Original Wicked witches join movie stars in what Kristin Chenoweth calls a ‘once-in-a-lifetime situation’ (exclusive)

Cynthia Erivo is crying.

The Tony winner, who is about to have a major breakthrough moment in cinema as Wicked‘s Elphaba, the greenified girl who becomes the “Wicked Witch of the West,” is suddenly overwhelmed by the magnitude of what she’s experiencing. She’s seated in a room with her costar Ariana Grande (Glinda) and Broadway’s original Wicked witches, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. 

“I had this crazy realization while everyone’s been talking,” Erivo says, barely holding back tears, as Chenoweth reaches out to comfort her. “I’ve been listening to you for so long.”

It’s a sentiment that any girl who grew up playing the original Broadway cast recording in their parents’ car until they had every lyric committed to memory can relate to. (Raises hand.) For a generation of musical theater lovers, especially women, Menzel and Chenoweth are the voices that have been in their ears and their hearts for so long.

Now it’s time for Erivo and Grande to introduce a new legion of fans to the story, taking on the iconic roles in the long-awaited film adaptation of Wicked, the first part of which hit theaters on Nov. 22. But first, they have to get through this emotional conversation. 

As the enormity of the moment hits her, Erivo weeps freely as Grande and Chenoweth reach for her hand and Menzel puts her arm on her shoulder. “You’re the voices I’ve been listening to,” Erivo manages to add. “And we get to sit here and do this together. It’s really wonderful.”

Chenoweth, joining in the waterworks, says, “It is for us, too, because what we did continues on.”

“Thank you so much for all the work you put in because you created something that allows us to have a dream come true,” Erivo says.

Now everyone’s crying as Chenoweth adds, “That’s the dream. You get your part and you want it to keep going. Wicked continues on…through you.”

As they all take a breath to recover, Erivo acknowledges this moment with the four of them together is such a rare thing. “You passed something to us, and we get to give that out,” she says. “It’s really special. It just hit me.”

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime situation,” Chenoweth agrees, before Menzel adds a touch of levity: “I’m so glad that we’re still alive.”

Entertainment Weekly is, too, if only so that we could form our own little coven with the foursome for a day, asking them to revisit their memories making Wicked, the legacy that flows through all of them, and the special bonds they’ve all formed. So it sounds truly crazy, and true, the vision’s hazy, but the four witches found their reunion a cause for celebration throughout Oz — and we couldn’t be happier to share it with you.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Ariana and Cynthia, once you were cast in the movie, what do you all recall of the first conversations you had with Kristin and Idina about landing the role? 

CYNTHIA ERIVO: I called you.

IDINA MENZEL: Yes, you did.

ERIVO: I did it almost immediately. I left a voicemail or a voice note, just because I wanted to check in and say hello and connect.

MENZEL: Yeah, she was lovely. Did I call back quickly?

ERIVO: We FaceTimed. It was sunny and beautiful, and I remember you were in blue. It was like the sun was on you. 

MENZEL: You’re so sweet. She was just so respectful. 

ARIANA GRANDE: I remember when we got the news, FaceTiming you, and both of us just being sopping, sobbing, snotty dolphins.

KRISTIN CHENOWETH: I was like, “Who can speak higher?”

GRANDE: We couldn’t hear words. 

CHENOWETH: There was white noise and pink snot glitter. There were tears. I had prayed for that to happen and it did. 

GRANDE: It was a very insanely surreal moment.

CHENOWETH: I still relive it sometimes. 

GRANDE: And then we sent each other so many video messages, 

CHENOWETH: So many that I ran out of storage. 

GRANDE: Then we met, and I had a present made for her.

CHENOWETH: She gave me this ring. [Holds up her hand to camera.]

MENZEL: We didn’t give each other rings, but we love each other.

CHENOWETH: There’s still time.

GRANDE: We all love to shop. I think there’s plenty of time.

ERIVO: No, but I will say that I felt very, very supported by both of you, actually. I felt given the room and space and lots of encouragement. [Turns to Menzel.] After you saw the film, that voice note [you sent me], I still play it sometimes.

GRANDE: I saved mine, too. 

ERIVO: I play it a lot. It meant a lot. [To Menzel.] Why are you getting teary?

MENZEL: I don’t know. It’s all very emotional, and I just felt like you both did such justice to the story. It’s a beautiful tribute. Not to make it about us in any way, but you found your own light. 

