Latest news with #Galinda
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Wicked: For Good trailer has fans head over heels in love with…everything; say ‘will be sobbing in the theatres'
The original Wicked film was nothing short of a phenomenon, grossing over $750 million worldwide and setting the record as the highest-grossing movie adapted from a Broadway musical. Garnering 10 Oscar nominations — including Best Picture — and winning for Best Costume Design and Production Design, it captivated audiences everywhere. Ariana Grande truly made the role of Galinda the Good Witch her own, Cynthia Erivo delivered a career-defining performance worthy of her Oscar nods, and the music? The music alone converted even the most sceptical listeners into devoted fans. Now, anticipation is soaring as the trailer for the sequel, Wicked for Good, drops. Picking up from the last film's cliffhanger, we see Galinda rising as the most powerful force in Oz, backed by the Wizard, while Elphaba flees, pursued by the menacing flying monkeys, demons of her own making. As for the trailer, it doesn't try to hype itself unnecessarily, it simply looks stunning. We glimpse the evolving relationship between Galinda and Elphaba, now fair rivals instead of friends, and beloved characters like Fiyero Tigelaar return, played by Bridgerton's Jonathan Bailey. Andthe music? Absolutely killer. This level of good should almost be illegal. The excitement online is palpable, with netizens echoing the trailer's brilliance. One Reddit user wrote, 'No surprises here, but the duo sounds like they nailed For Good. Can't wait to see how unhinged this press tour gets.' Another shared, 'Just the small snippets of For Good have me in tears. I will be sobbing in the theatre.' Fans also praised the incredible costumes, with one enthusing, 'Paul Tazewell cooked hard in the costume department here and goodness, they look beautiful!' And for those initially sceptical, opinions have shifted dramatically. 'When they first announced they were doing this movie, I had absolutely no interest. After having seen the first part, I can't wait to see this,' one commenter admitted. Another added, 'This trailer is insanely well-done. It looks even better than the first.' Fans are also buzzing over the return of iconic Wizard of Oz characters. 'It will be interesting to see how much they include Dorothy and crew. Seeing the Cowardly Lion as a CGI lion, and not a man in an obvious costume, is interesting. Everyone else in the group looks spot on. I have so much respect for Judy Garland's performance, and I still feel for all the shit she endured while making The Wizard of Oz as well as in her personal life. I hope this new instalment brings a renewed love and appreciation for Garland,' commented one passionate fan. Others are especially eager for the music, which promises to deliver even more emotional highs. 'This trailer is miles better than the first movie's trailers, and the film visually looks much better. Excited for this even if the second half is worse story-wise, the music is better to me,' shared another. If the trailer is anything to go by, Wicked: For Good is shaping up to be a magical follow-up, and fans are in for a truly spectacular journey back to Oz. Catch the film in theatres on November 21.
Los Angeles Times
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The costume wizard behind those ‘Wicked' outfits has been down the Yellow Brick Road before
If Willy Wonka set off for Cirque du Soleil and passed through 'Bridgerton,' he'd be ready for 'Wicked.' But the movie musical's costumes aren't just a mashup of looks we've seen before; they're an elegant reinvention of iconic 'Wizard of Oz' references and a joyous summation of its designer's career. The wildly colorful and complex costumes of 'Wicked' are the work of Paul Tazewell, whose designs for another beloved musical, 'West Side Story,' earned him an Oscar nomination in 2022. He became the first Black male to earn that honor, and with 'Wicked' he is favored to become the first to win it. Tazewell, 60, brought all of his particularly relevant life experience to the job. He's designed costumes for theater, dance, opera, film and television, earning recognition in each medium. He's even designed 'The Wiz' four times, starting in high school in Akron, Ohio. 'I made the costumes in the middle of our dining room on my mother's Singer sewing machine,' he says. By 2016, he'd won an Emmy for 'The Wiz! Live.' 