‘Wicked’ stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande to star in live musical TV special
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are set to perform songs from Wicked in an upcoming live musical TV special.
- READ MORE: Everything we know about ‘Wicked Part Two’
Set to air on NBC this autumn, the Wicked Event Special will take place in Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater ahead of the release of the sequel film, Wicked: For Good on November 21.
Per Variety, the musical special will be broadcast live on NBC and will also be made available for streaming the next day on Peacock. When announcing the special, Wicked director Jon M. Chu noted that this is the first time that songs from the popular Broadway show will be featured in this format on television.
“I am absolutely delighted to let you in on a centrepiece of our campaign for the second film, and it’s something that’s never been done in the 22-year history of ‘Wicked,’” Chu said, speaking at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
“This fall, our stars, the wonderful Cynthia Erivo and incandescent Ariana Grande, will be joined by their castmates and some wonderful surprise guests in a one-time-only event from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, they will perform live many of the songs from the first movie — and maybe a little bit from the second one as well, for a night of entertainment that we think will be, as they say in Oz, thrillifying.”
Telling the story of the second half of the stage version, Chu recently discussed how the film will impact audiences when they see it.
Speaking to ExtraTV, he said: Wait until you see ‘For Good’. Wait until you see [Grande and Erivo] do that. That will destroy you”. In January, Cynthia Erivo recalled how she “uncontrollably wept” when first she saw herself onscreen in the first film.
Wicked received a four-star review from NME, with Nick Levine writing: “By the end, you won’t quite be levitating off your seat but you’ll definitely be enchanted enough to stream the soundtrack on the way home. Funny, colourful and full of empathy for outsiders, this film really is the Shiz.”
Chu claimed last year that the sequel For Good is “more relevant” to where we are “in society right now,”: “Part Two, I will say because I’ve cut Part Two together, is a doozy. “[You’re] getting the meat. I did not know the context of where we’d be in society right now. It becomes eight times more relevant than before when you’re talking about truth and consequences of making the right or wrong choices. It’s intense.”
Erivo – who was recently revealed to be playing Count Dracula alongside 22 other supporting roles in a one-woman adaptation – previously revealed that she co-wrote an original song for For Good. “I collaborated on one of the new songs, and it’s so special to me,” she said. “When we filmed it, the entire crew was in tears. I hope audiences are ready — it’s a song that speaks to the heart of who Elphaba is.”
The post ‘Wicked’ stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande to star in live musical TV special appeared first on NME.
Poppy Burton
NME
