Oh, Miss Elphaba, many years I have waited for a movie like this to appear. But now they have committed no good deed and … what is this feeling? Oh, yeah. Fear. Wicked (parts one and two) director Jon M. Chu gave us something to be nervous about in a March 21 Vanity Fair preview for the film. “These are live vocals,†Chu said. “When we were shooting it, those girls were like, ‘Fuck the pre-records. We’re going live.’†Chu, perhaps wisely, was unsure at first. “There’s going to be a lot of wind in your air pipes. Is that okay?†he apparently asked. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were not so worried. “‘Yeah. That’s what we do,’†he says they replied. The two are, of course, both known for their vocal abilities, so it makes sense that they wanted to take the hard road. But still, it’s difficult not to wonder if something ba-a-ad is happening in Oz.
Les Misérables famously took this approach and ended up with wimpy-sounding vocals that couldn’t reach the “wall of sound†quality that the musical is known for. These actors have to perform the songs over and over for film, and the vocals can easily end up sounding either tired or, at the very least, not as full as studio vocals. Look like there’s still a chance that the Wicked movies are, at the very least, entertaining. But we won’t know for good until the first one comes out this Thanksgiving. This year, we just hope to be thankful for a good movie.