How do you make it better? There’s a lot of expectations. And I think Jon has been waiting his whole life to make this.”
Talking about getting into the part of Morrible, Elphaba’s magic instructor at the college of Shiz, Yeoh said the part that helped her the most was the costume design by Paul Tazewell and the wigs from Frances Hannon. Tazewell designed several luxurious robes for Yeoh, while Hannon’s white wigs for Morrible took inspiration from the character’s weather based powers.
“My costumes — Madame Morrible’s costumes — they were regal,” Yeoh said. “Every time I walked in [in them], I was like, ‘Can I wear that on a red carpet?’”
Yeoh joined the cast of the film after having worked with Chu on “Crazy Rich Asians”; prior to being asked, she had never seen the stage show and only watched it to get into character to play Morrible. While watching the show she found that the part in the movie, which gives the headmistress softer shades compared to the original, to be drastically different from the original stage version and felt free to interpret the character in her own way.
“When you do theater it’s very different from a cinematic experience,” Yeoh said. “The camera takes you in, where on the stage you don’t, the camera takes you in to Oz. I don’t see myself in Morrible on stage, because the nuances that Jon Chu brought to the character are less apparent. It gave us a lot of room to explore and bring something different.”
In contrast to Yeoh, Goldblum was familiar with the original stage version of “Wicked,” having seen it on Broadway with the main cast members, including Joel Grey playing the Wizard. Also unlike Yeoh, whose character Morrible is an original “Wicked” creation, Goldblum’s the Wizard has been an iconic part of Oz stories since the original L. Frank Baum book — he recalls watching Frank Morgan play the character in the original 1939 once a year on television as a child.
To play the character, Goldblum watched several different actors play the part on stage through online clips, including celebrated performers like Ben Vereen. Goldblum said he didn’t believe in the idea of going into the part blind, instead preferring to have the background from his research in order to craft his own unique take on the iconic character.
“I’m like a jazz musician who doesn’t want to do like my students used to do, go ‘I don’t want to see anybody else do it, I want to make it my own,’” Goldblum told Indiewire. “That’s only gonna get in my way. I don’t believe in that. I saw it, I can make it my own. The real help was Chu and the conception of how what he was doing was different from the play, it helped create something, we hope, is a little distinct.”
“Wicked” is currently playing in theaters.