This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:31] Jess: Hello and welcome to this extra special rushdown episode of Musicals with Cheese.

[0:36] Andrew Duol: I am joined, as always, by my good friend and co-host Andrew Duol. How are you doing, Andrew?

[0:41] Andrew Duol: Oh, I was doing just great until, uh, until this came up, my goodness. Let's, uh, we have an announcement for you.

[0:48] Jess: Um, our podcast.

[0:51] Jess: Special announcement. Um, our podcast, which you know you've enjoyed in one part every week, will now be released in half segments every other week.

[1:00] Andrew Duol: You know, instead of a mid-show, we're just gonna cut it there.

[1:06] Jess: Yeah, you know, the first week it's gonna be all us talking about it, then where the mid-show is, the episode will just end, and then next week we'll talk about the songs.

[1:14] Andrew Duol: And if you think about it, you're actually getting more content, because even though it's the same amount of content, I mean, it's twice as many episodes.

[1:21] Jess: Yeah, um, so Andrew, Bree and I, and all the casting crew pledge to create nothing less than an experience that honors its foundations for all of our fans who waited for our podcast, and to offer a thrilling, fantastical world of dynamic podcasting that invites all those who are unfamiliar.

[1:38] Andrew Duol: Uh, sent from my cheese phone.

[1:42] Jess: Alright, so literally, uh, about an hour ago, John M. Shu, the director of the upcoming WICKED movie, um, announced that the WICKED movie, which has been in development hell for nearly twenty years.

[1:59] Jess: Um, no, nearly twenty years, um, no, is not being released as one film but two. Andrew, why don't you just read the press release?

[2:08] Andrew Duol: Or how about I tell the full story? So, around I want to say 10 a.m. today, John M. Shu tweeted good morning with a green vial.

[2:15] Jess: And do you remember the green vial in the WICKED musical?

[2:18] Andrew Duol: Yeah.

[2:19] Jess: It's what the wizard used to date-rape Alphabet's mother.

[2:22] Andrew Duol: I, I, I, you know, I remember it.

[2:25] Jess: And then an hour later, he says, "So there's something I have to tell you," dot dot dot, in a very Trumpian manner. And then special hashtag WICKED Movie Announcement. Peace sign, uh, director's clapper, witch broom, poppies, green heart, sent from my Ozphone.

[2:42] Jess: And Andrew, why don't you just tell us what that says?

[2:45] Andrew Duol: Oh boy. So you just want me to read the, uh, release here, is that, yeah, yeah.

[2:50] Andrew Duol: Um, no, no, this is a letter sent from his Ozphone. I don't know what you're talking about press release.

[2:55] Jess: Right, right. This is the Ozphone sent from Ozphone.

[2:58] Andrew Duol: Alright, um, I think I'm gonna try to read it as initially how you're supposed to interpret it, which is, um, Special Wicked Announcement. Thank you for all the support these past several months in anticipation of the WICKED movie.

[3:13] Andrew Duol: We have so many exciting things to share, but for now I'm giving you one, or rather two. Here's what happened.

[3:21] Andrew Duol: As we prepared the production over the last year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of WICKED into a single film without doing some real damage to it.

[3:35] Andrew Duol: As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years.

[3:46] Andrew Duol: So we decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one WICKED movie, but two!

[3:53] Jess: What?

[3:55] Jess: That's not allowed!

[3:58] Andrew Duol: With more space, we can tell the story of WICKED as it was meant to be told, while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters.

[4:11] Jess: Oh boy!

[4:12] Jess: Oh great. Continue, please.

[4:15] Andrew Duol: Cynthia, Ariana, and I, and all of the cast and crew, pledge to create nothing less than an experience that honors its foundation for all the fans who have waited for this movie, and to offer a thrilling, fantastical world full of dynamic characters that invites in those who are unfamiliar.

[4:35] Andrew Duol: So get ready, because WICKED is finally coming to you on successive Christmas holidays.

[4:44] Jess: A full year, guy.

