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Mickey Jo Theatre (22:15)

Now let's continue talking about the wizard of Oz, but references to it in lines of dialogue rather than visual elements, beginning with one of my favorite superhero exits from Elphaba, who is just so dramatic this entire film. And can you blame her? She has an awful lot on her plate. She's also, you know, going weeks at a time in her hideout by herself with nobody to talk to, singing reprises of the wizard and I desperately pacing around basically when Elphaba, having returned to Munchkinland, leaves her sister, realizing that nothing she can do for her is ever going to be enough to finish all of the all of the trauma that's going on there. Alphabet is many, many things, but she is not a therapist and the Grimory can't write prescriptions. In any case, she flies off. But before she does, she announces to Nessarose, I'm off to see the Wizard. Of course, an iconic spoken and sung line from the wizard of Oz. We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz. Incidentally, I only learned recently that it is believed that the whole because because because because because thing is also referenced in Wicked the Musical. I knew of so many little references to the wizard of Oz in the stage show, including the melody of like couldn't be happier, simply couldn't be happier. Da da da Da, da, da. Follow the yellow brick, Right? Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road. You hear it? But back to the because, because, because thing. There is a moment in the first act in Dancing Through Life when Bok sings to Nessa. No, it's because, because, because you are so beautiful. And for him to be doing it specifically as a character, it does feel like it could be a deliberate choice. He says, because three times in a row, I'm willing to believe that was an Easter egg from Stephen Schwartz. Now, it's during the song thank Goodness that Elphaba appears in the film, bursting through a layer of cloud, skywriting the phrase Our wizard lies. Something which does not happen in the stage musical, but obviously pays homage to the Surrender Dorothy message written by the Wicked Witch of the west in the wizard of Oz. Now, it's been a very long time since I have actually watched the wizard of Oz. I feel like I definitely need to rewatch this. Maybe I'll even notice some more Easter eggs and crossover references. But this one I had to find out about, because Madame Morrible has a line in Wicked for Good when she says these things must be done delicately as she is plotting something maniacal. Which is an exact line that the Wicked Witch of the west says about Dorothy and the extraction of the ruby slippers and the breaking of their magic in the wizard of Oz towards the end of the film, I believe. And truly, that is a parallel design. To show us what exactly? Well, to show us that. Mm. Adam Morrible, when you flip it around, Wwicked Witch. I say that not just as a meme, but as an actual inference. Because if we're drawing parallels between Wicked things done by the Wicked Witch the West in the wizard of Oz to Dorothy and things done by Madame Morrible to the likes of Elphaba and Nessarose, then we're making a very clear point about who's really the wicked witch here. Mm. W. W. I'm just saying. Now, the last two I have here both take place in Munchkinland. One occurs during the Fallen House moment, as it is often called, when Elfba and Glinda have something of a feud. And this is new for the screenplay. This is not a moment that happens be to in the stage musical. Elphaba laughs at something. Glinda then takes a breath and mocks her own cackle back at her and says, where did you get that? Poking fun at another part of the iconic identity of the Wicked Witch of the west, so much of which was seen coming together in the moments of defying gravity. That part where she finally put the hat on and had the cape and the broom for the very first time. Glinda gave her the hat initially as a practical joke, but they both came to love it. Glinda gave her the cloak, wrapped it around her because she said she looked cold. Elphaba enchants the broomstick and so it's nice that Glinda also acknowledges her cackle. It's sort of like Glinda is really helping to create the imagery of the Wicked Witch of the west that Elphaba allegedly becomes. And there is one more little homage that happens in Munchkinland. Glinda has this line right towards the end of the film when she is trying to broke a peace between the. I guess humanoid. Are they humans? Are we calling them humans? I guess we are the people of Oz and the animals of Oz. As she entreats the animals to return by saying, come out wherever you are. Which is something we have heard sung by Glinda before. Come out, come out wherever you are and meet the young lady who fell from a star. I think it's what she sings to the Munchkins to lure them out to greet Dorothy when she first arrives in Munchkin Land. Now