Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo Thrill at Intimate ‘Wicked: For Good’ Celebration Hosted by Baz Luhrmann
Global Pictures delivered a dazzling awards season event Tuesday night, offering a sneak peek into the highly anticipated film Wicked: For Good with an exclusive gathering for VIPs, press, and A-list celebrities.
The evening, held at Hollywood’s exclusive members club, The Aster, was co-hosted by acclaimed musicals director Baz Luhrmann and actress Colleen Camp, and featured a special performance by stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Attendees included studio chairperson Donna Langley, Wicked producer Marc Platt, and actress Charlize Theron, who brought her daughter along for the occasion. The event commenced with a screening of the film at the TCL Chinese 6 Theater, followed by a reception at The Aster.
Following a dinner and a brief Q&A session where Luhrmann passionately endorsed the film.Luhrmann, who traveled from Tokyo specifically to host, emphasized the difficulty and importance of creating a large-scale live-action musical that resonates with diverse audiences.”It’s so hard to make a live-action musical, and when you make one at this scale, that has this much cultural effect…that’s the great thing about musical form,” he stated.
Luhrmann recounted a past experience preparing his operatic bohemia in San Francisco,noting that Wicked was simultaneously in its early stages but “dead on arrival” at the time. He playfully joked with Chu, suggesting he hadn’t been excited enough during that initial run.
The conversation then turned to the challenges of bringing a beloved Broadway hit to the big screen. Luhrmann explained that prosperous movie musicals are rare, stating, “If you make one work, then someone in the world today, someone’s singing ‘The Hills Are Alive’ from The Sound of Music. But if you fail, there’s no in between.”
Chu confirmed the immense undertaking Wicked proved to be,adding the personal challenge of navigating the production while raising three young children. “But how privileged were we to be exhausted by getting the dream that we always beg the universe for,” he said. He further articulated the power of musicals to connect with audiences on a deeper level, citing the importance of the music, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and choreography.
Reflecting on the journey, Chu quoted a poignant line from wicked: “It makes you have to dream. It forces you to dream bigger than you think you can.” He credited his team and collaborators for their unwavering support, emphasizing the collaborative spirit that fueled the project.
See Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo perform a medley of “Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again”: https://twitter.com/THR/status/1731860000000000000
Despite the years of progress and the initial 20-year wait for a film adaptation, Luhrmann praised Wicked as a franchise “like it was made for now.” Chu echoed this sentiment, explaining that he took on the project during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time of global uncertainty.He recalled feeling a profound connection to the lyrics, particularly the line, “something has changed within me, something’s not the same,” and recognizing the film’s potential to resonate with audiences grappling with their own transformations.
“You couldn’t have predicted what it means at this time, but you could feel it in the air already,” Chu concluded. “it just felt like this has to be made now.”
