MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Wicked sits on my personal Mount Rushmore of musicals with Hamilton, Les Mis, and Spring Awakening, so this wasn’t just another movie night. Watching Wicked: For Good marked the end of a 13-year wait that started with a shaky bootleg recording of the Broadway musical on YouTube a 14-year-old me watched way too many times.
Casual viewers might say this sequel packs the same punch as the first film. For me, it goes harder. And it kind of has to. Act 2 has always been the problem child, squeezed between Act 1 and the 1939 Wizard of Oz film with copyright handcuffs that limits the story’s breathing room.
The Academy already honored it for Costume Design and Production Design in 2025, but this chapter raises the bar instead of coasting on past wins. Setting aside the acting races, Makeup and Hairstyling deserves its own statue; the work is so exacting that every close-up lands with intention. The detailing doesn’t just decorate Oz – it clarifies character, stakes, and atmosphere in ways the first film only hinted at.
Jon M. Chu does strong work expanding Oz like we’ve never seen before. But the first half-hour unloads the story like it’s racing a deadline: Elphaba gone west, animals fleeing, Glinda engaged, and laughable propaganda rolling. It’s a lot to track at once.
Marissa Bode’s Nessarose is now sharp, jealous, and running on pure resentment. Her acting lands but her vocals fall flat. “Wicked Witch of the East” is expected to be a showstopper, but the moment never quite lifts, and then she gets flattened by a house anyway, courtesy of Michelle Yeoh’s storm-summoning Morrible.
Jeff Goldblum’s Wizard works because he basically plays himself in a green suit. Michelle as Morrible is still a debate: it now feels very apparent that the casting directors compromised the character’s vocals in exchange for her menacing gaze and Oscar buzz.
The acting saved the film. Ethan Slater’s sudden shift from soft Boq to a rageful Tin Man is one of the best surprises, and the transformation sequence is pure nightmare fuel in the best way. Drama aside, casting him was one of Jon’s great calls.
Jonathan Bailey might not belt like his co-stars, but what he does with his eyes and sexual charisma makes up for it. Cynthia Erivo is a gravitational center. “No Good Deed” isn’t just the film’s peak; it’s the moment that cements her awards trajectory.
Ariana Grande owns the sequel outright. Her Glinda becomes thornier, more exposed, and more interesting. The performance feels like the role she was meant to win an Oscar for, not the one she didn’t get last year.
Wicked: For Good works because it compensates for Act 2’s inherent defects with maximal force. It throws spectacle, voice, acting, and emotional weight at a broken blueprint and somehow lifts it.
Am I changed for good? Yes. Could it be better? It could be, but this is the cleanest version we’ll ever get of a chapter that’s always been a little broken.
Wicked: For Good is showing in cinemas nationwide in the Philippines.
