The Wicked: One Wonderful Night producers had a tough task when NBC Universal decided to bridge musical, film, television and social media for a one-of-a-kind celebration of the blockbuster franchise.
“We had a very tight rehearsal timeline leading into the show. Basically, the entire show got rehearsed in two days,” says executive producer Raj Kapoor.
The busy Emmy winner — so busy we spoke with him just a few hours after he wrapped up producing the 98th Academy Awards — says the star-studded Wicked extravaganza was pulled together last September in just a 10-day window. It aired in November and is now streaming on Peacock.
“It was like orchestra rehearsals, dance rehearsals, fittings, camera block, and then go,” he says. “So, a really, really short amount of time.”
The Wonderful Night reunited most of the Wicked movie cast – Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Ethan Slater and Jonathan Bailey — ahead of the sequel’s theatrical release.
The variety special offered fans a magical blend of musical performances, fun sketches, and candid conversations reflecting on the cast’s experience making the global phenomenon. To set the tone, the production team knew the opening sequence had to be a dazzling tribute to the worlds of Broadway and broadcast while signaling something new was dawning.
“We did want to tell people, like, this is not the movie; this is not going to be a live musical,” Kapoor says. “We wanted to make sure that people knew this was going to be something really different, and special and unique.”
They collaborated with the Wicked films’ choreographer, Christopher Scott, to direct a riveting one-shot tour through the studio backlot and backstage, right up to the curtain raiser. They seamlessly incorporated Easter eggs and practical props from the world of Oz, instead of digital overlays, to present the credits. It was such a marvelous and meticulous display of choreographed ingenuity that even people who had never seen Wicked could be immediately absorbed.
“We wanted to let people know that we were going to be in the theater, that there were going to be some elements of dance and choreography, but ultimately, it launched you directly into the live show,” Kapoor explains. “And from there, all the other departments started to get involved — from costuming, to props, to production design, to our whole technical camera team — in how we were going to pull it off.”
Scott, who earned his DGA card by directing the segment, rehearsed with dancers for about four hours, and then shot the sequence in one hour after about two hours of pre-camera blocking.
“We had a very tight rehearsal timeline leading into the show,” Kapoor says. “But it was really fun, and Chris did an amazing job filming it.”
Planning Was Crucial to Wicked: One Wonderful Night
Creative conversations with key cast and crew began in earnest over the summer, and fans were the focus from the start.
“That was part of the story. Wicked’s success belongs to the fans and they’re so engaged with it,” Kapoor says. “They know every lyric, they know every nuance, so we wanted to celebrate that. We knew how viral some of those moments [from the movie] were; people celebrating the book dance, and then people like practicing their gravity-defying battle cry.”
That intention shines throughout the show, including in the seating. The audience included many, many hardscore fans.
“They were one of the best audiences I’ve ever had at any show that I’ve ever produced,” Kapoor says. “The joy that you see just emanating from their faces just added to what the special became, because it wasn’t just what happened on stage, it was what happened in the audience. And that lovely relationship between performer and camera and audience — I think, as a viewer at home, you also felt that energy.”
That relationship between performer and audience reaches a pinnacle when Grande surprises one very lucky little boy in his seat with an invitation to play the part of Elphaba opposite Galinda in her live rendition of “Popular.”
“We’re like, ‘What if you did this with a fan?’ And she was very direct that she would love it to be a boy. She thought that was a really great twist, because, actually, so many boys love Wicked,” Kapoor explains of the adorable moment between the actress and a 4-year-old from Detroit named Remington, who had previously gone viral for expressing his fandom.
“He and his mom did not actually know that he was going on stage,” Kapoor adds. “He was a special guest, but all those reactions you see are him in the moment. Arianna’s cracking up, she couldn’t stop smiling. And I think it just added to this real, beautiful story of humanity.”
Wicked: One Wonderful Night is now streaming on Peacock. You can read more of our Emmy contender interviews here.
Main image: Jeff Goldblum and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked: One Wonderful Night. Peacock