'Wicked,' however, brought the designer creative challenges that his teenage self never could have imagined. Tazewell had to synthesize the demands of the movie script, the L. Frank Baum book, the 1939 film 'The Wizard of Oz,' the Broadway musicals 'Wicked' and 'The Wiz' — and mesh with director Jon M. Chu's vision. He also needed to make the lead characters visually in conversation with each other, though Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is dark, earthy and green, while Galinda (Ariana Grande) is light, bubbly and pink. The job required that he move to London for two years beginning in 2022. While there, he utilized artisans who embroidered costumes, made hats or developed textiles for 'Bridgerton,' 'The Crown,' 'Queen Charlotte' and the London production of 'Hamilton,' which in 2016 netted Tazewell a Tony Award. To manage the monumental 'Wicked' task, he divided to conquer. Tazewell staffed the costume department of sometimes 150 people to focus on characters or regions, such as Emerald City or Shiz University. 'It was like Santa's workshop, literally,' says Tazewell, who was in Los Angeles for a recent Costume Designers Guild presentation and discussion of his work. 'We had a long table where we would set things up. I'd look at any of the upcoming questions or upcoming issues, or look at fabrics.' Some days, he says, it looked like an assembly line. Workrooms were mapped by color. 'You go through the door of the Elphaba room, and it's basically all black fabrics and textures. And then you bust through to the right to this other room, and it's this explosion of pink and sparkles and lavender and everything that's sheer and floating and full of butterflies that we'd laser-cut [for Galinda],' he says. Throughout, Tazewell cleverly built in references to iconic elements. The striped socks of the Wicked Witch of the East show up as wavy versions in Shiz University uniforms. Jeff Goldblum's Wizard of Oz mirrors the frock-coat silhouette from the original film. Swirls show up on robes and shoes, a nod to tornadoes, while Galinda's circular cutouts and effervescent fabrics recall how her 1939 predecessor, Glinda, arrived in Munchkinland in a pink bubble. Tazewell's modern contributions added intricate clothing construction that injected intrigue and movement. Fabrics are variously folded like origami, appliqued, quilted, embroidered, beaded, gathered, pleated, printed, felted, dyed, etched, lasered and layered. Many techniques come together in the iconic pointy black hat for the future Wicked Witch of the West. Elphaba's is made of crooked tiers of micro pleats that gather under the brim to resemble mushroom gills. It also collapses into itself, like a camping cup that squishes flat. That element of transformation is becoming a Tazewell signature. 'I've always been fascinated with Japanese fans, the sculptural quality and the opening and closing of them, or of umbrellas, which is a similar technique. I was also obsessed with pop-up books,' he says. 'There is a magical quality about going from one thing that is hidden to opening it up into a different shape. I've carried that into my work as I've matured as a designer.' You can see it in action on the long gowns Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth wear in the movie to sing about the Grimmerie, a book of spells. With movement, their vertical skirt layers waft open, like the turning pages of a book. The designer likes to fold and pleat fabric to give it a kind of kinetic energy that adds bounce to clothing: It's there in the pleated overlays on Shiz student uniforms that swirl when they dance. Some of the references are inspired by fashion designers, such as Issey Miyake's pleats, Vivienne Westwood's and Christian Dior's fitted jackets and Alexander McQueen's exaggerated shoulders. The techniques borrow from couture craftsmanship and Hollywood magic. Some gowns were painstakingly embroidered by a solo artist using antique machines from the 1800s. One of Elphaba's dresses was built from a puzzle of micro-pleated fabric swirled and invisibly hand-stitched onto dozens of pattern pieces. Galinda's pink arrival gown used 20,000 beads that took artisans 225 hours to sew onto the bodice, while the skirt was assembled from spiraled cones of embellished, sheer pink fabric that were attached in tiers. And there's a second movie coming in November, which was filmed in conjunction with the first, adding yet another level of complexity to the design task. 'It was nonstop,' Tazewell says. 'But I was also in that joyful spot where I'm in that creative place that has always been where I'm really myself.' That spot, it seems, is where he transforms — into the Wonderful Costume Wizard of Oz.
