Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth have found their way back to Oz. Broadway\u2019s original witches make a surprise appearance in director Jon M. Chu\u2019s \u201cWicked,\u201d but not as Elphaba and Glinda.<\/p>\n
The duo, who originated the leading roles in 2003, sing a new verse in \u201cOne Short Day,\u201d telling the story behind the wonderful Wizard of Oz. Their characters fight for the spotlight in the Emerald City, prompting Menzel\u2019s character to shut down the competition by belting out her famous \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d riff.<\/p>\n
Composer Stephen Schwartz also cameos as the Oz soldier who allows Elphaba and Glinda into the Wizard\u2019s palace, while the musical\u2019s book writer Winnie Holzman similarly appears in the Emerald City, touting the Wizard\u2019s ability to read the Grimmerie.<\/p>\n
Clad in over-the-top pink and purple poofy dresses, Menzel and Chenoweth each share a sweet moment with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who take on the roles they made famous.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so surreal. It was really extraordinary,\u201d Grande tells Variety<\/em> of sharing the screen with the Broadway legends. \u201cI mean, to have the women who helped write and create and birth these characters embrace us and embrace our versions of them, was just so incredibly surreal. I mean, they had been texting us, and they had been supportive of us beforehand, but I don\u2019t think they ever got to see or hear our versions of the characters until on set. So it was really emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n Grande previously starred in NBC\u2019s 2016 \u201cHairspray Live!\u201d with Chenoweth, who has praised her casting as Glinda the Good in numerous interviews. \u201cI\u2019m not sure if I\u2019ve ever been this proud,\u201d Chenoweth posted on social media<\/a> at the time of Grande\u2019s casting in 2021. \u201cFrom the very first day I met you \u2026 you were destined for this role.\u201d<\/p>\n Menzel has been similarly effusive of Erivo, telling ET<\/a>, \u201cShe\u2019s just incredible. I feel like she\u2019s the one to hand the torch off to. You\u2019re gonna love her.\u201d Menzel and Erivo also presented an award<\/a> together at the 2024 Tony Awards earlier this year. \u201cI\u2019m just gonna go off script real quick to say how excited I am to see what I know is going to be an amazing performance in that movie you\u2019re doing,\u201d Menzel said on stage. \u201cGreen girl power!\u201d<\/p>\n Marc Platt, who produced both stage musical and the film adaptations, says he\u2019ll never forget the day the duo filmed their cameos. \u201cI think when Kristin and Idina came onto the set, there was so much love and respect from the movie cast, particularly Ari and Cynthia and Jon Chu \u2014 almost like they were royalty! They had grown up listening to these two women sing, and you felt that sense of awe, and also legacy,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then Kristin and Idina, where equally, in awe of these two younger women making these roles their own.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a moment where Idina fixes my hat and sends me on my way. Trying not to be cliche, it was like the passing of the broom almost,\u201d Erivo says. \u201cSo to have almost like the blessing from the queen herself, felt really, really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n Platt says that Menzel and Chenoweth initially had reservations about appearing in the movie for fear of stealing Grande and Erivo\u2019s thunder. \u201cBoth the girls, Kristin and Idina, were a little bit nervous about it. Kristin jumped in pretty quick, because she and Ari had had a relationship and she was excited,\u201d he says, adding that Menzel \u201cdidn\u2019t want to rain on anything that had to do with Cynthia. She thought, \u2018This is her moment. I want her to have her moment.’\u201d (Watch Variety<\/em>\u2018s interview with Chenoweth above.)<\/p>\n A little convincing from Platt was all it took to change their minds, though. \u201cI said, \u2018Both of you are going to want to touch the film. You\u2019re part of the \u201cWicked\u201d lore forever.\u2019 And because we found an organic way which Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman wrote to have them in the film as part of the storytelling, \u2018You\u2019re going to want to be part of something that\u2019s bigger than you, and so for the rest of your lives, you\u2019ll always be part of \u201cWicked,\u201d even in the film.\u2019 And they both said, \u2018Okay, you\u2019re right.’\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was so honored that they wanted to include us,\u201d Chenoweth tells Variety<\/em>. \u201cI thought, \u2018Should we? Is i it weird, because it\u2019s [Ariana and Cynthia\u2019s] now?\u2019 And Mark Platt said, \u2018You have to. What do you mean? It wouldn\u2019t happen without you!’\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIdina and I had so much fun,\u201d she adds about the emotional day she and Menzel filmed their cameos. \u201cOur costumes were amazing, and we just made up our thing. We just had the best time ever. We did it in one day, and to be reunited with my with my sister was very, very special.\u201d Chenoweth says she and Menzel arrived to the set early and got dinner to catch up: \u201cWe had a good time there. Elphie and Glinda grew up!\u201d<\/p>\n Chenoweth also says she\u2019s thrilled the venerated musical has finally made its way to the big screen so a broader audience can discover the magical story. \u201cI\u2019m so happy they made the movie, because I grew up in Oklahoma, and it wasn\u2019t like we could have afforded to go see a Broadway show: dinner, hotel, all that stuff. And now we have the movie, and it will be brought to new generations of people that maybe are in the same boat as I was. I\u2019m really proud.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cKristin and I have seen each other many times in the last 20 years, but it was wonderful,\u201d Menzel says of the reunion. \u201cIt was wonderful to be there, to get all the feels, to rehearse together, to somewhat echo our characters a little bit, to be with Cynthia and Ari and just kind of enjoy the set in a totally different way. It was everything.\u201d (Watch Variety<\/em>\u2018s interview with Menzel above.)<\/p>\n For Erivo, Menzel and Chenoweth\u2019s support (on and off set) has been a source of comfort and inspiration as she\u2019s put her own spin on the iconic role of Elphaba. \u201cThey\u2019ve been really wonderful with us, and we\u2019ve had the most incredible words of encouragement from both of them,\u201d she says. \u201cThose things really mean a lot to us, because they don\u2019t have to. It\u2019s theirs from all this time, but for them to spare those good words and to give us the space to also do what we want to do with them as well, is really meaningful, really touching.\u201d<\/p>\n Platt hopes that Menzel and Chenoweth\u2019s involvement speaks to the enduring legacy of \u201cWicked\u201d as a new fanbase discovers the beloved musical. \u201cI think all of us joining arms felt like there\u2019s something bigger than all of us, and that we are part of something that may live on beyond all of us,\u201d he says. \u201cThe ability to join those two worlds, the stage world of the original and the film world, particularly for those four girls, was something no one will ever forget who witnessed that night of shooting. It was really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth have found their way back to Oz. Broadway\u2019s original witches make a surprise appearance in director Jon M. Chu\u2019s \u201cWicked,\u201d but not as Elphaba and Glinda. The duo, who originated the leading roles in 2003, sing a new verse in \u201cOne Short Day,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[80,5],"class_list":["post-1349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-interviews","tag-80","tag-wicked"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-lL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1350,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349\/revisions\/1350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}