‘Wicked’ Team Considered Making ‘Popular’ More Hip-Hop. Ariana Grande Refused: ‘Absolutely Not. I Want to Be Glinda, Not Ariana Playing Glinda’
by Zack Sharf · Variety“Wicked” composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz revealed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that he pitched Ariana Grande on a different version of “Popular” for the film adaptation that she instantly turned down. The Grammy winner was adamant that her Glinda could not have any traces of her own music career, so she was not interested in making any of the “Wicked” songs feel like pop songs.
“In the spirit of being open to new things for the movie, my music team and I thought, let’s refresh the rhythm. Let’s, maybe, I don’t know, hip-hop it up a little bit,” Schwartz said of rethinking “Popular” for the movie. “Ariana said, ‘Absolutely not, don’t do it. I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda.'”
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Grande also needed convincing when it came to tweaking the end of “Popular.” The film switches up some of the octaves during the song’s finale in order to take full advantage of Grande’s impressive singing range.
“I had this idea for a new vocal ending. Ariana was a little hesitant about it, but I told her that if I had thought of it for the original show, this is how it would have been,” Schwartz added. “Once she was reassured that this new bit of music was coming out of character, she was on board.”
Grande has earned acclaim for her rendition of “Popular,” which remains mostly faithful to the Broadway version. “Wicked” director Jon M. Chi told the Times that he first pitched going much bigger for “Popular” in terms of its visual scale, but producer Mark Platt shot him down.
“I first had a version where Glinda and Elphaba go into her closet and get lost in this pink world where she turns a corner, and then another corner and another — like, how big is this closet?” Chu said. “But [producer] Marc [Platt] said, ‘I don’t know if we should go fantasy like that. Remember, Glinda doesn’t have magic, so it’s confusing.'”
“Okay, what if all the bags we’ve been seeing this whole time were actually her closet, and you just didn’t know it yet?” Chu continued. “So then it became an extremely huge technical feat to make this closet come to life — grown men in small spaces pulling doors and making things open at the right time, gadgets that unfold remotely with batteries and cords. That mirror is a very heavy piece of machinery, because it has to bend backwards so she can walk on it. That was always scary; even in rehearsals, I was always hesitant. If she steps on those lights, she cuts her foot.”
“Wicked” is now playing in theaters nationwide from Universal. Head over to the Los Angeles Times’ website to read more on the making of the film’s “Popular.”