‘Wicked: For Good’ review: an emotional but awkward return to Oz

Originally the big screen adaptation of Wicked was conceived as a one-and-done deal. But then in April 2022, eight months before production began, director Jon M. Chu announced that the story would be split over two movies to prevent “fatal compromises to the source material”. This decision served last year’s sparkling first part well. Wicked picked up 10 Oscar nominations and became the highest-grossing musical film adaptation ever. In direct contravention of Glinda’s famous advice to Elphaba, it displayed real aptitude as well as being popular.

• READ MORE: ‘Wicked’ review: hit musical makes gravity-defying leap to the big screen

Sadly, this sequel suffers from a little collateral damage. It’s based on the second, shorter act of the long-running Wicked stage musical, which generally wraps things up in an hour. Chu’s adaptation clocks in at 137 minutes – more than twice as long – and often feels sluggish. Original composer Stephen Schwartz has added two brand new songs but neither is a firecracker like ‘Defying Gravity’ or ‘Dancing Through Life’ from the first film. One of his new compositions is titled ‘There’s No Place Like Home’, an on-the-nose nod to 1939’s The Wizard Of Oz, which Wicked puts a revisionist spin on.

Meanwhile, screenwriters Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox have woven in some minor threads of new material, including fleeting glimpses of Dorothy Gale, the iconic character played by Judy Garland in the 1939 film. Mercifully, there’s no attempt to repurpose archive footage of Garland – here, she’s played by British actress Bethany Weaver but her face is never shown. The sight of Dorothy’s familiar pigtails and blue-and-white dress is still distracting, though, because it highlights this film’s relative lack of visual magic. While The Wizard Of Oz still dazzles with its mid-movie transition from black-and-white to vibrant Technicolor, Wicked: For Good has a slightly dour colour palette and a menagerie of unconvincing CGI animals.

It’s kept compelling because Ariana Grande brings real depth to conflicted good witch Glinda while Cynthia Erivo plays her frenemy Elphaba with pluck and dignity. Set several years after the first film, Wicked: For Good pivots on the complex and ultimately moving friendship between these former roommates. Glinda is now a glossy cog in the PR machine driven by Jeff Goldblum’s not-so-Wonderful Wizard Of Oz and Michelle Yeoh’s scheming Madame Morrible. By contrast, Elphaba has been cruelly scapegoated for opposing the Wizard’s rickety regime. She now lives in righteous exile as the so-called ‘Wicked Witch Of The West’.

Jonathan Bailey adds razzle-dazzle as Fiyero, the handsome prince who comes between them, and Ethan Slater’s Boq gets a dramatic makeover that isn’t quite a silver lining. But the one truly showstopping moment is Elphaba and Glinda’s climactic rendition of ‘For Good’, a big, blustery show tune that sums up their entire relationship. Wicked: For Good doesn’t defy gravity like its predecessor but fans will want to hold space for a sequel with a very poignant payoff.