6 Reasons Why Wicked Works vs Other Musical Adaptations

[@thegeekywaffle]

What did you think of the Wicked movie? Was it a good adaptation?

[@famliy60]

I'm glad they kept Elphaba's lip green and not red.

[@thegeekywaffle]

Yeah it looks more natural

[@mingisfixon6452]

The funny thing is, there behind the scene clips of Cynthia singing well while doing her stunts 😂

[@fad23]

A major difference between this adaptation and Les Miserables and Cats is that Jon M. Chu understands musicals, while Tom Hooper doesn't seem to.

[@zoephotoart]

@@fad23 totally agree with this lol

[@slchld.]

Yess and the new Westside story. Steven Spielberg does not have the ear for musicals.

[@qtarokujo3694]

Wicked was made not only for the fans of Wicked or Broadway in general, they're made BY such fans

[@JessP06]

2:35 okay but they do mention that Fiyero has been expelled from other schools, so in that context I doubt it would his first year, therefore acceptable to be in his 20's. & Elphaba is also older because she was only there to accompany her younger sister on move in day, not because she intended to go there. So it's fair to have her be older as well.

[@paulnagle7017]

In fact Erivo's voice in the movie is her singing live while doing her own stunts, There was more than one take and they aren't always matched to the take you're seeing, but her singing in that scene is live while flying.

[@thegeekywaffle]

Yeah our point was that there was a lot of audio mixing. Unlike Les mis for instant

[@slchld.]

@@thegeekywaffleLes mis still did but it was very poorly mixed and pitch corrected. And even Amanda Seyfried admitted she wished they could redo the singing in the film.

[@zoephotoart]

Sooo... you are just wrong about the live singing. They recorded it live on set like Les mis did. The difference is Les mis they were singing to a live pianist in their ear and it was orchestrated later vs wicked they had the full orchestrations recorded. They also set up the sets to also be more like a recording studio for better audio. But YES Cynthia is singing live while doing stunts and it's amazing. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqqlomd4ra2Ad7ssi=m9UnYXfHEgdxQbe1

[@fad23]

The amount of innovation on the sound in this show is breathtaking.

[@davidg11235]

When you go a little further down this rabbit hole, it turns out they combined vocals from different takes (not surprising since there are a lot of cuts) with some studio-recorded vocals, and they also ended up pitch-correcting the heck out of it (when they almost certainly shouldn’t have). The result sounds extremely produced and somewhat artificial, when it could have sounded more like the breath-taking performance on set (though the result is, of course, still great). The people capturing the sound on set and the people producing the final mix are probably totally different teams, and the different statements made by the people recording the sound, at the time of filming, may or may not be what was done later. A lot of the things they say are true enough, though some are misleading in retrospect (like saying or implying the theater audience will hear the same thing they are hearing). It’s not like they are going to put out another behind-the-scenes video with caveats to the “recorded live” thing. It’s close enough for marketing purposes, and it still matters that they recorded live.

[@zoephotoart]

@@davidg11235 Ariana and Cynthia were on the production team for the tracks. I disagree that it sounds artificial. There are a few moments where it seems overly produced but I find it pretty clean overall. Either way, they were not singing along to pre-recorded vocals as the woman in the video said.

[@alemobra5747]

i dont think thats true, i think they had midi tracks of the demo playing in their ears, cuz in john powell's instagram he shared the behind the scenes of the orchestration recording and they were playing to the actual scene which was in a big screen, so they had already recorded it

[@alemobra5747]

@@davidg11235 they didnt pitch correct the heck out of it, in fact, in some moments they werent even exactly in tune, especially when they sang together in defying gravity which makes it harder to pitch correct since there was definitely some bleed in their mics, but also in i'm not that girl, in some specific lines cynthia is just a little bit sharp and they didnt pitch correct that, which makes it more natural, and in the beginning of dancing through life jonathan is a bit off too (in the movie only, they fixed it in the sountrack)

[@tracyjohnson4478]

I loved Wicked! I went with my parents for my birthday and they had never seen it and they both enjoyed it too. I do think it's a good adaptation, because they keep the part in where Elphaba is practicing the hair swish and Fiyero catches her. They didn't necessarily need to keep that in, but I'm glad they did.

