Last night site manager Emily emailed me a photo list and she called Wicked “Wicket” and that is all I am thinking about. WICKET. I am seeing WICKET on Sunday, an unusual day for a press screening, but there are so many screenings right now as critics groups get ready for their year-end votes, scheduling is a total car crash. I just want you to know and appreciate that I am sacrificing a Sunday afternoon for WICKET, a musical, and yes, I am preemptively annoyed about it.
There was a special screening of WICKET in New York last night. Cynthia Erivo showed up in a decent black Dior gown—though not nearly as good as her Thom Browne look in Mexico City—and Ariana Grande wore mauve Louis Vuitton with a limp peplum. I don’t hate peplums, in general, but I need them to be more structured, more like an architectural element on the dress, and not like this limp lamp shade around Ari’s waist. Jonathan Bailey, meanwhile, turned up in what looks like a crushed velvet tuxedo, a look only he can pull off.
The New York event also brought out Bowen Yang, Anna Wintour and her daughter Bee Shaffer (are they super fans…?), and OG Wicked Broadway star, Oklahoma’s own Kristin Chenoweth. I would pay five real dollars for Kristin’s opinion on the film. Not whatever PR line she’s giving the media, the real and unfiltered opinion. Broadway gossip is its own unique beast, as we have recently been reminded with the Hugh Jackman/Sutton Foster situationship. Broadway gossips were buzzing about them back in their Music Man era, and now we’re getting timelines and accusations of overlap and it’s all very “Ariana and Spongebob”.
In conclusion, “Wicket” would be a great name for a cat, and I would pay real money to gossip with Kristin Chenoweth. I bet her tea is scalding.
