The first thing you need to know about the new movie version of Bad is that, despite the fact that it is only Part I of a two-part adaptation, it’s actually longer than the entire blockbuster musical on which it’s based. At two hours and forty minutes, it’s about ten minutes longer than the original Broadway musical’s two hours and thirty minutes—its actual running time, if you ignore the show’s typical 15-minute intermission. The film itself doesn’t fit in time for such a break (this isn’t the ’60s), but ends right at the plot point that serves as the musical’s famous finale to Act 1: “Defying Gravity,” the song that sung by an Elphaba is wrongly persecuted as she eventually rides her broom into the sky, destined to be forever vilified as the Wicked Witch of the West. You can be forgiven for not realizing that this is all fair Part Ias the marketing tends to simply advertise it Bad. But even as an adaptation of the show’s first act, which usually lasts ninety minutes, the length is nearly doubled. There are many Badbut here’s a surprise: so far it’s actually working, and I’m very much in line with my colleague Dana Stevens’ rave.

In the years before Part I‘s release, a flurry of news stories teased all kinds of new goodies that would be included in the film: additional songs from composer Stephen Schwartz (which will likely be featured in Part twonext November), more storylines and details from the 1995 novel of the same name that inspired the musical, and several “added elements” to the beloved songs. But how exactly does that contribute to… Part I that’s a whole hour longer than that Bad‘s first act? We break it down below.

The plot

Bad: Part I makes the smart decision not to add many side plots. Instead, it uses much of the extra running time to flesh out the main characters – and the complex relationships between them. This starts from the moment of Glinda’s opening flashback, as she talks about Elphaba’s unhappy upbringing. The illegitimate baby, born with green skin and subsequently rejected by her parents, is then revealed to be largely raised by a nanny bear (voiced by three-time Olivier Award winner Sharon D. Clarke), who never appears in the film. show. The film also changes how she ends up at Shiz University, further accentuating her place as a neglected outcast in the family. In the musical, Elphaba and her sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) enroll at Shiz together, but in the film only Nessarose will be present; Only after their father (Andy Nyman) pushes Elphaba to ensure Nessarose reaches her dorm safely does Elphaba follow her to a gathering spot on campus and receive an unexpected invitation to the school. This happens when, in a moment of worry and panic, she casts a spell that lifts Nessarose into the air and carries many surrounding objects with it, causing a huge mess and embarrassing Nessarose, who rolls away in a huff. Shiz headmistress Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) witnesses this and, impressed, not only allows Elphaba into the school, but also offers to give her private magic lessons – sessions we see throughout the film, although they are never shown in the musical. (In the show, Elphaba alone pulls Nessarose’s wheelchair away from Madame Morrible, who then takes Glinda to Elphaba’s room.)

We also see more oppressed, talking animals at Shiz University. In the first act of the musical, the goat professor Dr. Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage) the main animal character.

There are more of him here, and more of his animal colleagues, including a tamarin monkey, an owl, a deer and a shoebill stork. The “Something Bad” sequence, originally just a classroom duet between Elphaba and Dillamond, becomes a largely solo song for the latter in an added scene, in which we see him encounter other animals to combat Oz’s escalating discrimination against his non-human residents to discuss. Elphaba sneaks outside their meeting room and eavesdrops, but is eventually spotted and welcomed by Dillamond. Another new bit about Dillamond: an all-movie character, Miss Coddle (The greatest showman‘S Keala Settle), is depicted as a Dorothea Umbridge-style heel who forces Dillamond out of college while Oz further drives his animal populations out of public life.

Another character who gets a little more shine during this middle section: Fiyero (Bridgerton‘S Jonathan Bailey), the shared romantic interest between Glinda and Elphaba. After Dillamond is fired, the new rules for treating animals in Shiz are made clear when a new professor drives a lion cub (the future Cowardly Lion) into a cage. In the musical, Elphaba flies into a rage on the spot, and she runs away with Fiyero, taking the cub with her; in the film, Elphaba devises a separate plan with Fiyero outside the classroom to sneak into the classroom, grab the cub, and free him in the surrounding woods, where Fiyero and Elphaba coincidentally first met a few scenes ago. (In the show, their first meeting is on Shiz’s campus.)

Part IThe film’s climax is also drawn out, offering more of the action audiences would expect from a Hollywood finale. It begins with Glinda and Elphaba’s visit to the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), who explains his vision for a beautiful stone road; the young witches choose yellow as an appropriate color, a moment of knowledge building that is absent in the stage production. The ensuing escape sequence is in no hurry, showing Glinda and Elphaba failing to retrieve the Wizard’s hot air balloon from his castle (a plot point not featured in the show) and the latter struggling to fly to it. first before she masters her skills and takes control of her broom. In the show, she leaves almost immediately. The song playing during that harrowing event (you know, “Defying Gravity”) has been stretched to accommodate the changes, which brings us to…

The songs

Bad: Part I doesn’t contain any new music tracks, but the beloved songs all get a big boost, and Fiyero’s “Dancing Through Life” gets an extra special boost. Although the musical performs that song at the party where Elphaba and Glinda finally strengthen their friendship, Jon M. Chu, who made a name for himself as director of the Step up movies, gives “Dancing” much more bombast, lengthening the song, slowing down the rhythm and placing the choreography in various cinematic settings, including a gigantic rotating library. (For a general idea of ​​how the film’s soundtrack differs from the cast recording, just compare the corresponding track lengths – many of the film versions are at least a minute or two longer.)

I’ve mentioned the reasons why “Something Bad” and “Defying Gravity” take longer than expected, but “One Short Day,” the catchy ballad that soundtracks Elphaba and Glinda’s journey to the Emerald City, also takes on an extra duty: Rules are added to explain it Grimmeriea mystical spellbook owned by the Wizard (and later read by Elphaba, upon casting the spell that painfully gives a monkey new wings). The stage version, like Bad fans know well, is more focused on the awe-inspiring wonders of the Emerald City. If the conventions of modern big-budget filmmaking require a bit more of an exhibition dump, I guess you might as well do it in song.