--:-- Ryan Knutson: Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Ryan Knutson. It's Monday, November 25th.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Coming up on the show, how Wicked advertised its way to the top of the box office. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Checking off the boxes on your to-do list is a great feeling. And when it comes to checking off coverage, a State Farm agent can help you choose an option that's right for you.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I have to say, it's been almost impossible to go anywhere without seeing some kind of promotion for the movie Wicked. I mean, you really could spend like every hour of the day consuming some kind of Wicked promotion. It really is turning what is, by definition, a movie into some kind of lifestyle statement.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: That's our colleague Eric Schwartzel, who covers Hollywood. He says the marketing push is one of the biggest Hollywood has ever seen.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: It started officially with the movie's stars appearing at the Super Bowl, which was nine months ago. And there's just been this steady drumbeat of Wicked promotion since then.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: We love you, Ariana! And there's just been this steady drumbeat of Wicked promotion since then. There was a ton of references to it at the Summer Olympics. Celebrate their story. Tonight at the Olympic Games.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: The Today Show had Wicked interviews. We are ready to defy gravity here in Paris as we welcome two stars of the highly anticipated movie musical Wicked.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And they have a line of clothes at Target. There's no place like Target to shop everything Wicked. I mean, they're selling drinks at Starbucks. They're selling nail polish. They're selling dolls. They have Santa at Bloomingdale's wearing a green suit rather than a red one.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Santa's in on it too? I know, I know. I was shocked. Everything that you can imagine that could be wickified is being wickified.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: It feels almost like they're trying to manufacture virality. Yeah, I just have this image of this ruthless corporate machine grinding into gear. Like, here comes Wicked.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Which is such a funny thing to think about. And it is the kind of flood the zone campaign that really is kind of willed into being by Hollywood today.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Ryan Knutson. It's Monday, November 25th.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Coming up on the show, how Wicked advertised its way to the top of the box office.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: I'm a huge fan of Wicked. I think when I was probably about 16 or 17, I went to this summer camp and there was a kid there who told me about this new Broadway show that he was obsessed with, Wicked.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: So when I went home, I had recently gotten my driver's license and I drove my Hyundai Elantra to the Best Buy to buy the cast recording.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: I remember listening to it in my car nonstop. How many times do you think I've listened to the soundtrack?
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Well, see, I'm going to assume zero because one thing that I have found reporting this story is that for as many of us like me who know so much about this show and have seen it multiple times, there's this whole other part of the globe that has just like totally sat this one out.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: That is me. I'm the part of the globe that I knew that it existed and that is that's that's about it. Which is a funny thing to imagine for someone like me who is almost like feels like I'm I'm seeing something I know so well.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Do you have a favorite song?
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: Oh, I probably it's probably dancing through Life, which is this big, like, six-and-a-half-minute song about putting your cares aside and dancing through life.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Um, you're gonna have to sing Dancing Through Life, because I don't know what it sounds like.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I know how these work.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: I know how these work.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Erich Schwartzel: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I know how these work.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The new Wicked movie is based on a musical that first came out more than 20 years ago. Our colleague Eric Schwertzel is a huge fan.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I think when I was probably about like 16 or 17, I went to this summer camp and there was a kid there who told me about this new Broadway show that he was obsessed with, Wicked.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So when I went home, I had recently gotten my driver's license and I drove my Hyundai Elantra to the Best Buy to buy the cast recording.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I remember listening to it in my car nonstop. How many times do you think I've listened to the soundtrack?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Well, see, I'm going to assume zero because one thing that I have found reporting this story is that for as many of us like me who know so much about this show and have seen it multiple times, there's this whole other part of the globe that has just like totally sat this one out.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: That is me. I'm the part of the globe that I knew that it existed and that is that's that's about it. Which is a funny thing to imagine for someone like me who is almost like feels like I'm I'm seeing something I know so well.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Do you have a favorite song?
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Oh, I probably it's probably dancing through Life, which is this big, like, six-and-a-half-minute song about putting your cares aside and dancing through life.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Um, you're gonna have to sing Dancing Through Life, because I don't know what it sounds like.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I know how these work.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I know how these work.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I know how these work.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I know how these work.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I know how these work.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I know how these work.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I know how these work.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I know how these work.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I know how these work.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Wicked was first a novel that came out in 1995. And it takes the classic tale we all know The Wizard of Oz and casts it in a different light.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: The author, Gregory Maguire, had this idea of retelling The Wizard of Oz, but in a way that takes place largely before the film and the book, but also recasts characters that we know well.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So in this retelling, The Wicked Witch is not a villain. And it tells the story of the Wicked Witch as a young woman at school where she meets Glinda the Good Witch. And it's about their friendship.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Just to point out how wild this is, the new movie Wicked is based on a musical, which is based on a book, which is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, which itself was a movie based on a musical and a book that first came out in 1900.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: It's a story that people clearly seem to be drawn to. Wicked the Musical opened on Broadway in 2003. And was it a hit from the start? No, it wasn't. It was actually a very dicey proposition because it had a budget of $14 million, which in Hollywood is a quaint indie, but on Broadway is a massive investment.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And then there were some critics who thought that it relied too heavily on the stagecraft. Like, there's a lot of special effects. I mean, Act One ends with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, like, several feet above the stage because she's flying. She's defying gravity, so to speak.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I went to see Wicked in late September, and I had dinner that night with a friend who produces Broadway shows, and I said to him, I wonder if I went to an early reading of Wicked if I would have thought this show is going to be a blockbuster because it doesn't seem on the surface like it should work as well as it does.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: And my friend said, well, you might have just because the songs are so good. The songs are, in his view, the songs are significantly better than your average Broadway show. They stick with you. They kind of have a way of, like a good pop song, kind of becoming this recurring refrain in your life.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: And you sort of want to be like, I'm dancing through life. How does that one go again?
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I know how these work.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: The new Wicked movie is based on a musical that first came out more than 20 years ago. Our colleague Eric Schwertzel is a huge fan.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I think when I was probably about like 16 or 17, I went to this summer camp and there was a kid there who told me about this new Broadway show that he was obsessed with, Wicked.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: So when I went home, I had recently gotten my driver's license and I drove my Hyundai Elantra to the Best Buy to buy the cast recording.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: I remember listening to it in my car nonstop. How many times do you think I've listened to the soundtrack?
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Well, see, I'm going to assume zero because one thing that I have found reporting this story is that for as many of us like me who know so much about this show and have seen it multiple times, there's this whole other part of the globe that has just like totally sat this one out.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: That is me. I'm the part of the globe that I knew that it existed and that is that's that's about it. Which is a funny thing to imagine for someone like me who is almost like feels like I'm I'm seeing something I know so well.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Do you have a favorite song?
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Oh, I probably it's probably dancing through Life, which is this big, like, six-and-a-half-minute song about putting your cares aside and dancing through life.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: Um, you're gonna have to sing Dancing Through Life, because I don't know what it sounds like.
--:-- Ryan Knutson: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't born yesterday. Never in a million years. No.
--:-- Jessica Mendoza: I know how these
