“I won’t trouble you with anything more than a snippet of ditties,” Jeff Goldblum told gobsmacked commuters at Kings Cross station last Wednesday.
He then sat down at the station’s piano and proceeded to treat a growing crowd of onlookers to a medley of Christmas music, jazz and – of course – a few tunes from the Wicked soundtrack. “Wicked comes out in theatres Friday, November 22,” he cried at the end, to a sea of phone cameras.
It’s certainly one way of getting your message across – not that anybody needed to be reminded. He was, after all, performing at the unveiling of the station’s Wicked-themed Christmas tree. Or rather, a two-storey edifice of emerald buildings in the shape of a tree designed to transport viewers to the Emerald City of the film’s setting.
And as off-the-cuff as Goldblum’s concert might seem, it was just the latest in a string of high-profile collaborations that, combined, have pushed our desire for all things green-and-pink to fever point.
Wicked is everywhere right now. Greenwich Market has been adorned in the style of the Emerald City and rechristened ‘Green witch’; Greenwich Town itself has been scattered with themed signs that can be tracked down via its own dedicated walking trail.
Greenwich Observatory hosted a themed light show attended by the cast; then there was a Q&A with costuming director Paul Tazewell at the V&A.
Even brands are getting involved: just swing by Liberty’s of London to see the themed window display, the centrepiece involves a flower sculpture of Glinda and Elphaba. Or what about Hamley’s Toy Shop, which has gone green and pink for the occasion?
There’s an Emerald City-themed Popcorn Emporium in Soho, courtesy of Butterkist; in a spectacularly bonkers move, London’s Northwestern Railway service also got in on the action, debuting a new logo and wondering whether the moniker London NorthWicked Railway should stay ‘for good’ (the answer, from commenters: a resounding no).
Combine this with all the ads blazing from double-decker buses, the tube and the sides of department stores (the marketing team have certainly been busy this year), and it seems as though the musical has well and truly cast a spell on the capital.
But all this hype isn’t really a surprise when you consider how deeply beloved the musical is in the capital. The show has been running at the Apollo Theatre since 2006 – where it opened three years after the original premiered on Broadway in 2003.
Since then, it has flourished. Wicked the musical recently celebrated its 7,000th performance and its 18th anniversary in its home at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.
Over its run, it’s been seen by over 12 million people in the West End and become the 10th longest-running West End show in British history; barely a childhood visit to the capital is complete without a trip down the Yellow Brick Road. The show itself has clocked in more than $5bn billion in ticket sales worldwide: not bad for a baddie from The Wizard of Oz.
The film’s cast’s love for London is well-known, too. Wicked was filmed in the UK, on a purpose-built set at Sky Studios Elstree, which meant that director Jon M. Chu moved his entire family over to London, even putting his daughter in school here for the two year-plus shoot.
“It’s home,” he said at the London premiere – a sentiment that was echoed by Ariana Grande, who called the city her “second home” and rented a mansion in north London while she was filming.
For Cynthia Erivo, of course, it is home: the actor was born and grew up in Stockwell, starting her career in the West End before segueing to the big screen.
“The first time I heard of Wicked was back in drama school,” she told Empire recently. “A friend of mine who played the piano said, “There’s this musical that I think you’d really, really like. We should take the book to a room and sing it when we can… by the time I left drama school, I knew it like the back of my hand.”
She went onto describe how on her 25th birthday, “I decided to take myself on a date to see the show in the West End. I remember having the most incredible experience.”
And that love has been magnified by the fans, many of whom queued for hours in the pouring rain on Wednesday night to get a glimpse of the stars for the London premiere at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre.
Accordingly, the green carpet was decked out with thousands of fans wearing their very best costumes – including one couple dressed as Glinda and Prince Fiyero gushed about the premiere being “stunning.”
“I feel like it's just such a positive, exciting story about friendship and love,” one of them said, while the other added that it was “the first production on stage that threw me into West End theatre.”
Why do people love it so much? For one, the characters. The show felt groundbreaking in the way it portrayed its two female leads – and put their relationship centre stage.
“There’d been a lot of romances at that point, and a lot of stories about two guys, but there really had not been a story that captured the popular imagination where the two main roles were female,” Wicked’s creator Stephen Schwartz told the Independent in 2021.
“Wicked was essentially a love story between two women. And I think that just happened at a point where the culture was ready for it.”
Plus, the show’s themes – that of finding your voice in a close-minded society – remain timeless. Add some killer musical lines, and some dire political warnings about fascism, witch-hunts and dictatorships, and what you’ve got is a hit that transcends borders. “I wish it was becoming less politically and socially relevant,” Schwartz added.
With hundreds of fans now streaming into cinemas to return to Oz themselves, Wicked the film looks set to recapture much of the magic of the original show.
Certainly, the original cast think so. “I just saw the movie and I'm dying. I'm deceased, I'm actually dead, I'm not here,” Kristin Chenoweth, who played the first Glinda on Broadway, told the Reel. “People are not going to be well when they see this film. It is so good, it is so special.”
As London heads into Christmas season, it looks like Wicked’s spell is set to linger over the capital. And even when the excitement dies down, there’s always part two to look forward to... so expect more of the same this time next year.
Wicked is in cinemas now; the soundtrack is out now and available at wickedthesoundtrack.lnk.to/preorder