here is the part where we talk about the book by Gregory Maguire. And this is where I really want you to pop off in the comments section, because I know there are people who watch these and comment with parallels with things that happened in the book. I also know that there are a great many differences. Fiyero does not have blue diamonds on his face. There is not quite as much death in the stage musical. It was not an exact adaptation. That being said, there are still a couple of references differences. There is a character called Avarick in the film who is a Munchkin working for Nessaros at the Governor's mansion. He is played by musical theatre actor Aaron Teo, who I have seen on stage before, and he was a student alongside them at Shiz in the first film. What's interesting is there is also an Averick in the stage musical, but he is Fiero's driver who nearly runs down Elphaba and who brings him to Chis the first time. Fiero tells him he probably won't last much longer at this school than any of the others. They do like a secret handshake and Avarick disappears, never to be seen again. And I believe both of these are references to the fact that there is a character called Avarick in the Gregory Maguire novel, but I don't think in the book Avarick is either of those people, though he bears, I guess, a slight resemblance to the film character. Because a hasty Google search indicates to me that Avarick in the book was a friend of BOC and Glinda and a perhaps rival of Elphaba, but the roommate of Bok of whom he was a little bit jealous in part because of his wealth. And of course, if you add an E onto the end of the name Avaric, you get Avarice, one of the deadly sins representing this greed or lust for wealth. In fact, just greed, lust is an entirely different deadly sin. Now there is another reference to the book in as much as it's a detail from the novel that was changed for the stage show that was then reverted to Wanted Back because Fierro is a part of this SS style militia implemented by the wizard called the Gale Force, which is never referenced explicitly in the stage musical. They just call him the Captain of the Guard, but that exact line when it arrives in the film is now said as Captain of the Gale Force. They go back to that idea. And of course it is also Gregory Maguire's way of paying tribute to Dorothy Gale, as well as the whole idea of cyclones and tornado imagery, which they just love. Now here comes the part where I talk to you about cameo appearances during Wicked for good. And of course there were many, many in the first movie, most of them in the same sequence together. Elphaba and Glinda, I was about to say Alphaber and Ariana. They arrive together at the Emerald City for the first time. They're singing One Short Day. It's all grand, it's all green. The buildings are as tall as Coxwood trees, which is a little puzzling because every time we see trees for the rest of the two part franchise, they do seem to be a very normal height, but that's fine. And we meet characters portrayed by Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz, Wicked original book writer Winnie Holtzman, as well as the show's original two Broadway leading ladies, of course, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, who play the magical ancient women or something to that effect. That's what their Funko Pop figures are called anyway. And Wicked has a substantial history on stage and has played around the world. And there are Wicked fans around the world who treasure the actresses who originated the roles in their own countries. There are iconic performers who have played the role in multiple countries, like Philomene Vakaic, who has played it on Broadway, in the West End and around most of Europe. There's a Lovely and exciting detail in the dubbed version of the films where for a lot of them, the Elphaba who they've seen on stage also provides the Elphaba vocal for the movie. But it does, I guess, create something of a problem for John M. Chu and everyone putting this film together because you have so many, too many performers. I mean, 22 years on Broadway, plus all of the other companies around the world and it's shooting in the uk. So the decision that they ended up making was to include a lot of iconic former British Elphabas and Glindas from the London run. However, the scene that they were in is one that has been cut from the film. I know, I know. Allegedly you can see Kerry Ellis, the first British actress to play Elphaba in the West End after Idina Menzel opened the production at the Apollo. Victoria, allegedly she can be seen during the March of the Witch Hunters. But the likes of Rachel Tucker and Louise Dearman and Diane Pilkington were all in these very avant garde green Ozzian outfits, outfits for whichever number had Glinda in the pink swirly dress with the big tulle skirt and the Lullaby League, the kids who were singing to her as she was doing this little Rainbow High esque press