The Highs, Lows, and Whoas of Wicked: One Wonderful Night

On November 6, less than two weeks before the Wicked: For Good premiere, Universal pulled a brilliant stroke of vertical integration by throwing the film franchise a whole-ass televised spectacular celebration on NBC, honoring the last movie (which came out just last year) and teasing the next one. What other 2025 blockbusters can say that they’ve basically thrown themselves an awards show? Wicked: One Wonderful Night showcases the over-the-top, often embarrassing, but ultimately gratifying magic of being a fan of this cockamamie IP and serves as a perfect example of the thrills and dangers of letting a musical become a mainstream pop-cultural phenomenon. Ballyhoo ensues. I couldn’t watch it live because I was at a different Stephen Schwartz/Kristin Chenoweth musical, but I caught up today on Peacock and have opinions. (It was actually pretaped on September 24, but you know what I mean — live on TV.) And because they filmed it kind of like an awards show, I’m going to treat it like one.

WHOA: They moved into the Dolby four months early.

The first thing revealed in the intro credits is that Wicked: One Wonderful Night was filmed at the Dolby Theatre, a.k.a. where literally the Oscars happen. A bold move for a movie that seems to really be pushing for awards this season! It makes the whole show feel like it takes place in an alternate universe in which there’s an Oscars every year just for Wicked. For reference: At last year’s Oscars, the first Wicked movie was nominated for ten and won two. I’m considering this the start of a very flashy awards campaign to outdo themselves this time.

LOW: Sexiest Man Alive MIA.

Jonathan Bailey is the only member of the main cast who couldn’t make it to this taping, which is somewhat disappointing during his Very Big Week. He appears in some pretaped segments of the cast all sitting and chatting on couches, which felt like skippable DVD bonus features.

HIGH: Girl, the budget!

From a giant orchestra to a trillion costume changes to loads of backup dancers, they pull out all the stops to basically just perform all of the songs from the first movie, again, with slightly different arrangements. 

WHOA: Sketch comedy.

Like a modern awards show, Wicked: One Wonderful Night has a lot of pretaped sketches, which greatly vary in quality. The best one was filmed mockumentary style, showing Jeff Goldblum living at home with the giant bust of his head that he “stole” from the set. It is at the very least Progressive Auto Insurance ad-level funny. Ariana Grande gives good deadpan in this.

HIGH: “The Wizard and I” as jazz standard.

With Goldblum on the keys, this stripped-down version of “The Wizard and I” is perfect for Cynthia Erivo’s vocal stylings. But then the orchestra kicks in and they bring in the dancers. 

LOW: Breakdance + musical theater = corny.

There is so much new Christopher Scott choreography throughout this special, and what works really well within the quick cuts of a Jon M. Chu film isn’t always my favorite thing to see set to the music of Pippin composer Stephen Schwartz. Do you see what I’m saying?

WHOA: Ariana Grande stage-doored Jeff Goldblum at The Pillowman when she was 11.

And there is a selfie to prove it! 

HIGH: Jonathan Bailey’s self-taped Wicked audition.

There’s a clip from the tape Bailey sent in to audition for the role of Fiyero, and it’s so charming. He’s singing “Dancing Through Life” in a cramped West End dressing room and is interrupted by a five-minute warning on the intercom. That is showbiz.

WHOA: Michelle Yeoh “Dear Old Shiz” dance break.

You know what? Yeah, I’ll watch Michelle Yeoh vogue to one of the soundtrack’s most skippable songs. 

WHOA: “A Sentimental Man” tap solo?

Way better than having to hear it sung. I guess they’re really trying to slip in every song from the first movie, including the B-sides, in whatever way they can.

LOW: Or not! Dillamond silenced!

The one song that doesn’t even get a few bars of music in this whole to-do is “Something Bad,” Doctor Dillamond’s song about his goat plight. His voice actor, Peter Dinklage, is nowhere to be found and isn’t even mentioned. Animals were neither seen nor heard in this. 

WHOA: Cynthia Erivo crowd work.

