The movie Wicked opened to rave reviews recently, clocking in at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes with fans going wild over the book-to-theater-to-movie production.
Some fans have become a little too enthusiastic, though, singing along in theaters.
As we have come to expect, this has caused an uproar on social media.
“I’m not paying to hear you sing Wicked,” chided TikToker and podcast host Munashe Chinyanganya in a mock scolding tone. She suggested singing along in the car before arriving at the movie theater. And, when you get to the theater, putting yourself on mute. (I hope that “mute yourself” idea becomes a meme.)
Signs popped up in theaters as well, instructing fans not to sing along during the movie. The same controversy happened when other recent musicals came out as a movie.
Escalating quickly
Things escalated quickly in the debate when well-known film critic Richard Roeper chimed in on X. His view? While the fans who want to sing are calling everyone else judgmental, he feels it’s the other way around—that people should wait until the streaming release to sing at home.
Frankly, I love when this happens. It’s all fairly harmless so far, although the tone of some of these reports is a bit too self-serious for my tastes.
This ABC News report tried to lighten the mood a bit and even brought in a panel to discuss the controversy:
My take on Wicked sing-alongs
Social media is at its best when there is fair and honest debate over a topic from both sides, and that’s what I’m seeing for the most part.
There are mostly jokes and playful jabs at this point, and I imagine theaters are trying to be proactive to prevent any actual dust-ups.
BuzzFeed seemed to offer both perspectives about the controversy in a recent report as well. Another report explained how someone rented a theater just to be able to sing along with a group of about 100 friends. “Unless you have won a Tony, no singing will be permitted,” said the person who rented the theater.
The final resolution is that theaters are planning to double up showings of the movie Wicked and include an option where everyone can sing along to the movie.
That might put the Wicked controversy to rest for good.
This post was originally published on here