[4:48] Andrew Duol: Until then, I will be keeping you up to date throughout rehearsals, the shoot, and even editing. Here we go. Hashtag WickedMovies. Sent from my Ozphone.

[4:59] Jess: Sent from my Ozphone.

[5:01] Andrew Duol: My girlfriend.

[5:05] Jess: Yes, you know, the shortest book of the Tolkien thing in, uh, an entire trilogy for no reason. Everyone loved that.

[5:12] Andrew Duol: That was really good. Everyone really enjoyed that and was very popular, successful change.

[5:16] Jess: So WICKED's a pretty short musical as far as musicals go. Let's be clear. It's like an hour and forty, including intermission.

[5:24] Jess: And unlike most musicals, which have the structure of like basically two complete halves, WICKED actually has a three-act structure that suits a movie with very few changes.

[5:34] Andrew Duol: Did we really that afraid to cut the fucking goat song? Really?

[5:37] Jess: They didn't have to cut anything. I feel like they could have just done all of it.

[5:42] Andrew Duol: I mean, how long are movies nowadays? Like three hours, four hours, or something?

[5:49] Jess: I sat through that. It's like I don't like that, but obviously it's widely accepted and you can do it.

[5:55] Andrew Duol: So are we really, and this is my worry. Is this gonna be two three-hour movies?

[6:01] Jess: That is the question, Andrew. Um, so Twitter, how do you think the reaction would be to this? Um, because you've seen WICKED, you know what WICKED is like and how to what to expect from the overwhelmingly negative, although I haven't actually looked.

[6:14] Andrew Duol: Yeah, uh, Twitter is not happy with this. I was, my initial reaction was guttural like disgust and what? Why? How? It makes no logistical sense to me in any way aside from, well, this will make money.

[6:28] Jess: Now, let's talk about the studio producing the WICKED movie. Do you know who it is?

[6:32] Andrew Duol: I can't say I do.

[6:33] Jess: My guess would be like Warner Brothers, but—

[6:33] Andrew Duol: No, no, no, no, sir.

[6:39] Jess: All contraire, Monfere. It is Universal Pictures.

[6:41] Andrew Duol: You know, the studio that brought us such musical hits as Dear Evan Hansen and Cats.

[6:48] Jess: They just, they don't like musicals, do they?

[6:50] Andrew Duol: I think. They're like trying to kill the genre. They're like, if we just make enough bad ones in a row, no one will ever want to watch one of these again.

[6:58] Jess: Maybe, but it's, they've had the rights to WICKED basically since it came out, because I think Universal were co-producers of the original stage show, so they had first grabs at the WICKED movie.

[7:09] Andrew Duol: And like on the Universal Backlot tour, they've had a poster for WICKED, like, we're gonna do the WICKED movie, promise, one of these days, ever since like 2003.

[7:17] Jess: So they've been gr—this is a big thing coming. They know when this happens, it'll make oodles and doodles of money, right?

[7:24] Andrew Duol: Yeah.

[7:25] Andrew Duol: So they're just like, what if we did it twice?

[7:27] Jess: Yes. Um, yeah. Wicked is a very simple story. It's about a girl that like gets corrupted-ish by the media, and then, you know, is viewed as a villain. There's not much to it.

[7:39] Andrew Duol: It's a novelty show with some good pop songs. I mean, honestly, the reason it's good is that it's so simplistic, it's very easy to get into.

[7:47] Jess: Yes, it is a very easy watch. And we liked John M. Chu's other musical from last year, In the Heights. We thought he did a pretty good job with the movie musical there.

[7:56] Andrew Duol: And when I heard he was directing WICKED, I'm like, yeah, that works. I want to say I do not think that this is the director's choice.

[8:04] Jess: No.

[8:05] Andrew Duol: I am absolutely certain. Obviously, the director's not gonna come out and be like, this is an awful decision, but I have to do it. You know, they have to do this, you know.

[8:18] Jess: Okay, I'm confused. Alright, so can you let's look at the song list in WICKED. So do you remember most of the songs in WICKED?

