The Wizard

Paul Tazewell’s costumes for the film adaptation of Wicked conjure their own kind of magic.

- marley marius

The story of Wicked has become, over time, one simply crammed with astonishing figures—and I don’t only mean the likes of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. Twenty-one years: That’s how long the show has been running at New York’s Gershwin Theatre. $1.6 billion: That’s how much it’s grossed on Broadway, at time of writing. Twenty-five: That’s how many actors have played Elphaba in that production full-time. (There have been 22 Glindas.) Add to that the 238 costume changes, 226 pairs of shoes, and 84 wigs per performance, and one’s eyes begin to water a bit. It’s a lot—but then again, isn’t “a lot” sort of Wicked’s whole thing? It’s a big show about the powers of good and evil, with a talking goat, flying monkeys, and a spiky love triangle thrown in for good measure.

The team charged with turning Wicked into a two-part movie-musical extravaganza starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande has certainly embraced its muchness. For costume designer Paul Tazewell (a Tony winner for Hamilton and an Oscar nominee for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story), the project had three main references: Gregory Maguire’s