tour. And not only that, so many of the West End performers who haven't been in Wicked necessarily were also extras in that sequence. So many people have been posting about it. I won't begin to list all the names, but there was this moment when you could could scroll through Instagram and it was everyone posting like mirror selfies of them in great expensive looking, detailed costumes that could not have been easy to design, make or put on these performers for footage that hopefully still exists somewhere and we will see one day, but as of right now has not been used. Also, it does sort of seem like it was a musical moment. So what music has been cut because it's, it's nothing from the stage show. It could only have been new. Now, all of this being said, there is one former West End Elphaba who has made it into the movie. That is Alice Fearne, who plays Glinda's mother, whose name I mentioned this time last year when I was talking about cameos in Wicked Part 1 because she drops her off at Shears. But she has a more substantial scene in this one as we see a flashback to a birthday party for young Glinda. And it's Alice as her mother who bestows the advice that everybody loves her and that's all she's ever going to need. It's fascinating that and you know Alice is a blonde in real life she is playing a character linked to Glinda. She has been cast as Glinda's mother when to West End audiences she was an iconic Elphaba. One of the best to do it here actually. And it's sort of criminal that she doesn't get to sing in the film. It would be very egregious to have her do like this power riff to her small disappointed child on her birthday. I would have liked to hear it. Nonetheless, there are also a few western musical theater actors who were lucky enough to be in other scenes that weren't cut, including some. Summer Strallen likewise was in the first film, but we got to hear her sing in this one. I think she was the munchkin who sang I hear some wild animals are giving her food and shelter. Summer is part of a musical theatre acting dynasty. Her aunt is Bonnie Langford, icon of the stage, currently appearing in Paddington the Musical. Her mother, Sharida Langford was the librarian in the dancing through life scene in the first movie and has been an iconic performer and chaperone beloved by many in the industry. Summer is one of multiple all singing, all dancing sisters and her sister Zizi is currently playing Glinda in the West End production of Wicked. And in that moment, the other Munchkins who have sung lines are also British performers. Lucy Fredericks pops up in there and there are a few others as well throughout the film. Cleave September I think was an Ozzy and guard, but no one who is necessarily featured as an obvious conspicuous cameo like we had in the first film movie. Hell, even Dorothy only gets shown from behind. Which actually brings me to a different Easter egg in my final.

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Mickey Jo Theatre (35:15)

Section. So having told you at the beginning of this that my point of view here was as a fan of the stage show who had seen it so many times, I feel like I used up the majority of my expertise telling you about all of the changes. And if you haven't watched that video yet, go and check out that one. I think it's quite interesting to see how the show evolved from the second act of the stage musical to a standalone film, but there aren't that many examples of things that really feel like Easter eggs and nods to the stage musical. I've pulled out a couple, one of which, as we were talking about Dorothy, is her being seen simply as a silhouette in the moment that she throws a pail of water over the Wicked Witch of the west, believing subsequently to have melted her and lifts the broom aloft. We see her do this from Glinda's perspective in Wicked for Good, and it's the fact we see it from Glinda's perspective that allows it to be conceivably a shadow cast on the wall. In the stage musical, Glinda is downstage and a translucent curtain is drawn across to hide her so that nobody knows that Glinda is there. And it's behind that that we see the tossing of the pail of water and once again the silhouette of Dorothy, which is as much as you ever see of her in Wicked. On stage. You don't see her skipping down the yellow brick road. You don't see her watching, wearing the shoes. That is the only Dorothy shot we ever get in the stage musical, that is in the current version. In developing early versions in workshops, she was played by Sutton Foster and it was very different. Now here is quite a fun the arrival of Elphabert to Munchkinland to pay a visit to her sister. Very different in the film for a handful of reasons. For one thing, she already knows that her father is dead. That isn't news that she has to receive. For another, when Nessa asks her why she has come, she does not reply. There's no place like home after all. How could she? That's a fun little