Film adaptations of Broadway Musicals are nothing new, there have been several over the last decade with some high points like 2012’s Les Misérables and some definite low points with 2019’s Cats and after the latter film release, my trust for movie adaptations of musicals has been a little more tenuous (hello nightmarish CGI).

There is one adaptation I’ve been waiting for, however, and other fans of the Classic Broadaway Musical Wicked are no doubt aware that Universal Studios has been talking about a film adaptation for some time. With In The Heights  Director Jon M Chu on board, the question of who would play the iconic roles of Glinda and Elphaba was on a lot of people’s minds, and finally we have our stars with Ariana Grande set to play Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. 

I’ve been a fan of this production since the original cast of Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel and I’m really excited to see what Grande and Erivo bring to the roles but most importantly how they sound because obviously, people are aware of Grande’s singing voice as she is also one of the biggest pop stars in the world right now, but Cynthia Erivo’s voice is equally stunning and I absolutely cannot get enough of her. I really can’t wait to hear the two together because I think the pair will sound great together, but I’m also really looking forward to the solo performances.

I think it’s really cool to see how both Grande and Erivo come from musical theatre and broadway backgrounds, Grande having started on the Broadway Musical “13” before moving on to television acting,  film, and of course her Grammy-winning career in pop music. Erivo is almost at EGOT status, having won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical as well as the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre album with her starring role in the 2015 revival of The Color Purple and in 2019 was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress with her role as Harriet Tubman in Harriet. Erivo also performed the song “Stand Up” for this film and was nominated in the Best Original Song category as well.

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To put it short, these two sound like great casting choices and I look forward to seeing this in the future.