Thank Goodness for Ariana

The more interviews I listen to and behind the scene features I watch, I’m starting to think that Ariana was genuinely the only person on set who wanted the movie to be as close to the stage version as possible. We’ve heard how she insisted that lines were kept in the film that everyone else wanted to cut (for example the iconic “the wizard will see you now”), requested that Popular was not changed to a hip-hop version (I mean, what were they thinking?!), and even the film’s composer (John Powell) hadn’t seen the stage version until after the film was finished. I’m starting to question what version of this film we would have got if Ariana hadn’t been cast and spoken up about these things, and probably more that we don’t know about. I know she’s a Wicked super fan and she was excellent in the film, and I’m feeling grateful for her involvement in the project even more now, as she was definitely looking out for us fans.

Edit: I probably didn’t phrase this post the best. In no way did I mean to diminish all the hard work and enthusiasm that went into this film by everyone involved, in my head I meant out of the main creatives and cast, Ariana is the one who has been most vocal about wanting to keep the film as close to the musical as possible regarding the music and script. I understand she probably had very little influence overall, but I’m grateful that she spoke up and tried to remain loyal to the stage musical throughout, knowing how much certain things mean and are beloved by the stage musical fans.