[8:23] Andrew Duol: I'm assuming a lot of them, but I don't know if I could say most. I mean, like WICKED, I feel like it's pretty top-heavy with songs to begin with.

[8:33] Andrew Duol: Like, so we got No One Warns a WICKED, which opens the show. It's a big like every—she's dead and all that. Then we have Dear Old Shiz, which is easily cuttable number. Like, it's just a transition so that the girl that plays Alphaba has time to change into her school outfit. That is why that song is there.

[8:48] Jess: It is serving a, uh, functional use. And that's if you even need to cut it, because again, this is not even that long.

[8:55] Andrew Duol: No, it isn't. You don't even have to cut the songs. You honestly could do all of them. You really could. Les Mis did all of them, and that movie made a good amount of money for its budget.

[9:05] Jess: Yeah, but yeah, there are songs like you could cut that. If like if you really are like, man, this has to be a short movie. Okay.

[9:12] Andrew Duol: But even looking at this, the wizard and I keep it. I want song, what is this feeling? Fun song. Something bad, plot song that kinda boring, change it to dialogue, fine. Dancing through life, keep popular too iconic. I'm not that girl. Need it for the Eponine. Um, One Short Day. Like, what songs are they thinking about cutting? Is my question.

[9:28] Jess: That is so fundamental to the structure of the show. Because what is his exact words? Um, it became clear that it would be impossible to wrestle a story of WICKED in a single film without doing some real damage.

[9:39] Andrew Duol: I can do, I can see a lot of things going without damage being done, to be honest. Cut the wizard's two songs, even though Andrew loves them for some reason.

[9:48] Jess: I thought they were fun. I, I just, I don't even see why that's even necessary. Movies are so fucking long right now. And people still go to see them.

[9:56] Andrew Duol: Yeah, it's like the movie, like I understand why a movie would be longer than a stage show because you can like film transitions and the stuff that you don't really do on a stage show.

[10:05] Jess: Yeah.

[10:06] Andrew Duol: But really, how much longer? Like, even if it's an hour longer, it's still like shorter than Endgame.

[10:13] Jess: I don't think it would be stretching to even call it an hour longer. So we have to wonder, what are they doing? What do you think they're doing here, Andrew?

[10:20] Andrew Duol: I know the point that we're making is they're doing this to make money, which, yeah, we all see the big red flags there. But let's, what happens in the first act of WICKED? She basically goes with Alphabet to Emerald City, finds out bad things are happening to animals, and then she finds out the wizard's behind it and then takes off.

[10:36] Jess: Second act she reconciles with that. That's it.

[10:38] Andrew Duol: Yeah, which those are not independent stories, really.

[10:43] Jess: No.

[10:43] Andrew Duol: So it's gonna really ruin the structure to split these apart.

[10:47] Jess: Yes. Now let's say another musical, which I think would have been benefited for something like this, is Into the Woods.

[10:53] Andrew Duol: Into the Woods are two complete full stories that would have actually been very effective as two separate films, in my opinion.

[10:59] Jess: Yeah, I mean I can see that. I could at least understand the argument. In like a typical musical with just two acts that is on the longer side, sometimes they are kind of unrelated to different stories or stories that are related to each other but not necessary to tell one after another really I could see that as a movie being split up.

[11:20] Andrew Duol: This I can't really—

[11:20] Jess: No, it, it's because WICKED in its conception feels more like a film in its story narrative. Like you got a very front-loaded act one and two and then a really rough third act like that kind of gets you right to the end.

[11:35] Andrew Duol: Um, which is kind of the problem with WICKED the stage show and I brought this up in a conversation I had with Emily and Christy that the problem with WICKED as a musical is it doesn't have the structure of a musical it has a structure of a movie and now we're turning into a movie and we're turning into a structure of a stage show. What the fuck are we doing here?

[11:49] Jess: Well, I mean the integrity of the show needs it though. And you know you know what's gonna happen too is act one and two as you're saying are going to be the first movie and then act three is going to be the second movie.