In one of the weirdest moments of the night, Cynthia Erivo makes like any good awards-show MC and goes into the audience to do bits, including one where a guy tells her he painted his whole body, “all of it,” green. “All of it?” She asks. “All of it.” Cool to introduce the imagery of green dick ’n’ balls ’n’ taint on what ostensibly seems to be a family broadcast — sure, why not? 

HIGH: Fan montage.

A montage of fans from around the world geeking out about Wicked got me teary-eyed, because there were so many little gay boys dressed as witches. It makes me emotional to think that the Wicked fans of today get to grow up with two whole movies to watch. All I had was a CD, a souvenir Playbill, and the extremely age-inappropriate source-material novel.

HIGH: Popular!

One of the little Elphaboys from the montage is brought onstage by Ariana Grande to play the Elphaba to her Glinda for an adorable rendition of “Popular.” His name is Remington, he is four, Ari’s freaking out over how cute he is, and Variety reports that they shot it in one take. The kid’s a natural!

HIGH: Family reunion.

Erivo, Grande, Idina Menzel, and Kristin Chenoweth all sing “For Good” while Stephen Schwartz accompanies them on the piano in a pretaped segment shot at the Gershwin Theatre under the Time Dragon Clock. Schwartz rewrote the lyrics to the bridge for Menzel and Chenoweth in which they no longer have to agree to share blame or forgive each other. Lol. The ladies all sound great. 

WHOA: Bloopers!

Well, blooper. Yeoh demonstrates how she freaked Grande out so bad on set that Grande’s contact lens popped out, and then they roll the clip. “Best moment of my life,” says Grande. 

HIGH: Richard Kind as Elphaba.

A sketch made up of clips of celebrities pretending to audition for Wicked roles features a brief moment of Richard Kind showing off his battle cry.

HIGH: Ethan Slater, actually.

Honestly, Slater really is so good at this. Watching him play dueling Fiyeros with Bowen Yang and Marissa Bode on “Dancing Through Life” reminded me that his SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the great physical performances in the past decade of musicals. Revival when?

HIGH: Thank Goodness she sang “Thank Goodness.”

I know the marketing materials for the Wicked sequel have all centered around “For Good” and “No Good Deed,” but Glinda’s part of “Thank Goodness” is my favorite part of Act Two. Here, we get to hear Ari’s take on “bridges you cross you didn’t know you cross until you cross,” and I couldn’t be happier.

LOW: New song snippets.

Short clips of the two new songs written for the upcoming film do not get me particularly excited about the two new songs written for the upcoming film. 

LOW: Marissa Bode censored!

When Marissa Bode introduced “Defying Gravity” at the September 24 taping, she said, “This song is an ode to authenticity and about believing in yourself — no matter what obstacles the world puts in your way.” But the final broadcast cut what she said next: “Whether it be school bullies … or power-hungry dictators …” According to Variety, that political statement led to a 30-second ovation in the room. Learning of this, and knowing that NBC and the producers cut it out of what audiences at home saw, adds to the very Hunger Games Capitol-ish vibes of this whole affair.

HIGH: Cynthia Erivo on a wire.

She flew! She belted “Defying Gravity” while pulleys hoisted her into the air and over the crowd so that she was singing right in the faces of people up in the cheap seats. A total spectacle and ridiculous and fabulous image, which is exactly what you want from Wicked. 

HIGH: Channeling their foremothers.

The show closes out with Erivo and Grande performing an intimate duet of “Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again” in the style of Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland. It’s a tasteful button on a circus of a promotional special, sung beautifully, hearkening back to the 1960s, when so much prime-time TV was musical-variety specials. Wicked: One Wonderful Night shows the ways that model might — and might not work — today.

LOW: This was way too long.

A two-hour broadcast is way too long — longer than some Broadway shows! Maybe they could have cut a couple of the lesser songs, or some of the pretaped skits and interviews. It felt at times like I got caught smoking one “Dancing Through Life” so I was forced to sit down and smoke an entire pack of Wicked.