nod of the stage musical script to the iconic line, but she's just sung a song in the film version, which features that in its Lyrics Many, many times, if she then said to Nessa, there's no place like home, she'd start to feel like a doll that you could buy where you pull a string in her back. And that's one of three things that she says. There's no place like home. I'm off to see the wizard. Some kind of an epic belted war cry. And I don't know. Free that goat. You better free that goat. You free that goat. And in fact, the way in which she arrives is different as well. In the stage musical, she appears in the wardrobe, which was an external mirror, and then suddenly you could see Elphaba inside it. It's a little magical entrance moment for her. And she says something sort of spooky, and she's like, the beautiful only get more beautiful, while the green only get greener. And this mirror changing trick, which is also, for what it's worth, very Phantom of the Opera, is, I think, nodded to in the fact that Nessa sees Elphaba behind her in a cracked mirror, but without the indignity of her having to magic herself into a wardrobe for no real reason other than, you know, it's an impressive and magical thing to do on stage. Finally, and I'm sure there are plenty of things here that I've missed and that you can tell me about in the comments section down below. We have to acknowledge the biggest Easter egg of all time, the biggest one, without a doubt, in the film, which is that final shot. And I cannot believe. I cannot believe that all of the clues were there. And it's one of the earliest things that we saw. I think it's the earlier shot we saw of Elphaba and Glinda together, because we had a flash of it when she was starting to tell the story. What a tease that was for this moment. And we could see that Glinda was in a white hooded thing as well. But I didn't know, even then, I did not know that we were gonna get such an explicit reference to the iconic Broadway artwork. The one with the green face smirking in the wide brimmed hat with Glinda whispering to her in white. Which is sort of puzzling because Glinda, outside of, like, the Muppets wizard of Oz with Miss Piggy playing various different witches, is never really depicted as having long white hair and a wide, brimmed white witch's hat. I'm sure there are other examples, and people will tell me that there are. And actually, in this cartoon, in the. In the 70s, I'm not a Wizard of Oz historian. I saw like 200 musicals this year. That's who I am. So they had to do a little bit of creative thinking here to get Ariana inside profile with a nod to the white, but they managed to make it work with this white hood. Basically this final shot of the film is a flashback to this memory of the two of them in the poppy field with Glinda whispering a secret to Elphaba recreating that iconic image, at which point, like I said, I about died. There was a very strong reaction to that in the early screening that I saw in New York, and it just confirms, I think, the love and care and understanding that all of the team who brought Wicked to the screen have for the original stage musical. And they knew how much that moment would mean to people. And it's, you know, it's a peculiar shot to end on if you don't trust that the audience is going to recognize and appreciate and treasure that. And boy did we. Which brings me to the end of my list of Easter eggs, references, nods, homages in Wicked for good. Like I said, an inexhaustive list. I'm sure there are plenty more and I would love to hear some other fun, really hidden ones as well, like that Great Dictator moment. In any case, feel free to share your favorites and all of the other ones that you spotted in the comments section down below and then together we will all find out about even more cool references. In the meantime, thank you for joining me for another Wicked weekend. I think there will be one more of these as we glance at the possibility of a future life for Wicked on screen, the possibility of sequels, prequels, spin offs, all these things that have been talked about in various press tour interviews. Whether I think that's a good idea and whether from the perspective of the original stage musical, it's something that would even be feasible and what it might look and sound like. In the meantime though, I will be talking about many other shows on Broadway in the West End. If you would like to hear my reviews, my news run and my theatre going vlogs, make sure to subscribe here on YouTube. Turn on those notifications so you don't miss my daily video content. For now, I have been Mickey Jo and even if this video didn't change you for good, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Micky Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day.

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Mickey Jo Theatre (42:26)

Par le tu francais hablas espanol?

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