[@thegeekywaffle]

Yes! It’s such a great moment!

[@nymiah13]

So, so wrong about singing live! There are interviews with Cynthia about how hard she worked to be able to sing while in a harness and flying through the air! Do your research!

[@nymiah13]

And it's not just "1 take." They do take after take after take! Damn. You guys would be much better if you did your research...

[@thegeekywaffle]

One take meant one take used vs a musical which has eight shows a week. Of course they did multiple takes 😆 Have a great holiday season!

[@HauteMashups]

I loved all your points! However, the “AIR-iana” pronunciation was driving me a lil crazy 😂 it’s actually pronounced “ARR-iana” (arrrr like a pirate lol). Either way, great points and I loved this video! 💚🩷

[@thegeekywaffle]

lol thanks I have a friend who pronounces it Airiana 😆 I’ll learn!

[@HauteMashups]

@ hehehe it’s ok I actually used to do the same 😂

[@cmoplay1]

I've seen it twice. It's been the only movie I've gone to a theatre to see twice. And I'm going again. I loved Cabaret and Chicago, but after this year, I've had Wicked will be my go to. I should mention Hamilton, another favorite, and I love it. Not sure it could successfully be adapted to the screen.

[@thegeekywaffle]

Good point I’m not sure how a Hamilton adaptation would work 🤔

[@Rmg321]

❤❤❤

[@craigmiller9084]

This soundtrack..... I agree with y'all it's much better than the original Broadway recording. Cynthia and Ariana are 🔥🔥🔥

[@thegeekywaffle]

Someone we forgot to mention also is there is a full orchestra, which adds to the epicness!

[@saxpoobielex7769]

Candace camera is so clear!

[@asmrtpop2676]

I get that some people do get typecasted as a decade or two younger because they actually do easily look that way, but Ben Platt you do not fit into that category of humans.

[@thegeekywaffle]

😆

[@kamolpaj]

Les mis was a big disappointment. Wicked did everything correct and healed us from the les mis wound 😂

[@13ckarr]

The vocals in the movie were live. Cynthia did all the stunts while singing

[@paulnagle7017]

the broadway orchestra - 23 instruments. movie orchestra 80

[@jimvalentine9728]

Huge Wicked fan, seen the play 4 times, and LOVED this movie. However, you are correct that the vocals are NOT LIVE! I wish they would stop pushing that lie. As a 25+ year professional musician with a lot of music recording and engineering experience I can tell you that those are absolutely studio vocals, and there is also quite a bit of pitch correction, which if you know how it sounds, you can hear it when the original vocal is relatively off pitch because the software has to modify the audio file more than if it's close to on pitch. And Cynthia Erivo does NOT NEED PITCH CORRECTION! Cmon, let her be the incredible human singer she is!! I could also hear a couple of obvious punches (replacing a part mid phrase with the same part from another track/take), and there are a couple of places where the lip syncing is clearly off. But it doesn't matter - the movie is fantastic! I was so worried they were going to blow it with this adaption because I love the play sooooo much, and especially after I heard they were breaking it into two parts. Now that I've seen the movie, I don't think it would have been NEARLY as good without breaking it in two. Wicked fans, you will LOVE THIS! I can't wait to see it again...

[@thegeekywaffle]

It was so much fun to hear the music translated to the big screen!

[@slchld.]

Jon Chu has an interview saying he dubbed the set as a studio with the producers so they could record live takes. So the singing was done live but there is overlays where the girls are running around/fighting as it would sound bad to the average listener if they were out of breath or pitchy. There are videos out there of them singing live and doing their own stunts while singing.