LOS ANGELES — On a recent morning, in his office in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jon M. Chu described the experience of directing “Defying Gravity,” the thrilling climax of his . In the Broadway version of the scene, Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, with her greenish skin, towers above the stage on a huge platform, the mechanisms of which are hidden beneath an enormous black cape. On stage, the effect is impressive.
In Chu’s version, however, Elphaba actually flies, breaking windows and crossing Oz in spectacular fashion. “We played it back and forth using monkeys and computer-generated backdrops on a physical set,” Chu explained. The Wizard’s guards rush in, the wind blows hard, and Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, sings her iconic song live, “even though I told her she didn’t have to do it.”
“Performing that scene demanded the most of us”, analyzed Chu. “But without Cynthia, who is simply a powerhouse, it would all have been in vain.”
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Directing a film adaptation of “Wicked” would be a challenging dream for any fan of American musicals. , winning three Tony Awards and playing to more than 63 million people around the world, from London’s West End to Tokyo. So how did Chu, who has directed several films with musical elements but few musicals, get this job? “I’m really new to the music world,” he admitted. “So, I feel like I’m living the dream of any child who loves theater.”
In fact, Chu, 45, has been a lover of musicals since a young age. As a child, he regularly attended shows in San Francisco and grew up immersed in a steady diet of cinematic musicals like “The Sound of Music” (“That Played All the Time at Our House”) and “Singin’ in the Rain.” An advance screening of “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” the 1942 George M. Cohan biopic, inspired the young fan to adopt the name “Jon M. Chu” in honor of the artist.
This passion permeated many of his films, including the 2008 dance drama “She Dances, I Dance 2” and the 2011 concert film “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.” However, he only directed his first musical adaptation in 2021, with “Em um Bairro de Nova York”, by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
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Currently, Chu is working on several projects, including an animated version of the Dr. Seuss classic “Ah, the Places You’ll Go!”; an adaptation of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” for Amazon; a biographical film about Arnel Pineda, Filipino singer and lead singer of the band Journey; and a musical version of his 2018 hit, “Asians and Filthy Rich People.”
But first we have “Wicked,” which premieres on Friday, November 22, 2024, with Erivo and Ariana Grande playing schoolmates who become adversaries in the land of Oz. (Chu missed the Los Angeles premiere on November 9 because of the birth of her fifth child). A prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” and a reinterpretation of the famous Broadway musical, “Wicked” has a running time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, but ends its story only halfway through. Moviegoers will have to wait until November 2025 to watch the second part.
Adapting “Wicked” to film brought several challenges for Chu. How to choose the protagonists of a film that practically every actress who can sing and every singer who can act would do anything to get? Would it be possible to tell the story within the length of a typical film? If not, should it be one very long film or would it be better to divide it into two equally long films?
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Chu’s connection to the work began in 2003, while he was still a film student at the University of Southern California. During a break from studying, he went with his family to see the pre-Broadway performance at the Curran Theater in San Francisco. “I remember thinking: this is the most cinematic show I’ve ever seen,” he commented. “Someone is still going to turn this into a big movie.”
Chu always wanted it to be him. “I’ve been chasing ‘Wicked’ for 20 years,” he said. From time to time, he would ask his agent to check, and Universal’s response was always the same: we already have a director attached, but if anything changes, we’ll let you know. (Stephen Daldry was already set to direct years before leaving the project in 2020.) On one occasion, Universal contacted him to ask about his availability for an untitled project, but didn’t reveal what it was about. “I asked them if it rhymed with Pick-ed?” he commented. It rhymed, but he wasn’t told that right away.
Marc Platt, producer of the Broadway musical and the film, recalled that he “turned down many, many directors.” However, this was not due to a lack of talent, as everyone was exceptionally skilled. “I just didn’t feel prepared to direct a film.”
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When Platt was finally ready, he called Chu and offered him the job. The simplicity of the entire process, conducted without meetings or questions, generated some concern. “I thought, ‘Oh, they can’t believe we’re going to make this movie!’” Chu revealed. “But that’s what they don’t know about me. I direct films. I know how to make a movie. It’s a kind of superpower I have.”
Chu started working on “Wicked” in 2021. “The first question that came up was: one film or two?” he said. It was a real dilemma, as one of the first six drafts he received was approximately five hours long. “I told them we couldn’t debate this in every meeting, so we needed to make a decision and commit to it. If we want to change everything later, that’s fine.”
Ultimately, Chu decided to make two films. “When you take over as director, there is a two-week honeymoon period,” he commented. “You can set some limits.”
Casting the two leads, considering the legacy of Broadway stars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, was another big challenge. “At first, I thought, ‘Let’s discover two unknown talents and turn them into stars,’” he said. “But then I realized that the people qualified to do all this, like acting, singing and moving, are already busy working.”
“People capable of matching Idina and Kristin’s talent as singers are extremely rare,” he added. “And then I thought: who also has a sense of humor? The options are even more limited.”
Grande came five times. “I confess that I was worried about Ariana Grande’s great public exposure as an artist,” admitted Chu. “But when she arrived without makeup, all those worries disappeared. She competed with great actors and was the most interesting person in the room.”
Erivo “awakened me to the reality of Elphaba, the person”, explained Chu. Erivo challenged assumptions about her character — yes, Elphaba is a misfit and inexperienced, but she comes from a wealthy family, so her witchy appearance would be both frightening and stylish. Furthermore, she transformed Elphaba’s strangely clumsy dance in the OzDust Ballroom sequence, often played for laughs in the theatrical version, into something much more intimate and moving. “We couldn’t complete rehearsals without bursting into tears,” Chu revealed.
The director’s enthusiasm for the project was contagious. “Jon would come in and say, ‘Oh my God, today we’re going to do ‘Defying Gravity,”” Platt said. “Wow, today we’re going to do ‘Popular’.” Starting a long day this way makes it impossible not to feel joyful.
Erivo agrees. “He was always a big fan of musicals, which is quite rare in directors,” she said. “I think loving musicals can be a bit taboo, but he’s not afraid to show it, and that makes me admire him even more.”
Erivo felt an instant connection with Elphaba, a character who faced bullying because of her green skin. “I think everyone who has played Elphaba understands what it means to be an outcast,” he said. “But I believe there is an even more direct connection when part of your exclusion is related to the color of your skin. I know what it’s like to walk into a room and be the only one, just as most black women know what it’s like to be in large spaces where they are the only ones.”
Chu, in turn, also identified with Elphaba. “I have my own experiences with ‘being green’,” he explained, and, citing Grande’s character, added: “But I’m also Glinda, the girl in the bubble. I’m very privileged, but I understand what it means to make the decision to burst your bubble and face challenging situations.”
“And I’m also the Magician,” he said. “How far are you willing to go to entertain your audience? How far are you willing to push your own moral boundaries to keep your audience entertained? So I think I’m in everything. “But I think everyone, Cynthia, Ari, brought elements of themselves to each of these characters.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