GRANDE: [Starting to cry.] It’s time to put the glasses on. [Dons green sunglasses.]

ERIVO: How did we get here? We only just started.

GRANDE: I knew I’d need these.

CHENOWETH: I should have brought mine, too. [Grande removes her glasses and hands them to Chenoweth.]

Ariana, I know you went in for both roles. Was that the same for you, Cynthia? If so, subconsciously or maybe consciously did you feel yourself doing more to shine in the role you wanted or felt more well suited for?

ERIVO: I was called in to just sing for Elphaba. So I was given “The Wizard and I,”  “Defying Gravity,” and “For Good” to sing. 

CHENOWETH: Just those little ditties. 

ERIVO: Mine was a camera test, so my audition was like three hours. So I sang those songs, then did the scenes.

MENZEL: How close was the camera? I find that doing musicals on film is very tricky because what it takes for us to sing for real, it makes really ugly faces. You’re like seeing your tonsils.

ERIVO: I forget that all the time. If the mouth has to be open, the mouth has to be open, you know?

MENZEL: Because it’s real, because you have to see the veins. But sometimes I say, “Is this horrible singing face?”

CHENOWETH: I tell them to back up.

MENZEL: Put some vaseline on the lens. 

ERIVO: So I sang for the role and that was that for me.

These characters have such a long history going back to L. Frank Baum’s book and then The Wizard of Oz film and so on. How much, if at all, did all of you draw from what came before? So Cynthia and Ariana, you have that extra layer of having their performances, as well, but also in creating Wicked when it first opened on Broadway, how much were you looking back at that sort of thing?

MENZEL: I read the Wicked novel by Gregory McGuire, so I had a lot of that to draw from. Although, the novel is much darker than the show, but I watched Margaret Hamilton a lot  [from The Wizard of Oz] and hoped that it would infuse. The time where it connected for me was in her cackle and finding that in our scenes.

CHENOWETH: I remember the day you did the cackle for the first real time. You had been playing with it, and it scared me. It was a great moment. I read the novel, too, but then I read our script, and I came to understand that this is very different and we’re doing it on stage and it was an open playground for us. We played and played and played. I just remember being in the corner a lot with my wand trying to choreograph fight choreography. It’s a gift for any actor to create that. 

ERIVO: Margaret Hamilton was definitely a touchstone for me. I had listened to you both so often, so I had your voices in my head and I had [Hamilton’s] imagery.

GRANDE: The original Broadway cast recording was my lifeline growing up, and that was deeply intertwined in my DNA my whole life. It was always something that brought me great comfort and happiness. I would listen to it when I was nervous for something or sad about something. It was always a safe space for me. I also read the original L. Frank Baum books. My mom got them from me for Christmas. It’s really incredible. The Ozian lore and the extensive history of all of these characters. There are so many gorgeous, insane ones that aren’t even in Wicked. It’s just such a beautiful, real world, and we weren’t the only ones who drew from that. It was every single person — our props department, costume designer, set designer. Every single thing was a piece of Ozian history from the books and what’s been before us — The Wizard of Oz and Wicked, your Wicked.

Idina and Kristin, you’ve had 20 years to wonder what this film would look like. Has your attitude toward it and what the project might be changed over the years?

CHENOWETH: Doing a movie musical is so tricky, and we’ve seen them not done so well sometimes, and then we get a bad rap when they’re done poorly, and we should. But I thought when they had Jon Chu be the director, I thought, “That’s so interesting and I think he’s going to take such care.” And then him talking about his history with the show and going to see it with his mom when we were in San Francisco [in out-of-town tryouts], and so I always hoped it would be amazing. But then you see certain movie musicals come and go and you’re like, “I hope, I hope, I hope.” But we’re both so happy with it. It’s beyond my dream.

MENZEL: Like Kristin said, you don’t know what it’s going to be, but it was fun to imagine what you could do in the movie — the emotion and nuance and subtlety you could see because in theater we have to get it to the back row. And that’s what I loved so much about the movie was seeing that they weren’t pushing at all. They were subtle and nuanced, and you could see every emotion in their eyes. I don’t know if I anticipated that when I was younger, but I was glad to see it. And I knew Marc Platt, who was our producer back then and producer of this film, I knew that he’d take care of it. 

This story at its core is about friendship. How did your time with the project change your understanding of female friendship or impact the friendships in your lives? 

