Universal’s Wicked, tracking to an $85 million Thanksgiving weekend opening, is itself based on a stage show — one of the most successful of all time, having grossed $1.7 billion in ticket sales since its Broadway debut 21 years ago.
Wicked has become such a beloved part of the musical theater pantheon, it’s easy to forget that when it opened on Oct. 30, 2003, it was met with near-unanimous derision from theater critics.
The most withering assessment came from the great and powerful New York Times, whose Ben Brantley found very little to admire in the production — with the exception of Kristin Chenoweth, the O.G. Glinda the Good (played by Ariana Grande in the movie).
“She provides the essential helium in a bloated production that might otherwise spend close to three hours flapping its oversized wings without taking off,” Brantley sniped. “Lightness of touch is not the salient characteristic of this politically indignant deconstruction of L. Frank Baum’s Oz tales.”
Brantley found almost nothing to his tastes in Wicked. He was unimpressed with the songs, filled with now-classic showtunes like “For Good” and “Defying Gravity” (“its swirling pop-eretta score sheds any glimmer of originality”); its themes (“as a parable of fascism and freedom, Wicked so overplays its hand that it seriously dilutes its power to disturb”) and its choreography (“as a series of spasmodic, disconnected poses”).
He didn’t even like Elphaba, the part originated by Idina Menzel and played by Cynthia Erivo in the movie. “Despite the green skin, Elphaba is a bizarrely colorless role, all furrowed-brow sincerity and expansive power ballads,” he wrote, allowing that Menzel “miraculously finds the commanding presence in the plainness of her part” and will “dazzle audience members whose musical tastes run to soft-rock stations.”
Ultimately, Brantley concluded, “Wicked does not, alas, speak hopefully for the future of the Broadway musical.”
Were that Brantley was alone. New York magazine’s John Simon’s withering review opened with one of the pettiest puns to ever be hurled at a production.
“Two of the producers of the musical Wicked bear the name Platt, which (in German) means flat, and one the name Stone, which (in English) means heavy,” Simon wrote, referring to Wicked producers Marc Platt and David Stone. “Why not also one called Long, although it is too much to ask for one called Boring, all of which apply to the show.”
The barbs only got sharper from there. “What of a score by Stephen Schwartz, who has clearly lost it? Only one song, ‘Wonderful,’ has a memorable tune, and even that rather trite,” Simon wrote. “As Glinda, Kristin Chenoweth is cute as a button, but rather makes you wish for a zipper. She sings the worthless songs admirably and speaks her would-be-funny lines with spice, even as the accomplished Idina Menzel brings genuine pathos and edge to Elphaba, but all in vain.”
Noting the production’s $14 million price tag — a recurring motif in early Wicked reviews — Simon found the show “more withered than wicked.”
The hits kept coming: Howard Kissel of the New York Daily News dismissed Wicked as “an interminable show with no dramatic logic or emotional center. Constantly lurching in different directions, the show seems to believe that whenever you reach an artistic impasse, throw money at it — in this case, $14 million.” (There’s that number again.)
Charles Isherwood of Variety was also perturbed by the show’s cost. “A strenuous effort to be all things to all people tends to weigh down this lumbering, overstuffed $14 million production,” he wrote. (Reminder: Wicked has already grossed $1.7 billion before selling a single movie ticket.)
“It is hardly surprising, in the end, that Wicked’s jarring jumble of tones and styles defeats talented director Joe Mantello, who seems overwhelmed by the demands of the medium, not to mention the less-than-first-rate contributions of some of his collaborators,” Isherwood wrote. Among those cut-rate collaborators are composer Stephen Schwartz, Isherwood explains, who “seemed an ill fit for this ambitiously subversive material and, indeed, the show’s score features far too many competent but bland anthems written in an easy-listening Broadway pop mode.” Similarly, while the Associated Press’ Michael Kuchwara was kinder to the production overall, he felt “where Wicked shrinks and stalls for time is in its score.”
Did no one like Wicked? In fact, one outlet did — loved it, in fact. That would be USA Today, whose Elysa Gardner raved the show was “the most complete, and completely satisfying, new musical I’ve come across in a long time. The triumph is not Schwartz’s alone. Adapted from a Gregory Maguire novel, Wicked offers a post-feminist, socially conscious reinterpretation of the story of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West. Though that may sound like a recipe for pretentious pedantry, writer Winnie Holzman, whose TV credits include thirtysomething and My So-Called Life, provides a libretto that juggles winning irreverence with thoughtfulness and heart.
“Kristin Chenoweth is ideally cast as Glinda, a dizzy blonde whose peppy facade belies a fragile heart, while Idina Menzel’s Elphaba is a powerfully human sorceress, particularly when delivering haunting new songs such as ‘No Good Deed’ and ‘I’m Not That Girl.’ … A fine ensemble helps ensure that even the most flagrantly cute and sentimental moments are hard to resist. Add in tunes that you can actually leave the theater humming, and you have a thoroughly enchanting experience,” Gardner wrote.
Mercifully, the critics’ buckets of water were not able to bring Wicked to a premature end. The show went on to earn 10 Tony nominations, winning three awards, including best actress in a musical for Menzel — it lost best musical to Avenue Q —and audiences were the ultimate arbiters of its worth. Because everyone deserves a chance to fly.
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