Can “Wicked: For Good” be “Wicked: As Good”?
That’s the stress going through the filmmakers behind the sequel to “Wicked,” which set a box-office report because the highest-grossing film adaptation of a Broadway musical after its launch final November.
“Everybody’s thrilled that the first movie was so incredibly well received and had such cultural impact,” composer Stephen Schwartz, 77, solely instructed The Submit on the crimson carpet of the Songwriters Corridor of Fame induction ceremony — the place he obtained the Johnny Mercer Award — on Thursday night time.
“But it does raise the bar,” he admitted of the movie that obtained 10 Oscar nominations, together with Finest Image. “So we’re all a little nervous.”
Certainly, Schwartz remains to be “working really hard” on the sequel — as soon as once more starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Galinda/Glinda, respectively — simply 5 months earlier than its launch on Nov. 21.
“I’m still doing scoring,” he stated. “We have our orchestral recording sessions next month, so gotta get ready for that.”
Schwartz can also be busy engaged on one other Broadway musical that can reunite him with Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the function of Galinda/Glinda within the stage model of “Wicked” in 2003.
“We have a new Broadway show opening in November, ‘The Queen of Versailles,’” he stated. “Again, we’re working very hard. We had a really good tryout last summer, but we learned a lot from it and are, you know, continuing to make improvements. But we feel like we’re ready to go a few months from now.”
For these anticipating extra of “Wicked” in his new musical, Schwartz defined that we’re not in Oz anymore.
“It’s contemporary America and a little bit of 17th century France, so not Oz at all,” he stated. “Kristin obviously will still be using that enormous gift of hers vocally and her comic gifts. So in that there will be a continuity, but it’s a very, very different character, and you see another side of Kristin.”
“It’s always great to work with Kristin,” he went on. “We do a lot of stuff. We did some concerts together, and I’ve done classes for her Broadway Bootcamp. We’re friends.”
Certainly, Chenoweth confirmed up for her buddy at NYC’s Marriott Marquis, bringing the home down on the “Wicked” duet “For Good” with Mary Kate Morrissey — who ended her run as Elphaba on Broadway in March — earlier than giving Schwartz his newest SHOF honor on Thursday.
“It’s amazing just to be here tonight when so many amazing songwriters are being celebrated,” stated Schwartz, who was beforehand inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Fame in 2009.
“I looked at the list of the Johnny Mercer Award winners, and it’s just all the great musical theater writers of the last, I don’t know, 40 years or so,” he added. “The fact that my name will be on that list now is so stunning to me and so humbling. They are writers who I’ve listened to all my life, who I’ve learned from, I’ve stole from. And I am forever grateful to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.”
