News just broke that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo will star in Universal’s musical adaptation of the popular Broadway musical Wicked. Both vocalists shared the news via their Instagram. In addition to the news, Jon M. Chu will direct the featured adaptation according to Deadline.
About the Project
Ervio is set to portray Elphaba while Grande will portray Glinda. News confirmed that the project is currently in development with production set to start during summer 2022 in the U.K. Additionally, the musical will be produced by Marc Platt’s Universal-based productions. Platt originally produced the Broadway musical and will now produce the film. Alongside Platt’s production company, Erik Baiers, Senior Executive VP of Production will oversee the project for Universal Pictures with Lexi Barta, VP of Production Development. Below is Ervio and Grande’s instagram posts announcing the news.
Both artists covered their face in shock for their Instagram post. Erivo’s post read “Pink goes good with Green” with three green heart emojis. She also tagged the official account for Wicked, Ariana Grande and director Jon M. Chu. Meanwhile Grande’s post read “thank goodness” with a heart emoji and tagged her co-star, Wicked and Jon M. Chu.
Wicked is the prequel to “The Wizard of Oz.” It tells the story of the events that led up to Dorothy’ arrival to Oz. Impressively enough, the musical is still running on Broadway today.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s Record of Success
Erivo has received a Tony, Grammy and daytime Emmy award for her role as Celie in Broadway’s The Color Purple. She was most recently nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of Aretha Franklin in the Emmy-winning global anthology series: Aretha. Erivo has also released her debut album, Ch. 1 Vs. 1, with Verve/ Universal Music Group on Sept. 17.
Grande is a Grammy award-winning and multi-platinum recording artist. She first landed on Broadway in the musical 13. She also has an extraordinary record of singles debuting at #1 in the chart’s history. Moreover, Grande has released six albums that have gone platinum with 98 billion streams globally. She remains one of Spotify’s most streamed female artist of the past decade.
These two will undoubtedly give a phenomenal performance in the upcoming musical. We look forward to witnessing the magic and you should be too. Information regarding the film’s release date has not been officially set.
