How Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth can Star in the Wicked Movie
As most of you know, Wicked just celebrated its 15th anniversary on Broadway. Since its opening night, the show has been nothing short of a massive success. Wicked has become a household name and is now apart of the cultural lexicon. In addition to Broadway, it can be seen in across the United States, London, Ireland, Australia, South Korea, and even Japan (while still maintaining selling enough tickets to perform in Broadway’s largest theater for 15 years). It is an international phenonom. It’s rare when a staged musical becomes such a cultural hit and transcends past midtown Manhattan. To say it is the musical of the 2000s is an understatment.
Wicked was one of those musicals every ten years that catches lightning in a bottle. It was a simple yet intelligent universal (timeless) story with grand costumes, lighting, make-up, and music. All thanks to The Wizard of Oz, Gregory Maguire (the author of the novel), Stephen Schwartz (composure), Joe Mantello (director), and the crazy talented cast.
Wicked was also the project that shot its leading ladies, Kristin Chenoweth (Glinda)and Idina Menzel (Elphaba) into national (and evidentially international) stardom. Both actresses had been know for pervious roles in the Broadway community, and Chenoweth had even made some films and television shows at the time, but Wicked solidified them in the musical theater history books. As Glinda and Elphaba, the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West, Chenoweth and Menzel took center stage and told the story of friendship, womanhood, forgiveness, and embracing who you are. While singing songs with ridiculously high notes of course. As they left their hearts on the stage every night, the audience repaid them over and over and over again.
With Wicked’s huge success, it was only a matter of time when the producers would make the jump to adapt the show into a live-action film (especially when the show is owned by Universal Studios). In 2012, Universal officially announced that the jump would be taking place, but it has still reminded in limbo. This film adaptation might beat the Black Widow movie on longest wait for a theatrical release. The date keeps getting pushed back as the creative team perfects the script and probably writes more songs. But the main question everyone has asked has been: who’s going to play Glinda and Elphaba?
According to both Chenoweth and Menzel, the producers have already told them that they’re too old to reprise their roles. Chenoweth seems to have made peace with the reality and has even put out suggestions for who should play Glinda whereas Menzel…
has not.
But after watching NBC’s A Very Wicked Halloween, it occurred to me that maybe Chenoweth and Menzel can actually reprise their roles. It is something they and the Wicked audience want and here’s how I think Universal can do it.
First, the main problem with casting Chenoweth, 50 and Menzel, 47 is that they are too old to play college students which is where the first act of Wicked takes place. Their age is only an issue in the first act given in the second half of the story, there is a ten year (could also be twenty) time jump. Meaning that they easily can play their parts in the second act, where they’re characters are 30–40. So the main issue is aging Chenoweth and Menzel down a good ten years for the first half of the film. But there are ways to do this.
1. Weight Gain
The first thing to do in order to age down an actor is to gain weight. This is simply used to put more weight or ‘baby fat’ on the actor’s face. With some extra pounds, the wrinkles go away and provides a younger look to the actors. Chenoweth and Menzel wouldn’t have to gain too much weight for the desired effect, probably around 5–10 pounds should do the trick. It would probably differ between the actresses becuase…
2. Make-Up
Throughout the entire film, the actress who plays Elphaba will be covered in green make-up, especially on her face. This could also help de-age Menzel for the first act of the show. Of course, there would need to be a screen-test to see how much the make-up covers itself before other elements would need to be applied (weight gain, special effects, etc). But judging by the make-up currently done on Wicked, it seems to be a fantastic make-up job and will only be elevated for film and I think it can do most of the de-aging for Menzel.
3. Motion Capture/Special Effects
This is might be used more for Chenoweth than Menzel (again, personally I think the green make-up and weight gain will be more than enough for her) but motion capture technology has been used hundreds of times by big studios (like universal) for animated characters. If they can constructed an entire character around an actor’s face, they can certainly blush out some wrinkles.
4. De-Aging Technology
This is, in my opinion, is the last resort. But, de-aging technology does exist in the movie industry and has been used several times to de-age their actors several decades. It was first used in 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and has been used in countless Marvel films like Ant Man and the Wasp, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume II, Captain America: Civil War, and Ant Man. The only issue with de-aging is that it is only used for short scenes and flashbacks (except for Button) which could imply that this is an expensive process. So considering the potential cost for this for the two female leads of the film for around an hour of screetime, that could be costy. So that’s why I put it as my last resort if the weight gain, make-up, and cheaper technology doesn’t work. But this definitely provides the best results and since Wicked has made over $1 billion (on Broadway alone), I think they can spend some money on this gals.