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ariana Grande Gets Granular About Her Oscar-Nominated Performance as Galinda in ‘Wicked'
With the 'Wicked' press tour becoming a production of its own, star Ariana Grande has had plenty of opportunities to convey the gravity of playing Galinda in the film adaptation of the blockbuster Broadway musical. But she's had few chances to nerd out about the array of technical elements that went into her performance. So when given a moment to discuss how she reformed her singing voice from pop-R&B superstar, past her Broadway baseline, into a full-on coloratura soprano, the Oscar nominee literally jumped at the chance to take to the whiteboard of a medium-sized conference room within the IndieWire office to draw an illustrative diagram of her vocal cords. More from IndieWire The Sundance Market Was Slower This Year, but Not Actually Unhealthy Matthew McConaughey Pitches Greta Gerwig His Football Conspiracy-Theory Movie in Super Bowl Ad - Watch Before that came a conversation on her opening song, 'No One Mourns the Wicked,' set in the direct aftermath of 'The Wizard of Oz.' Her character has already dropped a vowel from her name to become Glinda the Good Witch, and is putting up a front to mask her true feelings about the death of the so-called Wicked Witch of the West. Grande explained that her homework going into production was 'to make sure that my voice was in the place by the time I got to set, where the singing was second nature, where worrying about that operatic sound being available to me was not a question and not a worry, so that it could be about the emotional integrity of what's happening in the scene.' Though audiences new to the musical adaptation of Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel 'Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West' are not yet privy to the layers of emotion on display in the scene, and won't fully be until the release of 'Wicked: For Good' this fall, Grande felt a huge responsibility to honor 'everything that Galinda is going through at that time,' she said. 'That's why I treated the vocal training as seriously and as intensely as I did, because the emotional arc, and journey, and colors to that scene — there's so much going on. So that was what I wanted to make sure the focus was. And even with the melodic choices that I picked, I was trying to make sure that it was all just an added element of emotional expression.' In order to infuse those poignant nuances, the singer fortified a part of her vocal range that had thinned out from performances on her Sweetener World Tour the year in 2019. 'Usually, those same notes that Galinda's singing at the end of 'No One Mourns the Wicked' were notes that I would only do in my whistle register,' she said. 'I had to ease my voice. I do one whistle note at the end, but for the rest of it, I had to train my voice to do that in falsetto, which is just basically strengthening the notes that are already there, but learning how to put that placement there, and the strength behind the falsetto and using your vibrato in a new way, in a different way. The vowels are rounder.' And then we went back to the drawing board. Grande prefaced her demonstration by saying, 'I'm not a doctor.' She's shy about sharing her rudimentary drawing with the world but can articulate her shortcomings upon her first attempt at finding Galinda's voice. 'There's a whole section [of my vocal range] where Galinda lives that was unused because I was singing around it. My whistle register is above it, and my mix and my belt are below it,' she said, using terms that would delight the fans of true vocalists. When she finally found a dry-erase marker that worked, Grande drew a pair of parallel lines with parallel squiggles that represent the aforementioned parts of her vocal cords that had bulked up, serving as bookends for the section she wanted to access for 'Wicked.' 'These are cords, and they slap together when they produce sound,' she said, pointing to her sketch with the spirit of a high school biology teacher. 'What happens when you use these so much is that these become stronger,' she added, this time drawing attention to the squiggles. 'Naturally, this is thinner, so [it] sounds thinner as well,' said Grande, in reference to what one could call the Galinda Zone. 'It requires training to build this up so that it's actually smooth, and then the sound can come out more healthily and perfectly and roundly… It was just retraining the cords to have that.' Finally being able to sing 'No One Mourns the Wicked' is an accomplishment the Best Supporting Actress contender still reflects on. 'I was listening to old voice notes from my very, very, very first voice lessons with my vocal coach Eric Vetro because I was on a long flight, and we were feeling nostalgic,' she said, now seated back in her office chair. 'And the difference in tone between week to week to week of rehearsing is very noticeable.' While that shows how she transformed herself to fit the role of Galinda, when she'd actually secured the part, there was discussion among 'Wicked' composer Stephen Schwartz and others about fitting the role toward their perception of her, a moment she still finds the humor in. 'I was concerned, but it was met with so much mutual love and respect,' she said of Schwartz's idea to add a certain hip-hop flair to her character's songs. 'I lovingly reached out and said, 'I don't think this is very in character. I just don't think this is Galinda's rhythmic landscape.' She claps on one and three, you know. So, there's no way.' As a superfan of the source material, and the way in which Kristin Chenoweth originated the role, Grande was constantly in that position of having to decide whether to be a purist or make a choice that would make Galinda her own. From her very first audition, director Jon M. Chu empowered her to follow her 'kooky' instincts, which led to little tweaks like saying 'Ew' instead of 'Ooh' before the 'I'll show you what shoes to wear' lyric in 'Popular,' Galinda's signature number. 'When it comes to the score, the actual singing, I don't like to do runs for the sake of just doing runs. I try to be very intentional when it comes to embellishments or vocal options that I choose when I'm singing Galinda, because I feel like they have to be emotionally attached to something,' she said. 'There's a pop version of 'Popular' that could exist, but I was very opposed to that idea just because I don't feel like it serves the character, and I don't feel like it serves the story.' There was even a moment where Grande had trouble wrapping her head around adding the new 'Popular' outro at Schwartz's behest. 