‘Wicked’ Is an Anomaly: Inside the 20-Year Journey from Stage to Screen

Once upon a time, about 24 years ago, when Marc Platt (“La La Land”) moved from production president of Universal Pictures to launch his own producing shingle at the studio, he brought with him a movie adaptation of the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” a prequel to L. Frank Baum’s classic “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and the 1939 Judy Garland musical. Linda Woolverton’s first script was a straight film adaptation; a small part of the mix was the origin story of two witches of Oz, Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West.

A blockbuster movie musical like “Wicked” (Universal) is the sum of years of dedicated labor and deliberate decisions about what to keep from the book or the show, or what to add and change for the movie. Somehow, over 20 years, producer Platt and writer Winnie Holzman (ABC’s “My So-Called Life”) stayed with the movie and kept it on track through many iterations. So far, the studio picture has grossed $680 million worldwide — and it’s not done. Critics and the Globes and the Screen Actors Guild have recognized the movie. Multiple Oscar nominations are in the offing, including Best Picture.

When Broadway composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (“Godspell,” “Pippin”) called Platt and said, “Would you ever consider turning it into a musical?,” Platt saw the light. “I thought, ‘that’s a brilliant idea,’ because music gives it magic and wistfulness. It’s a world that wants to be musicalized.”

Not every executive in Hollywood would have made that pivot. “It’s also a story about people presenting themselves one way in Oz,” he said, “or being perceived in the world they’re in in one way. And in a musical, a character can sing one thing to the world, but another thing in her monologue to the audience and tell us what he, she or they are actually thinking. And that opened the door completely. I also thought, ‘if it was successful on stage, maybe that would be the reference point for ‘Wicked,’ not the old 1939 movie.'”

Platt, Schwartz, and playwright-screenwriter Holzman moved forward with Universal Stage Productions on mounting a musical. “Stephen brought up Winnie’s name instantly,” said Platt. “He and I loved ‘My So-Called Life’ and I thought, ‘That’s an interesting inside look at young people, and particularly the Claire Danes character.'”

Moving the focus of the story to the relationship between the two women was “an evolving discovery,” said Holzman. “Stephen and I were changing the plot of the novel. From the beginning, I was leaning toward incorporating the Glinda character more than is in the novel. Gregory McGuire had this brilliant idea that in college, Linda, the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West were college roommates. That’s just an adorable, incredible, mind-blowing idea that always got a laugh when Steve and I would mention it at cocktail parties. We always knew that there was something about them being pushed together that was vital. As we were doing readings, we began to understand that the more the two women were interacting in the show, the stronger the reaction was from the audience, the more invested the audience became.”

‘Wicked’ star Cynthia Erivo and director Jon M. ChuLia Toby/Getty Images

Holzman also understood that people hadn’t seen a musical “that celebrated a female friendship at its core.” And after meeting Kristen Chenoweth at a week-long L.A. workshop, Holzman thought, ‘She’s not going to want to do it if it isn’t a good enough part.’ Fortuitously, the more we made it a better part, the more we made it a better play.”

“Wicked” opened on Broadway in October 2003 and grew into a Tony-winning global smash. Platt and Holzman always kept their eye on the inevitable movie to come, but waited for the show to play out over the decades. “It’s so cinematic in its bones and DNA,” said Platt, “but this was the journey we went on first, and it was hard to foresee that it would be as successful as it was.”

‘Wicked’Giles Keyte

Why did the musical work so well? “It’s hard to say when something becomes a phenomenon,” said Platt. “We knew it was a satisfying entertainment that had these incredible Stephen Schwartz tunes, that had this great comedic characterization that Winnie brought to these women, particularly Glinda. After our first table read at Universal, different people came up to us at the end. Everybody loved it, and there was laughter and crying. But people seem to take something different from their own life. They saw themselves.”

“That’s happening now, obviously with the movie,” said Holzman. “Our show is openly emotional. There’s a way for certain kinds of entertainments to be cynical. And our culture became very cynical, and very harsh. Even 21 years ago, when we first opened, there was a hunger for a way that you could come somewhere and get emotional. Stephen’s songwriting has his heart on his sleeve.”

Turning this popular show into a movie was a challenge because it was so beloved and the filmmakers knew they had to change it without alienating legions of fans. “We weren’t in a rush,” said Holzman. “It wasn’t, ‘how quick can we make a movie?’ It was, ‘how well can we make a movie?'”

They were waiting for the road tour of the musical to play itself out. And it never did. “The show was doing well,” said Platt. “We wanted it to flourish around the world. I was daunted and insecure, because the bar was high, as it was for Stephen and Winnie. I felt pressure from the fans I didn’t want to disappoint. I used to say to Jon Chu all the time before we left for London: ‘We don’t have to make the movie. We have to get it right.’ And I really meant that.”

