If you’re like me, and Jonathan Bailey singing, “Woes are fleeting, blows are glancing,” has distracted you from your desk job for the past two weeks, or you couldn’t quite believe the notes that Ariana Grande hits as she trills “No One Mourns the Wicked” in Wicked’s trailer, then it is time to rejoicify: The Wicked: Part I cast album was released at midnight.
The songs in Wicked have been the soundtrack to my life, from my early childhood (when I first saw the show at three years old) through to just last week, when I attended the film’s premiere in New York (RUN, don’t walk!). So, how does its Stephen Schwartz score, reinterpreted by Grande and Cynthia Erivo, hold up? Here, fellow Ozians, a recap:
“No One Mourns the Wicked”
Beginning from the top: “No One Mourns the Wicked” may have one of the most iconic opening chord progressions in all of musical theater. However, in Jon M. Chu’s film, the intro fans know so well is briefly interrupted with—if you are quick enough to catch them—the strains of “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz. And that’s just one of Wicked’s many brilliant allusions to that 1939 film, starring Judy Garland.
Otherwise, perhaps the most significant change to the song is the delivery of “green” as Elphaba’s father (Andy Nyman) remarks on the color of his newborn daughter’s skin. Unlike the multi-beat belt of that word on the Broadway recording, here, it’s uttered in affecting disbelief.