One particular aspect of the Wicked stage musical must be changed in the upcoming 2024 film adaptation, and it has to do with The Wizard of Oz. Wicked is a Broadway musical loosely adapted from Gregory Maguire’s book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The book, in turn, is based on L. Frank Baum’s children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the subsequent 1939 film adaptation, The Wizard of Oz. Beginning years prior to Dorothy Gale’s unexpected arrival in the Land of Oz, Wicked tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West (originally called Elphaba Thropp) and Glinda the Good (originally called Galinda Upland)’s unlikely friendship.
The 2024 Wicked movie is currently scheduled to premiere on November 27, directed by Jon M. Chu (In the Heights, Crazy Rich Asians) with a screenplay by the musical’s original writers, Stephen Schwartz & Winnie Holzman. Set to star in the lead roles are Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. The Wicked movie cast also includes Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, and more. Not much is known about how closely the Wicked movies will follow the Broadway musical, but there is one detail the Wicked screen adaptation must alter from the stage production that is directly related to The Wizard of Oz movie.
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The Wicked Movie Can’t Avoid Showing Dorothy Like The Musical Does
The Wicked musical never properly shows Dorothy onstage
While Act I of Wicked takes place before the classic fantasy movie The Wizard of Oz, the musical starts to overlap with the events of the film in Act II. When the twister that brings Dorothy’s house to the Land of Oz falls on Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose (The Wicked Witch of the East) and kills her, it introduces major conflict into the story of Wicked. As such, Dorothy plays an important role in the musical, but she is never actually seen onstage.
Anytime the characters onstage are supposed to be interacting with Dorothy, they speak in an offstage direction, as if she is out of the audience’s sight. Dorothy does make one brief appearance in the stage musical, but she is obscured from view. In the pivotal scene when Elphaba is “melting,” she and Dorothy appear only as shadows backlit onto a scrim.
The Wicked Movie Needs To Break One Bizarre Recent Trailer Trend
The upcoming two-part Wicked movie is positioned to be a major Hollywood event, but the musical needs to avoid a strange recent trailer convention.
Due to clever theater trickery, only Dorothy’s silhouette is ever visible in the Wicked musical. It may work in a stage setting, but it will be much harder for the Wicked movie to pull this illusion off on screen. There isn’t a worthwhile way to work around this that justifies keeping Dorothy from appearing onscreen in the film adaptation just to stay loyal to the stage musical.
A Proper Dorothy Cameo Would Work For The Wicked Movie
Dorothy should make a real appearance in the Wicked movie
Depending on how committed the Wicked movies are to replicating the stage musical, the filmmakers may still try to conceal Dorothy onscreen as a shadowy silhouette. This wouldn’t be the right move, though. Even if they can visually pull it off, it wouldn’t make sense with the medium. The Wicked movie could initially tease the audience with hints of her presence, but ultimately, Dorothy should have a proper cameo with dialogue in which the audience can actually see her face.
Since she is only featured in Act II of the Wicked musical, Dorothy most likely wouldn’t show up until the second Wicked movie, which will cover the events of Act II. While Dorothy doesn’t sing in the Wicked stage musical nor The Wicked Years book series, she does perform many musical numbers in The Wizard of Oz. The Wicked movie could be an opportunity to give Dorothy a new musical moment, even if it’s brief.
Who Could Play Dorothy In The 2024 Wicked Movie
A few different actresses would be great as Dorothy
There is no word yet on whether a Dorothy character will be featured in the Wicked movie nor who could play her. However, if she does appear onscreen, one actress who would be a great choice to play Dorothy is Millie Bobby Brown. The Stranger Things and Enola Holmes star has proven her acting range in numerous projects and could certainly pull off playing Dorothy. She’s also still young enough that she could pass for Dorothy’s age in Wicked, even if the film had to age up the character a bit.
If the Wicked movie ends up giving Dorothy a musical number, newcomer Rachel Zegler would be another good option. Zegler made her screen debut as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 West Side Story remake, and most recently starred as Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, in which she performed several songs. She’s only been acting professionally for a few years, but her short resume proves she has the singing and acting chops for the Wicked job. She’ll also be playing Snow White in the upcoming live-action adaptation of the Disney princess fairytale, proving she could embody The Wizard of Oz‘s sweet, naive Dorothy in Wicked.
Wicked
- Release Date
- November 27, 2024
- Director
- Jon M. Chu
- Cast
- Cynthia Erivo , Ariana Grande , Jonathan Bailey , Ethan Slater , Marissa Bode , Michelle Yeoh , Jeff Goldblum
- Writers
- Winnie Holzman , Stephen Schwartz