When Chu (“In the Heights”) and screenwriter Dana Fox (“Cruella”) came on board they talked through every beat of the show and divvied up writing sections until they unified the script. “Every, every inch of the show he wanted to hear from us,” said Holzman. “He had his own vision for the movie, but he wanted to incorporate what we were envisioning. This took time, but even before Jon Chu got involved, there were many alleys I went down. I wanted to turn over every stone. I thought of this as my big opportunity. I felt lucky to be able to stay with the project and be the one that could adapt our own work. And because of that, I felt an enormous opportunity to open my mind to think outside the box, to go down this road, to go down that road. That resulted in a sense of peace of mind, because what we ended up with, I know that we didn’t rush to it. I know that we didn’t go, ‘oh, it’s gotta be this,’ and never considered another alternative.'”

Marc Platt and Winnie Holzman at a recent screening of ‘Wicked’Alex J. Berliner/ABImages

There’s no question that it was difficult, after working on their own for so long, to open up and share the movie with an outside director like Chu. “It drove me crazy at times,” said Holzman. “There were times I was frustrated with myself. It’s not an easy process, to team with this young, exciting director and make something new out of the same story that we love so much. That was our brief: how could we make something new and still hold true to the spirit of our show? And that’s an incredible opportunity for a writer to revisit. ‘I think I can make it a little better this time.’ All of us brought it to another level.”

Letting go wasn’t easy. “When you’ve been there for the creation of something,” said Holzman, “and you know exactly the intention of something, and in the theater, I’ve heard those lines said a certain way 20 times, probably more. I found myself wrestling at times to say, ‘Hold on, make sure the intention is clear. But let Jon do his thing. Let your actor or actress interpret the way they want, and and come up with ideas.’ It was a constant internal tug of war for me, just because I wanted to give them that ability, and then I did feel responsible as a guardian.”

Breaking the film into two parts was a huge decision. “There were sequences we’d cut out of the show that dug a little deeper, but it was too long,” said Platt. “It had to be additive to the journey, because you could fill in lots of different things.”

Meeting the witches as little children came up years ago. “It seemed right for a movie,” said Holzman. “But secondly, if you see them as little children, we wanted to build out that relationship between Elphaba and her sister. That’s a natural, organic way to feel their bond.”

The movie cuts songs and moments from the show. “There were many lines that are beloved lines that we shot,” said Platt, “but I knew going to the editing room, certain lines require the rhythm of an live audience to play off of, and when you put it in the film, that doesn’t feel funny anymore. And so we cut a lot of those lines out, which was hard for me, but there is a difference in the medium, and you want to be smart about how you interpret for film as opposed to interpret for stage.”

Having two films also allowed them to restore songs and depth. “Do we really want to be cutting out numbers to reach a time sequence?” said Holzman. “When you’re allowed to elaborate more in two different chapters, the first segment, which is essentially the first act of the movie, is the journey of Elphaba becoming the Wicked Witch and making a choice. Both girls make choices in that movie, and they’re big life choices that are satisfying for the end of the film: ‘I choose that I have to fight this wizard, even though I’m giving up everything I always wanted in my whole life, and I’m going to speak truth to power.’ And the other character, who we’ve come to love, chooses to stay, she’s buying into that world and that’s a big, big idea that feels like the end of the movie.”

“The studio was supportive,” said Platt, who did have to fight hard for the green train to Emerald City. “We wanted to build it. We didn’t want to do CG, we wanted to build that actual train, so you’d feel it pull into the station. I said, ‘It’ll be in every TV spot, every commercial. It’s the journey to Oz, and you’re experientially getting on a train and going as an audience member.’ It seems like a small thing. It’s only in the movie for a few minutes, but it was worth every cent.”

And audiences responded. At one of the first research previews four rows of people stood and applauded. “It was a blind recruit,” said Platt. “I’d never seen that happen. It was transportive, you get to leave your life for a while and then be in Oz and and emote and laugh and and find joy.”

“You’ve got these two amazing women in Ariana and in Cynthia,” said Holzman. “They’re truly masters at what they do. As women and as artists, they are unique. This show mattered to them in a deep, deep way. It was in their heart, and they wanted to make it their own and yet be be respectful.”

Where the play and the original “Wizard of Oz” are known, “Wicked” the movie is playing well, countries like Australia, the UK, Korea, Germany.

Next up: “Wicked: For Good” (2026) is about the consequences of the choices the two witches made, “whether they live with those consequences, or whether those consequences change either of them,” said Holzman. “Once we realized that, it made a decision easy for all of us.”