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As the Wicked movie cast and filmmakers had to know before the film’s release, Broadway fans have memorized every word and beat of the original soundtrack and would be comparing against it when seeing the movie adaptation. As our Wicked review illustrates, the first chapter of this two-part adaptation absolutely delivers on translating the beloved show, but I know I was curious about one change to “Dancing Through Life,” which the director has acknowledged with an answer that makes sense.
During Fiyero’s big song, he memorably asks “So, what’s the most swankified place in town?” before Glinda answers “That would be the Ozdust ballroom” and Fiyero replies with “sounds perfect!” This moment, however, doesn’t happen in the movie, and here’s why according to Jon M. Chu:
I mean that’s a great line, and we went back and forth, and we may have actually shot him saying that at some point. The hard part for us was I needed Fiyero to shake up the school. It needs to be on him, not them giving him the information of [the most swankified place in town]. So, it was a hard one for sure. We played around with it many times.
Now, this makes sense! In the movie adaptation, Fiyero is a character who approaches Shiz University and immediately says it falls on him to “corrupt my fellow students”. With that in mind, the story would flow better if it’s him who introduces the students to the Ozdust Ballroom rather than them already knowing about it. While I love the line in the original Broadway musical, I didn’t necessarily miss it in the movie, and Chu’s explanation, which he shared with BuzzFeed UK, is enough for me.
When looking over at what fans thought about the change, I found that it’s a bit divided, but a lot of people share my viewpoint. One Instagram user said they “understood the reason why they cut it” but “wish they used swankified at least somewhere.” Others had ideas about just how to do that, with one suggesting Glinda could have said it instead. Another person said “it’s not that good of a line tbh. It was okay to be left out!”
Despite any dialogue changes, Wicked has really been embraced by fans and even people who’ve never seen or heard the Broadway production’s music. One of CinemaBlend’s writers even said he liked the movie more than the Broadway play after catching two versions of the live event in the past.
Of course, audiences have only seen half of the musical be adapted so far. Fiyero actor Jonathan Bailey said audiences should be ready for a “tonal shift” with the events of the second half. That’ll certainly be true following the end of the movie where Elphaba decided to “defy gravity” and take Oz’s sacred book of spells from the Wizard after learning the truths about the Emerald City. Fans of the Broadway musical know that Fiyero has a powerful arc coming up and, apparently it will explain why Bailey wears blue contacts for the movie. All the while, we’ll also see if there are any more key dialogue changes.
You can catch Wicked in theaters and PVOD keep in mind the November 21 release date for Wicked: For Good. Be sure to also read up on other 2025 movie schedule titles.