'Wicked' defies gravity, if not time

'Wicked' defies gravity, if not time toggle caption Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures Goodness knows, it feels as if Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have been attached at the hip for the better part of this century, crying and bantering together while adorned in fabulous ensembles of green, black, and pink, the official colors of Wicked. And with regards to Wicked: Part 1 many things are true at once: the excellent Erivo and Grande couldn't have been better suited to play Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Galinda, who goes on to become Glinda the Good Witch; the movie's themes are evergreen and relevant; and whoever made the decision to divide the stage show into two separate movies deserves to be cursed by a spell from the book of the Grimmerie. toggle caption Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures There's a lot to recommend here, particularly for fans of the show – the humor is punchy, Christopher Scott's expressive choreography enhances the characterizations, and Paul Tazewell's costume design details are perfection. toggle caption Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures For all its virtues and relevance, however, it's curious that in this two-hour-41-minute adaptation of the first act of the show – longer, it should be noted, than the entire stage production without intermission – little of substance was added to justify making this affair a two-parter.