With two of the most anticipated films of the year, Jon M. Chu has his work cut out for him.
the evil The director recently recounted how he envisioned the appearance of the original Broadway musical's stars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth during the song “One Short Day,” which they performed with their successors Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
“It was a tightrope that we all had to talk about a lot with Stephen [Schwartz] And Winnie [Holzman] “Where is the best place?” Chu told CinemaBlend. “And we played secondary roles with them at some point, like ‘Maybe they're Galinda's parents' or ‘Maybe they're this or that.’ And that was all well and good, but every time we thought about it more, it didn't feel like – they're at the top of their game now. They're at the top of their game now, they're not like some people out there that don't do it. [If] They're there, and you want them to do what they want, and I've always felt like I'm like, if I see them in this movie, I'll want them to do what they want.
The director explained that he envisioned a “Wizomania”-type trip when the two women arrive in Oz, inspired by Disney's “It's a Small World” ride, “where you get on a boat and it takes you through the history of Oz.”
“And it's going to be a show that takes place around them and all this stuff and then takes you back to the wizard's mansion,” he said. “So, we had that, because we needed to set up what the show didn't cover a lot, which we had to do, which was setting up the Grimmerie, and why the wizard was here, and what the prophecy was — we had a lot of information to provide.”
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande evil (2024) (Giles Kit/Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Universal Pictures
“And during those conversations Stephen and I were talking,” Cho continued, “and I suggested, 'We have this section anyway, and this is kind of outside the narrative that we need to present.'” Maybe this is where you do that, so you can add a little sugar to the information. So he said, 'Give me one night.' And he rewrote the whole thing as a performance for these girls. It was a lot of fun, and it felt like a great moment of farewell.”
Menzel and Chenoweth originated the roles of Elphaba and Galinda when evil It premiered on Broadway in 2003, and won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, for which her co-star was also nominated.
