One of Broadway’s most successful musicals ever, “Wicked”, finally has a date for its big screen adaptation: December 20 2019.
Oscar-nominated Stephen Daldry (“Billy Elliot”, “The Reader”) will direct the film. Broadway legends Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth starred in the original production, but no cast for the film has been announced yet.
During the Tribeca Film Festival in April, Menzel said that she’s going to be “way too old by the time” so it’s unlikely for her to repeat her Tony-winner role on the big screen.
“Wicked” is a musical written by Stephen Schwartz (“Pocahontas”, “Enchanted”) and Winnie Holzman (“‘Till There Was You”) based on the book “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West”. It tells the story of Elphaba (The Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (The Good Witch of the South), two characters of the popular story “The Wizard Of Oz” and how they met before Dorothy’s arrival.
The original production was nominated for a large amount of awards, including 10 Tony Awards in 2004, winning three of them (“Best Actress in a Musical” to Idina Menzel, “Best Costume Design” to Susan Hilferty and “Best Scenic Design” to Eugene Lee). The film has been one of the most anticipated for Broadway fans for a long time.
Last month, Menzel and Chenoweth reunited after many years to perform one song from the musical, the hit “For Good”.
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