The next issue for me is the stamina of Chenoweth and Menzel. Yes, we all know that they can still perform at the professional level eight times a week but film is a totally other medium. Considering this film will be a live-sung musical (which it should be and also the hardest way to make a film), Chenoweth and Menzel have to physically (and vocially) be in the best shape of their lives. They will have days where they sing these songs live over and over and over again. That’s No One Mourns the Wicked for 12 hours straight, Defying Gravity for 12 hours straight (probably more considering that song will be shot for more than one day), and so on and so on. They will need to be able to sing these songs at 100% over and over again and then do another song the next day. Not to mention being in strict costumes and heavy make-up. Also, both Chenoweth and Menzel will have to sing the songs in the original key as they did 15 years ago.
This might be more of a challenge for Menzel considering the challenge that Elphaba is. We know she can sing The Wizard and I and Defying Gravity in the original key and rise to the challenge if she really wants it. But personally, I don’t recall Menzel singing No Good Deed, in my opinion the most challenging song in the show, since she left Wicked. So I don’t personally know if she can still sing that song. But once again, if Chenoweth and Menzel want it, they can work on it. This would mean to not do any concerts or shows and just work on the material and I think the voice will come. But again, it is about the performance
not just the voice. I believe these actresses know the soul and emotional truth of these characters, which is more important than if they can hit the high note 10/10 times. With musicals, especially live sung musicals, every note doesn’t have to be hit. As long as the actor is true to the character, the choice will work (either to show pain, emotion, fear, or anger which could result in the actor not hitting the note). But at the end of the day, the story is more important than the note.
5. Cast Younger Actresses For the First Half
What makes Wicked different than normal musical-to-movie adaptions is that Wicked depends on a time jump. It’s a crucial part of the story: introducing our characters as college students and watching them grow up. Over the course of two and a half hours, we watch Elphaba and Glinda grow from college freshman to middle aged women. The amount of time that occurs between act one and act two can be the director’s call, but at least ten years has pasted between college Elphaba and Glinda and the witches we meet in The Wizard of Oz.
So if the producers are adamant on having younger actresses play Elphaba and Glinda, okay let them hire younger actresses, but only for act one. Have actresses in their late twenties play the characters in college, have the time jump, then have Chenoweth and Menzel play their respective parts. This course of action allows Chenoweth and Menzel to play parts that are age appropriate and also allows them to bring characters that mean so much to them in front of a wider audience.
No matter if we like it or not, Wicked will (probably) become a movie within the next 10 years and we all know Chenoweth and Menzel have something special. Even though every single person that has played Glinda and Elphaba onstage is far too talented for this world, they’re still missing that magic. Universal is smart, especially with movie musicals. I hoped they learned from the success of Les Miserables and relaized that live singing is the way to go and having actors that originate in the theater will give them the greatest success (Hugh Jackman, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit).
Samantha Barks, who played Eponine in the Les Mis movie, was considered the break-out star of the film and there’s a reason for it. She played Eponine on stage before.
Out of all the actors, she knew her character the most becuase of the experience of playing her onstage, eight times a week. This allowed herself to sink into Eponine’s soul. She experienced the character in a theatrical setting so she already knew Eponine and what made her tick. She lived with Eponine for a year, eight times a week. The character became a part of her and therefore she had a deep understanding for her. This allowed her as an actress, to dive even deeper into the character during the filming process because with film, the audience is able to really see the character up close and having Barks already know who Eponine was, made her performance stronger, organic, and more real than the rest of the cast.
Chenoweth and Menzel can provide the same effect and do the exact same thing in Wicked.
Barks is one of seven people that have had the rare opportunity to transition roles they played onstage to screen. The other six are Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Taye Diggs, Jesse L. Martin, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, and (ironically) Idina Menzel who reprised their roles they created in Rent. Allowing actors to transition their roles, especially role they created from stage to screen provides the most organize transition. It’s the ultimate acting excerise that showcases the actor’s talent and is the best way to showcase a full character. In my opinion, this course of action, although rare, is the best step (particularly for the character).
So if the producers decide to go the ‘younger actresses play the younger character’ route I recommend having actors that played Elphaba and Glinda onstage to allow this effect (which could work conidering Chenoweth and Menzel would be considered the ‘star power’/ ‘box office draw’)
Again, Universal is smart. They know Wicked has the potential to be their Titanic or Lord of the Rings (and Chenoweth and Menzel’s real opportunity to win an Oscar), so they just need to commit to it. I believe, with a little help, Chenoweth and Menzel can still do it. It might take a little more money and practice, but I think it’ll be worth it and maybe be one of the best movie musicals of the century.
“And the wicked old Witch stayed for a good long time” “And did she ever come out?”
“Not yet”
I think it’s time for them to come out again. Don’t ya think?
