Audiences around the world are loving Wicked. The movie musical is a family-friendly crowd pleaser with gut-busting comedy, emotional highs and lows, and outstanding vocal performances. What’s not to like?
Well, according to a conservative news station, Wicked — or rather, its cast — has one major problem that its hosts predict could be the film’s downfall.
On Newsmax, a self-described “independent news network with a conservative perspective,” a panel of hosts discussed Wicked — a film they acknowledge is “breaking records at the box office” — and what they see as the issue with its press tour.
“While its two co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo should be promoting the movie on their big media tour, instead they’re promoting the woke narrative,” they complained, pointing to Grande and Erivo’s viral interview with Gay Times, where Grande said her character Glinda “might be a little in the closet,” and both she and Erivo agreed that the land of Oz is innately queer.
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That’s where one host shared what she sees as the root of the problem: “I think it’s Ariana Grande inserting herself and making things go woke,” she said. “And as we know, if you go woke, you go broke, so I don’t think this strategy is going to work.”
Apparently, the hosts aren’t paying attention to their own show. Just moments prior to claiming Wicked will “go broke,” they acknowledged its record-breaking sales. In its opening weekend alone, the movie made $165 million globally, the highest ever total for a stage-to-screen adaptation and the best opening for a non-sequel film in 2024. Those numbers are only rising as Wicked stays at the center of all things pop culture, purported wokeness and all.
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It seems that no theater (or movie theater) is safe.
Then there’s the fact that Wicked has been for the gays, by the gays since it first hit the Broadway stage back in 2003. Queer people are an integral part of musical theater, both in audiences and behind the scenes, and the movie’s cast features tons of queer talent, including leads Erivo and Jonathan Bailey.
Clearly, the folks at Newsmax need to step outside their conservative bubble and realize the rest of the world is obsessed with Wicked, Grande and her “woke” ideas included.
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