"If the first Wicked centered Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the shy outcast whose discovery of her magical powers and the sinister machinery behind the Land of Oz led to her being branded the Wicked Witch of the West, Wicked: For Good focuses intently on her opposite number and best friend, Glinda (Grande), now positioned by the powers that be as the good (but secretly powerless) witch who can keep the people happy and placated as their world slides into paranoid dictatorship."
"The second half of the stage musical in no way feels as though it would lend itself to a complete work. It's quicker, looser, more fragmented, relying for its cohesion not just on what happened in the first half but also on references to the original Wizard of Oz, whose tale it shadows (and recontextualizes) with brief flashes of Dorothy Gale and her friends' classic adventure."
Wicked: For Good centers Glinda (Ariana Grande) and portrays her as a public figure installed to placate a populace as their world slips toward paranoid dictatorship. The sequel contrasts with the first film's Elphaba focus, shifting emotional weight and narrative attention to Glinda's arc. Critics are divided: some praise the film's slick, big-budget musical spectacle and entertainment value, while others argue that splitting Wicked into two films weakens the second installment with weaker songs and an unclear, fragmented plot. The film runs shorter and sacrifices some spectacle, though Grande's performance receives near-universal acclaim.
Read at Vulture
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