'I loved the modulations at the end, but a part of me was so nervous to take that leap,' she said. 'For me, it was about finding what the reasoning was behind it. But as soon as we were able to put that choreography behind it, I loved it to my ears, but I was like, 'What's the intention? What's the story here?'' Such is the collaborative nature of filmmaking that the outro's inclusion ultimately served the work done by Best Production Design Oscar nominee Nathan Crowley. 'When we got to set, Alice Brooks, our DP, and Jon [M. Chu] saw the hallway, and they said, 'This is so beautiful. How the fuck do we utilize this? We have to use this in the best way.'' It also became a showcase for choreographer Christopher Scott, who figured out the movement for the scene just two days before they shot it. 'He drew inspiration from so many different styles of dance so that he could create something that felt very specific to Oz,' said Grande of Chu's longtime collaborator Scott. 'Yes, there are influences from styles of dance that are familiar, of course, but everything is so angular and opposite of what you would expect your feet or arms to do. And there's so much subliminal messaging even within the choreography. And it was just really thoughtful and intentional. And I really think he made a physical language, and it's very specific to Oz. It's cool … and hard.' That's but one example of the consideration the cast and crew put into making the Best Picture nominee, according to the actress. 'Every single person involved led with that same intentionality and thoughtfulness. And nothing wasn't thought of. Every page on the books that are on the table that you don't even get to see opened, they're written about Ozian history. And the journals next to our beds are filled with scribbles. It's a real world when we all care as much as everyone else. And we all walk into the space with the awareness that everyone feels this same responsibility. I'm not alone in that,' said Grande. She was especially on the same page with co-star Cynthia Erivo, who plays the 'wicked' Elphaba, in a way that felt effortless. 'Something that we did really beautifully together is just listen and respond to each other. There wasn't as much planning in that way. We both separately did a lot of our own homework to become these women so that when we were in the room together, we were them and we could just listen to each other and respond authentically,' said Grande of her first days working with the Best Actress nominee. 'There was never a time where we were singing at each other. It was always very symbiotic and responsive to one another. The whole thing just felt really honest. I don't know if we could have planned our choices that we made ahead of time because the context of the material just requires radical honesty and being present and having freedom to wiggle around with improv or with surprising each other with new choices.' While her closeness to Erivo is one of the current discussion points around the film, Grande has had a tendency throughout her entire career to put friendship at the forefront. 'I genuinely love getting to know people. And I want people to feel safe in their workplace so that we can play and make choices and take risks and respond to each other and feel safe in that,' she said. 'It's a very theater kid, theater-camp type of thing where you build this community, and you feel this lifelong relationship with your cast. And it truly has been the case for me in so many instances I've met so many of my best friends through work and through theater, through musical theater to be specific'. However, 'it's crazy when it happens in your 30s,' said Grande. 'It's like, 'Where have you been my whole life, Cynthia?' Hello, I made a real sister in her. And in Jon, that's my brother for life.' Just as her prep involved filling in her vocal range, many of the highlights in Chu's film add in private moments between Galinda and the camera that the stage show has no time for, to provide her a fuller character arc. For instance, scenes of her alone in the mirror getting ready were 'a lovely addition because you get to see more explicitly how much her persona means to her and how much she puts into that because her magic is her influence. And her ability to charm people and have them love her, it's her way of gaining power so that she can then make a change, which she's still learning how to do sometimes,' said the actress. Another pivotal moment for Grande includes how Galinda pranks Elphaba by handing her the eye-catching black witch hat that becomes a staple of her wardrobe, teeing up an emotional scene between the two young women in the Ozdust Ballroom. 'I brought it up to Jon, because I was so concerned about protecting Galinda, because I truly think she's good. I think she's been blinded by privilege, but I think she's a good person,' she said. 'Right after I give her the hat, there's a look back where you get to see a glimpse of 'I don't know that I should have done that.' And that, to me, is something that I'm so thankful for because it's imperative that we know who's deep down, who's just beneath the surface, that person is there. Glinda the Good is there. We just need to peel away at the layers of privilege and not having the opportunities to look outside of herself or realizing that she can or should.' All these tiny little decisions led to her first Oscar nomination, and for her very first lead role in a film. But Grande is not yet fully assured that what she has in store for 'Wicked: For Good' will be as glowingly received. 'We can only hope that people will love this thing the way that we have loved it and put our all into it. We know how we feel when we're making it on set, but it's hard to let yourself try to assume what others are going to think of it,' said the performer. 'It's been so overwhelming, the reception and how much love ['Wicked' has] received. But we have a long way to go. There's so much more that people have yet to uncover about these ladies. So, it's a wild ride. I hope that they love where we're heading.' And if she and Erivo make a detour to perform these songs live for the first time at the Oscars in March, Grande said that they are still so locked into everything 'Wicked' that 'these ladies are just going to live beneath the surface and be ready for the rest of our lives,' so 'we will certainly be there, and I'll have my Throat Coat tea ready.' 'Wicked,' a Universal Pictures release, is now in theaters and on PVOD. Best of IndieWire 2023 Emmy Predictions: Who Will Win at the Primetime Emmy Awards? 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special 2023 Emmy Predictions: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series
