Wicked, the musical, started on stage in 2003. It won three Tony awards and progressively became one of the biggest and most successful musicals ever. On November 4th, the casting of the long-awaited movie adaptation of Wicked was announced, capturing the attention of millions of theater fans all over the internet. Cynthia Erivo will be starring as Elphaba and Ariana Grande will be starring as Glinda. Erivo and Grande FaceTimed each other after it was announced they got the roles to congratulate and cry with one another.
Cynthia Erivo has won a Tony, a Grammy, and an Emmy for playing in The Color Purple. She has also been cast in several films and TV shows. She most recently played Aretha Franklin in the show Genius. She has a beautiful voice and many think she will be outstanding as Elphaba.
Ariana Grande actually started her career on stage. Back when she was in grade school in Florida, she performed in the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theater in Annie, The Wizard of Oz, and Beauty and the Beast. In 2008, she starred in the Broadway musical 13. She went on to play Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon show Victorious, earning her big break. After the show ended, she began to sing more and started focusing solely on music for a few years. Since then, she has played Penny Pingleton in Hairspray Live! and will be in the upcoming movie called Don’t Look Up. Grande has gotten a blessing to play Glinda from her mentor and friend, Kristin Chenoweth, originator of the character. They have been friends for years and Chenoweth said she would teach Grande every aspect and detail of the role to be the perfect Ginda.
Since Ariana Grande has gotten so much fame from her pop music over the past 10 years, she has been getting major backlash for being cast as Glinda. Many Wicked fans say that she won’t be able to play the part right or that she does not know how to act in a musical, however, they don’t know her background. She is qualified for this challenging role and so is Cynthia Erivo playing Elphaba. What do you think?