London was transported to Oz Monday night for the European premiere of Jon M. Chu‘s highly-anticipated Wicked (part one).
The director made his first premiere of the film’s press run (thanks to a newborn baby, he missed its L.A. debut) at the city’s Royal Festival Hall, alongside his Glinda and Elphaba, who braved the torrential U.K. rain.
An umbrella-ed duo of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo — donning chiffon yellow and waist-hugging, black frocks, respectively — succeeded Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh, Marissa Bode, Bronwyn James and Jeff Goldblum on the fan-flanked green carpet.
“It’s been a long journey to get here,” producer Marc Platt, who has overseen Broadway’s historic run of the musical, said. “Wicked started 20-some years ago. I set out to make it as a film first. But then one of my favorite composers who inspired me as a kid and has inspired generations since, called me and said, ‘This should be a musical first.’ And that man was Mr. Stephen Schwartz.”
Academy Award-winning composer Schwartz took to the stage as Platt continued speaking. “We then started on a journey. We made the stage musical. I want to thank my colleagues and friends at Universal Pictures for their support of the show and of the film for all these many, many, many years.” It turned out, he said, that the movie took so long because he was waiting for the perfect director. Platt said: “I was waiting for someone who had such imagination, such talent and such humanity to raise his hand and say, ‘I want to direct this film’.”
Chu graciously accepted the raucous applause inside the 2,400-seater theater and said it felt right to be back in London (the film was made at U.K. studios).
“It makes sense, because this is where we built this thing,” he said, before introducing his cast who joined him on stage. “This is where all the hundreds and thousands of hands that came together, all the brain power, all the creativity, all the crazy dreamers were here, and we built the Emerald City and Munchkinland. So it feels so nice to be home here on the home turf.”
Wicked will be the first of Chu’s two films adapting the hit musical, with part two set for Thanksgiving 2025. The show — originally based on the best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire — tells the untold story of the witches of Oz.
It premiered on Broadway in 2003, with Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth.
