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How ‘The Wizard and I’ Became the Most Challenging Number in ‘Wicked’: From Planting Barley Fields to De-Greenifying Cynthia Erivo and a Scrapped Tornado Garden


'Wicked' director Jon M. Chu and more break down how the film's 'Wizard and I' scene was made.

As Elphaba’s ( Cynthia Erivo) “I want” song, it expresses the character’s innermost desires: to meet the wizard who she believes will help her, and to feel accepted by everyone, including the audience. When she runs through the field in the song, Tazewell says, “She’s so emotionally exuberant that she throws herself up in the air.” He used chiffon in both her sleeves and hem, so the dress “flutters out from underneath, so we get this sense of flight.” It was the perfect parallel for what was to come later: Elphaba would run, and this time she would ascend and fly high in “Defying Gravity,” when her full power and strength are finally realized.

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