Exclusive | Why ‘Wicked: For Good’ team is ‘nervous’ about sequel: ‘Continuing to make improvements’
Can “Wicked: For Good” be “Wicked: As Good”?
That’s the pressure facing the filmmakers behind the sequel to “Wicked,” which set a box-office record as the highest-grossing movie adaptation of a Broadway musical after its release last November.
“Everybody’s thrilled that the first movie was so incredibly well received and had such cultural impact,” composer Stephen Schwartz, 77, exclusively told The Post on the red carpet of the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony — where he received the Johnny Mercer Award — on Thursday night.
“But it does raise the bar,” he admitted of the film that received 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. “So we’re all a little nervous.”
Indeed, Schwartz is still “working really hard” on the sequel — once again starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Galinda/Glinda, respectively — just five months before its release on Nov. 21.
“I’m still doing scoring,” he said. “We have our orchestral recording sessions next month, so gotta get ready for that.”
Schwartz is also busy working on another Broadway musical that will reunite him with Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the role of “Galinda/Glinda” in the stage version of “Wicked” in 2003.
“We have a new Broadway show opening in November, ‘The Queen of Versailles,’ ” he said. “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 those expecting more of “Wicked” in his new musical, Schwartz explained 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 said. “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.”
Indeed, Chenoweth showed up for her friend at NYC’s Marriott Marquis, bringing the house down on the “Wicked” duet “For Good” with Mary Kate Morrissey — who ended her run as Elphaba on Broadway in March — before giving Schwartz his latest SHOF honor on Thursday.
“It’s amazing just to be here tonight when so many amazing songwriters are being celebrated,” said Schwartz, who was previously inducted into the Songwriters Hall 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.”