We’ve known for a while that part of Wicked: For Good‘s plan to expand on the second act of the beloved musical and turn it into a fully fledged feature film was two brand-new songs by Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz. But after a dazzling live show broadcast on NBC last night, we finally got to hear some of them.
Although both songs—”The Girl in a Bubble”, sung by Ariana Grande’s Glinda, and “No Place Like Home”, sung by Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba—have been given tiny teases in For Good‘s trailers, two new previews broadcast during last night’s showing of Wicked: One Wonderful Night gave us a little bit more, including teasing a bit of their context in the film itself.
The preview of “Girl in the Bubble” sets the song during a night at Glinda’s lavish headquarters in the Emerald City, as she mournfully rues getting everything she’s wanted in life since she was a child now that she’s “Glinda the Good” at the behest of Madame Morrible and the Wizard’s design after the first movie.
Meanwhile, “No Place Like Home” sees Elphaba likewise contemplatively sorrowful, as she reflects on loving the land of Oz that has been made to despise her as the “Wicked Witch of the West.” It’s interesting that seemingly both new songs, or at least these snippets, see Glinda and Elphaba ruminating on the titles they’ve been given—as well as the fact that both previews pull footage from the unseen poppy field sequence teased for the first film, flashing us back to happier times between Elphaba, Glinda, Boq, Nessarose, and Fiyero back at Shiz University.
Between that and the already known reveal that we’d be seeing glimpses of Glinda’s own childhood in For Good (played by young actress Scarlett Spears), we can start seeing that the movie’s expansive take on Wicked‘s second act is going involve looking backwards as much as it is forwards to flesh out the musical’s relatively rushed back half.
We’ll have to wait and see just what else is new in the land of Oz for a few more weeks before Wicked: For Good hits theaters November 21, but in the meantime, One Wonderful Night wrapped with a special performance of “For Good”, the emotional climax of the musical, performed at its Broadway home at the Gershwin Theater by Grande, Erivo, and original Broadway stars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth—a fun way to include the iconic song without giving too much away of how it’ll be performed in the film. Catch a tiny glimpse here:
Wicked: One Wonderful Night is now streaming on Peacock, and a full album of the live performances (including “For Good”) is now streaming on digital platforms.
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