I can’t believe I even have to write this: Steve from Sex and the City did not play the role of Dr. Dillamond’s miniscule monkey friend in Wicked: Part One. Ariana Grande made a deadpan joke on the 2024 musical’s commentary track, People reported it as fact, a bunch of other outlets picked up on that story and reported that as fact, and things got so out-of-hand that someone listed the credit on actor David Eigenberg’s IMDb.
Not to be confused with the flying monkeys, Grande was referring to the teeny-tiny tamarin in the “Something Bad” scene that holds up a candle larger than his body to make shadow puppets of Dillamond’s cutouts illustrating the persecution of sentient animals in Oz. He’s got a mustache, cute little-old-man voice, and exactly one line: “A solicitor was sacked just for arguing a case!”
“So that I guess is Steve from Sex and the City,” Grande jokes on the commentary track after the tamarin delivers its line. “He makes a cameo. He has one line, and it’s the best line in the whole thing, the little tamarin monkey.” According to People, Grande then imitates Steve portrayer David Eigenberg’s signature “aw-shucks” voice, somewhere between a seasoned cabbie and a plucky bat boy for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s. “You were great on 20 seasons of Sex and the City,” Grande continues.
But the thing is, Steve’s voice is not coming out of that monkey’s mouth. I know this because I’ve seen Wicked four times and Sex and the City 400 times. I can hear the little monkey’s voice in my head, and it’s got a notable warble. In the credits, the tamarin (and an owl) are credited to voice actor Kim Durham, whose profile on voicecall-online.co.uk features a sample audio clip (his “Video Game Reel”) in which he sounds very similar to the tamarin in the film.
It seems fairly obvious to me that Grande’s comment is a joke. It sounds like her sense of humor, the sort of bit she’d try out on a red carpet or on Las Culturistas. The monkey is small and has a cute little voice, and Steve is the perfect comparison for that. Plus, the character is a huge comedic reference point for women in their 20s and 30s like Grande. Steve is one of the most ubiquitous celebrity/character impressions on certain pop-culture-y corners of TikTok, perhaps second only to Jennifer Coolidge, who, for the record, Grande does a great impression of. Grande was just being cheeky.
I tried to verify this myself by listening to the Wicked: Part One commentary track, but Amazon screwed me over; despite touting the much-advertised Wicked bonus features in its $19.99 rental option, the playback system does not include the commentary audio tracks. Still, the movie’s own credits, voice actor Kim Durham’s existing recordings, Grande’s persona, and common sense should all be proof enough that Eigenberg did not make an uncredited cameo in Wicked.
After Vulture ran this very monkey-debunkin’ story, People issued a correction on their original article, stating that a rep for Universal “clarifies that Ariana Grande was speaking in jest on the commentary.” Common sense has been restored to Oz.
This post has been updated with a statement.