ERIVO: Well, I definitely gained a new one. [Looks at Grande.]

GRANDE: Yeah, we definitely gained a —

ERIVO, GRANDE: Lifelong friend.

GRANDE: One of the most important things about these characters is their dedication to truth and their ability to be their full selves and honor their feelings and not self abandon, even when it means growing apart and not together. 

ERIVO: We gained from these two women that we play, because they were so dedicated to being themselves, there’s a renewed understanding of what it means to be yourself. 

GRANDE: And to love someone.

CHENOWETH: And to forgive them. The show for me has always held the three themes I look for in any piece, which is friendship, love, and forgiveness, which is hard to do with people that you love the most. That’s what it is all in there. It’s all in the tapestry of this piece. 

MENZEL: And even though there’s a love story with a man, what we love is the true love story is between the women and the sisterhood. 

CHENOWETH: I mean, Dee, did you feel like when we were starting the show — when I was cast, [Glinda] was very much a side character and then it developed into this love story between the two women. It wasn’t always meant to be that. Were you ever surprised by that? At first, I kind of was. I was like, “Wow, it’s evolving into that.”

MENZEL: I think I was too self-absorbed and worrying about if I was going to be fired that I was just so happy to have someone that was always there to see me and to support me. I really think art imitates life, and you’re able to find each other and trust each other and see each other for who you really are. 

What do each of you remember about either your first Broadway performance of Wicked or your first day of production?

CHENOWETH: I remember we opened in San Francisco, and we were still very much working on the show. I think it’s okay and fair to say that we weren’t there yet, but I remember at intermission after she defies gravity, I went to Idina’s dressing room and I said, “Nothing’s going to matter what anyone says because did you hear?” 

MENZEL: I remember that.

GRANDE: That’s so beautiful. 

MENZEL: But that’s not the truth. 

CHENOWETH: It is the truth. They went crazy when you flew. And when you defied gravity, they lost their minds.

MENZEL: Yes, and they went crazy when she sings “Popular,” so she’s just being nice, or when she comes down in the bubble. 

GRANDE: It’s just funny because this is what we do.

MENZEL: But honestly, the whole audience just explodes when she comes out in the bubble. Even though she was afraid that she was eating soap suds.

CHENOWETH: I thought for sure I was going to get cancer from the bubble juice. I ate so much of it. That’s one thing they got to do in the movie — you got to have a real bubble. And you really fly. I mean, I loved our bubble and Idina’s flying, but you get to do things in a movie that we do differently on a stage. But we both did our part.

Cynthia, you really put your own stamp on the end of “Defying Gravity.” Were there a lot of conversations around that? 

ERIVO: No. Whilst we were doing the comps for the rehearsal tracks, I did it by the book first. And [composer Stephen Schwartz] was like, “I trust you with the story. So what’s your war cry?” I tried a couple things and then I did the one that stuck because it felt good. It felt right. And that’s the one that stuck. 

MENZEL: That’s so good. 

You all share a unique legacy in culture with these characters across time. How does that feel and what do you hope that legacy is going forward? 

MENZEL: It’s a good show. When we’re older, we can do Vegas. 

GRANDE: I love it. I’ll be Dillamond.

ERIVO: I’ll be Fiyero.

MENZEL: Perfect. I want to switch with…[Points to Chenoweth.] 

CHENOWETH: Can we please switch just one time? 

MENZEL:  No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to joke.

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ERIVO: The legacy, I don’t know because the show doesn’t stop, because their show is still going. There are still young women who want to be on the stage and who want to be in that theater to watch. This [new legacy] begins because it can go as far as it can go. So the girls that can’t get to the theater and can’t get on the stage can watch it from their homes or watch it from a cinema. So, actually, what this means now is that more people can see, more people can share in it, more people can learn that difference is something to be celebrated. More people can learn that you can forgive, more people can learn that you can love, more people can learn about friendship.

GRANDE: And goats.

CHENOWETH: And speaking their piece and their mind and what’s on their heart and feeling safe. 

MENZEL: What I love so much about it is, especially in this time that we’re living in, is that women can be really powerful and unapologetic about it. [They’re] more beautiful because they speak their mind and they’re ferocious and powerful. I love that that’s celebrated. 

GRANDE: [Tearing up.] Holy s—.

CHENOWETH: The legacy just continues. That’s a big word, but it will continue with this movie, it continues with our show. It’s a once in a lifetime legacy. 

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