Day 22: Wicked: Worth the Hype – 30 days, 30 episodes

Matt Gilhooly
00:00:01

I'm Matt Gilhooly and this is the Life Shift. Candid conversations about the pivotal moments that have changed lives forever. Hello, my friends.

Welcome to day 22 of 30 Days, 30 episodes of the Life Shift podcast. This is this bonus series.

If this is the first day that you are listening, this one's going to be a little bit different and it's kind of last minute.

It is currently 8:20pm Eastern Time and I am recording this episode after work and then going to see the new movie, Part one of Wicked, and then going to dinner with friends. And here I am back at home. Gotta do this. I've committed to doing this every day for 30 days. So here I am. No idea what I was going to talk about.

And then I decided I was just going to talk about Wicked. As I talked about probably, I don't know what day it was.

We're on day 22, so probably like 10 days ago, I talked about kind of my birthday trip and the traditions that I have when I go to see Broadway shows basically for my birthday, and how kind of like amazing it is to see these people live and watch these shows that they're putting on eight days a week and just all the things that go into it. And I just love doing it and I love seeing that live experience. So Wicked has been out, I think, for like 20 something years.

It was a book that was like, if you don't know, it is like a prequel essentially, or the origin story of the villain of the wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West. And so this, this person, Gregory Maguire, wrote the book called Wicked.

And it is this prequel essentially to the wizard of Oz and kind of tells the story of how the Wicked Witch kind of got to be wicked. And it starts in kind of this early version, you know, childhood and why she was green and all the things that came along with it.

So it was made a Broadway show probably in the 90s. I don't know. Gosh, that seems like a long time ago. Maybe it was maybe early 2000s.

Early 2000s, this became a Broadway show and it had Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth and lots of other stars that you know of. Probably, if you're someone that's into Broadway, lots of women have graced those particular roles.

And I guess for a long time this movie has been in production, if you will, like pre production. People wanted to do it years ago and finally it's here. But they have done it in two parts. So we get part one this year in 2024.

And then for Thanksgiving time, 2025, we will get the second part. So what I will say is, it's fantastic. It's really good. And I say that with, like, no skepticism, no lying. Like, it. It kept me entertained.

And it was 2 hours and 45 minutes. And that's really only the first half of what you would see in the Broadway version.

Like, that's where they kind of ended at the intermission kind of spot. But it tells a really great story. And if it didn't have a second part, I'm glad it does.

But if it didn't, I feel like it would be like, you would feel complete. I wouldn't feel like, oh, gosh, I'm waiting for the second half. But the second half will be fantastic. So the performance is pretty amazing.

Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande. So good. And, like, took me out of the fact, like, I've seen them before and other things, and I obviously know who Ariana Grande is.

You knew it was her, but you didn't. She, like, got lost in that role in such a good way. And I just thought the performances were fantastic.

I love that they sang live on the recording and not like studio and then lip sync during the performances. So while they were flying around or doing crazy things, they were singing live and that was being recorded.

And that's what you hear in the movie, that they tried to do that on the Les Miserables movie, and it didn't sound very great. So I guess they fixed how that works for this one. But really enjoyed the movie. I thought the story was great. Visually, it was so stunning.

Apparently they planted like 9 million tulips for that particular area outside of Munchkin Land. And just to make the real. The ambiance of the show feel really realistic and that characters could interact with the things around them.

Of course there is CGI that goes along with things.

I don't think anyone has figured out how a person can fly without contraptions that they will have to CGI out and different backgrounds and things like that. But a lot of the set was built right there on the studio lot or wherever they had it. And I think in England somewhere.

So super happy with that production. Super happy with. Just like, I feel like sometimes you. You build this up.

And even if you're not a wicked fan, you've probably seen all the commercials, all the specials, all the this, all the that. People on all these talk shows, they're spending a ton of money marketing this show, and it was. It was worth the hype.

I feel like it lived up to the hype.

And so I'm happy to report that there have been other shows where you're like, they're turning that into a musical and a movie, and it's going to be this, that or the other. And it's just kind of, you know, like, okay, that was good. Like Rent. I loved Rent growing up, like, the Broadway show.

And I was so excited for the movie. And I think that if you hadn't seen the Broadway show or you weren't obsessed with that, you probably like the movie.

But then when I saw the movie, I was kind of, like, let down a little bit because it didn't do all the things that I wanted it to do. It cut certain parts, and it just wasn't as exciting as seeing Wicked on the screen. It was just really cool.

So I hope you get the opportunity, if that's something that interests you, to check out Wicked in the movie theater on the big screen and let me know if you like it. I think everyone that I've seen that I know that has already seen it has said that they loved it. They plan on going to see it again.

I haven't talked to anyone or read any major reviews that say it wasn't great. There were some people obviously saying it was too long. There's 2 hours and 45 minutes. So I could see why someone would make that case.

But honestly, I am someone that is a little fearful of long movies like that, because usually I can't make it all the way through without having to, like, run to the restroom. And this time I didn't have to deal with that. It's kind of like a Marvel movie where you're like, I don't want to leave.

I don't want to miss anything. So super happy with the movie. Glad I went. Sorry that this episode is just about that, but I hope you can hear the excitement in my voice about it.

This podcast, the Life Shift podcast, is not about rating movies. And you can see I would be terrible, terrible at it. I'm really bad at summarizing things.

So if you ever need me to summarize things, ask someone else or ask Chat GPT or something like that. Otherwise, I'm going to say goodbye right now, because I'm just going to keep talking unless I say goodbye.

So this is day 22 of 30 days, 30 episodes on the Life Shift podcast. I will be back with maybe something more meaningful on day 23, but that's it. Thank you for being a part of this journey.

And shout out to Tracy and Emily and Kyle for going to see the movie today and having a great dinner tonight. So I will see you tomorrow. For more information, please visit WW the Life Shift podcast dot com.