Wicked

Director John M. Chu is bringing Wicked from Broadway to the big screen with an all-star cast. The official trailer dropped last week, so let’s check it out! Musically, this trailer pivots well between styles of music including Broadway musical numbers and Harry Potter-esque fantasy underscoring.

The trailer opens with quick visual elements that are recognizable from the _Wizard of Oz _storyline. First we see a horse and rider galloping towards the Emerald City, then at 0:03 we fade into a close shot of a witch’s hat in a puddle (reminiscent of the Wicked Witch of the West’s memorable demise–“I’m melting!”). Meanwhile, we hear a tender melodic motif on piano with fantasy-evoking orchestration from strings and flute. We transition out of this tender opening with a blue-winged creature smashing through a circular tower window (note that a similar window smash closes out the trailer at 3:23 - nice bookends!).

The trailer then pivots to Shiz University, where Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) meets Glinda (Ariana Grande). At 0:10 we see a wide aerial shot of the university, and as rising chords build anticipation, the music is synched nicely with Elphaba’s footsteps starting at 0:11.

Universal’s logo is bathed in green on-screen at 0:21 while a high-register ostinato builds a groove for Glinda to sing (at 0:30) a smooth pop version of the chorus of “Popular,” which is one of the hit songs from Wicked on Broadway. This builds to a montage showing the rivalry developing between Glinda and Elphaba, ending in a cut to musical silence at 0:47 to leave space for their screaming and laughing.

Suspenseful patterns from the strings and deepening layers of orchestration build from 0:50 to 1:08 as we learn that Elphaba has exceptional magical talents. The music pauses briefly at 1:11, but then dives right back in, and the string melody soars higher as we see Glinda and friends plotting to embarrass Elphaba.

At 1:43 Elphaba is being mocked by her peers, while a voice-over of Elphaba sings the opening lines of arguably the most popular song from Broadway’s_ Wicked_: “Defying Gravity” (made famous through the Original Broadway Cast Recording sung by Idina Menzel). During an instrumental sequence, Glinda and Elphaba (now friends!) travel to the Emerald City and meet the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum). The mood of the music here is stately, serene and hopeful. But at 2:24 the music begins to turn, as a female voice comes in singing powerfully, with big drums and full orchestra.

At 2:41 the chorus of “Defying Gravity” enters, with soulful harmonized women’s voices. The intensity of the music has gone up a notch here as we’ve reached the part of the story where Elphaba has been demonized and labelled a “Wicked Witch.” But at 3:01 the orchestra and voices fade to nothing, leaving only soft piano and a mellow wordless vocal melody, at a tender moment on screen that leads us to believe perhaps Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship could endure. The music here (close to the end of the trailer) echoes the opening five seconds. And, to give us both musical and visual bookends for this trailer, it ends with Elphaba, now dressed in black as the Wicked Witch, climbing on her broomstick and smashing through the tower window at 3:22, while the full vocal choir sings a final triumphant chord with the orchestra.

Trailers for film musicals (see for example, our blog for The Color Purple) are often refreshingly not dependent on trailer music cliches, as they instead tend to find ways to integrate the vocals from musical numbers in the story, along with dramatic and suspenseful underscoring. Here we get in a little over three minutes the full story, but musically told in a way that should entice both _Wicked _fans and newcomers into theaters.

Wicked soars into theatres November 27.

— Jack Hui Litster