BROOM for improvement

WHILE SECOND PART OF HIT MUSICAL ADAPTATION HAS ITS MAGIC MOMENTS, IT SADLY DOESN'T DEFY GRAVITY IN QUITE THE SAME WAY AS ITS POPULAR PREDECESSOR

- REVIEWS BY DAMON SMITH

THE first part of Jon M Chu’s swankified film version of the blockbuster stage musical, based loosely on Gregory Maguire's novel, concluded with Cynthia Erivo’s rousing battle cry from Defying Gravity echoing in our ears, lighting a fuse on the war for the hearts and minds of Oz.

In Wicked: For Good, it has been 12 time turns since Elphaba (Erivo) - unfairly misnomered as the Wicked Witch because of her visible otherness and formidable magical powers - escaped the clutches of the fraudulent Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh).

The green-skinned protector of silenced animals lives in exile in the Ozian woods, plotting acts of protest such as disrupting construction of the yellow brick road linking the Emerald City to Munchkinland.