Wicked: One Wonderful Night soared onto NBC on November 6, featuring big-voiced performances from Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and the cast of Wicked and Wicked: For Good. But the magic really happened over a month ago, when Wicked: One Wonderful Night was taped in front of a live audience at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Disclosure: I was there in my capacity as host of Universal’s official Wicked podcast.) Here’s what the cameras didn’t capture—and which moments didn’t make it to the final telecast.
Ariana Grande and companyNBC
A LONG YELLOW BRICK ROAD
Audience members were instructed to arrive at the theater no later than 4:30 p.m. to guarantee entry to the taping—and they were in for a lengthy night. By the time One Wonderful Night had concluded, it was half past nine, making the event a five-hour marathon. (The Wicked superfans present, many of whom were decked out in their Ozian best, didn’t seem to mind.)
After tucking their phones away in Yondr pouches, audience members could mingle with friendly faces from the Wicked press tour, like Bowen Yang’s Las Culturistas bestie Matt Rogers and journalist Tracy E. Gilchrist, who was able to hold space in the flesh. Some cast members that didn’t participate in the special, like little Cesily Collette Taylor—who plays baby Nessarose—were also cheering on their castmates from the audience. Director Jon M. Chu made a special appearance, introducing never-before-seen clips from the movie featured in the special. That was a recurring theme of the evening; Erivo, Grande, and Yang all teased snippets of the second film’s new songs, “No Place Like Home” and “The Girl in the Bubble,” as well as a special performance of “For Good,” sung by Erivo and Grande, filmed live at the Gershwin Theatre—only to reveal later that this footage wouldn’t actually be shown until the special aired.
TAKE TWO
The songs in Wicked are notoriously tricky, and some numbers at the taping had to be recorded more than once. Toward the beginning of the evening, Erivo wowed the audience with a choreography-forward rendition of “The Wizard and I,” which kicked off with her costar Jeff Goldblum—also an accomplished jazz musician—tickling the ivories. During her first shot, Erivo switched around the lyrics in the bridge of the song—understandable, as that portion uses a melody that Elphaba repeats with different lyrics throughout the show. She sang the whole thing again afterward, nailing the words on her second try.
Erivo also took two cracks at her literally soaring rendition of “Defying Gravity,” which launched her toward the ceiling of the Dolby Theatre. Though her first rendition was note-and-word perfect, production needed to capture certain aspects of the act from different angles—which meant Erivo had to strap into her harness and belt out the number a second time, much to the audience’s delight.
