I’m going to disclaimer my thoughts here… Wicked was not only the FIRST professional musical I ever saw (I was a junior in High School and saw it the day before my 17th birthday in Chicago… 2005. It had only been a thing for 2 years at that point), but it has maintained being my FAVORITE musical of all time. So I am VERY picky.
When it came around to the Peoria Civic Center again a few years ago, I went into it SO WORRIED. I had built it up in my head for over 10 years, would the actors be just as good as I had seen? The answer to that was YES! It was amazing. It lived up to ALL of my VERY HIGH EXPECTATIONS!
So know I have VERY high expectations. And I LOVE Ariana Grande. I wanted to like this…. buuuuuut I don’t. I’m sorely disappointed in this, honestly. Didn’t Ariana act? She could have put a LITTLE acting into this. This song is sung when Elphaba has just been told that instead of being weird, or a FREAK as she has grown up thinking about her all her life, she could actually be a useful aid to the WIZARD! This is an exciting, life changing moment, and she daydreams about how awesome it’s going to be when she and the Wizard are “Oz’s greatest team.” This is exciting… and Ariana brings exactly NONE of that excitement into this song.
I WILL say that she has the range for this song. It’s NOT an easy song to sing…Elphaba is not an easy part in general! Idina Menzel did it all in a belt voice, which is so impressive! If you haven’t heard the Original Broadway Cast version, buy the CD, it’s amazing.