Ethan Slater

Some of us finally decided to watch the Wicked movie. We've never seen the play, but read the book years ago and enjoyed it... Not that we remember much from it, other than that the wizard is a liar and the Wicked Witch hates water. But you can stick to the original Baum material for that.

One major problem with the movie: it's close to three hours long! (And this is only Part 1...) As much as we enjoy Wizard of Oz lore and subversion, that is a little more musical theater than some of us can handle. So, we did the only sensible thing:

We fast forwarded through all the songs.

Yes, we're pretty sure that we're the only people in the world to skip all* the songs in Wicked. (We realize that's like watching a superhero movie and skipping the action scenes. Considering some of the more recent superhero movies, that's actually not the worst idea.)

One exception: "Defying Gravity". That was pretty terrific, even for those of us that can't stand musicals.

Of course, we can't just write about Wicked the movie without mentioning that Boq is played by the very Jewy-looking Ethan Slater, who, in real life, left his wife for Glinda herself, Ariana Grande. And, apparently, in Wicked the book Boq is turned by Elphaba into the Tin Man?

We guess we'll have to wait for Part 2 for that... Skipping all the songs again, of course.