[12:03] Andrew Duol: What th—that's the laughing part of, I mean that's what they're gonna do.

[12:08] Jess: In theory, what they're gonna do. There's absolutely no way they're not gonna end the first movie with Defying Gravity.

[12:14] Andrew Duol: Right.

[12:14] Jess: And now the question is, are they just gonna add a bunch of new shit to Act Two and make it its own thing where they have a new narrative and include all the songs and then 'cause the one only part that anyone really likes about Act Two of WICKED is post Alphaba meeting up with Fiero and all that.

[12:30] Andrew Duol: I maybe they're gonna expand out the Wizard of Oz section where they like show—

[12:30] Jess: Oh, that might actually be what the fuck they're doing now that I think about it. Holy shit.

[12:39] Andrew Duol: Now talking about they wanna remake the Wizard of Oz and have the WICKED side of it. Because that is not done in the stage show.

[12:45] Jess: You know, you know that's what they're doing.

[12:47] Andrew Duol: I don't know that's what they're doing. I would say that is what they're doing if it was by the people that made Wizard of Oz the movie, but how are they gonna do it?

[12:55] Jess: You can't, they don't have the rights. Let's think about this. Um, the Wizard of Oz stories, the actual Wonderful Wizard of Oz tales, are in the public domain. Anyone can use them.

[13:03] Andrew Duol: They cannot reference the MGM film though.

[13:07] Jess: That is—

[13:07] Andrew Duol: Yeah, but when people say remake the Wizard of Oz, they want the s Wizard of Oz songs.

[13:14] Jess: But they got the WICKED songs.

[13:16] Andrew Duol: That's not the—they're not the same songs.

[13:19] Jess: I I'm just telling you what I can see this argument. Look, I don't know. I don't like this at all. Because even if it somehow ends up being good, I think it's just a bad precedent.

[13:28] Andrew Duol: It is. And they've done this before, like that Harry Potter book that they split into two, which they should not have split into two.

[13:35] Jess: Um, and then you end I think with that one you ended up with like one movie that was just like padded and boring, and then the other movie was like all of the good stuff.

[13:44] Andrew Duol: Yeah.

[13:45] Jess: But which side is gonna have the good stuff in this one?

[13:48] Andrew Duol: Probably act one.

[13:49] Andrew Duol: Yeah.

[13:50] Jess: Okay. So do you think that act one is just basically gonna be the same?

[13:54] Andrew Duol: Act one has too much actual stuff and like popular songs to really change anything, I think.

[13:59] Jess: Yeah, I mean, all the big famous ones in WICKED are in Act One, like "Dancing Through Life," "Defying Gravity."

[14:07] Andrew Duol: You have the ones that people know, like "For Good" and all that in Act Two and "No Good Deed," but they're not like the heavy hitters. And they've already said, um, Steven Schwartz that he's writing new songs for the WICKED movie. That's been said for at least five, six years now.

[14:21] Jess: I don't know. The only opportunity I see here is them implementing the Wizard of Oz story into it and showing the WICKED Witch her side of that, because that is something of a wasted opportunity from the stage show that they don't interact, at least from the mind of, say, a person that loves money and Universal. I could see the average moviegoer wanting to see Dorothy and the Lion and the Tin Man and all that in a more fulfilling space.

[14:50] Andrew Duol: Yeah, so I imagine that's what I think they're doing, and I don't like it. Me trying to unpack this is not me saying I like it. It's me trying to understand the mindset because up to this point I was just so confused.

[15:04] Jess: I mean, I had that thought that that might be what they'd go for. Just I don't think I want to see that.

[15:10] Andrew Duol: No, if you look at the story from like, you know, what actually matters to the story perspective, that doesn't add anything at all, other than just like remember this.

[15:21] Jess: Yes, it'll be the Avengers: Endgame of musical theater movies.

[15:25] Andrew Duol: Yeah, it's just remembering Wizard of Oz. Like, yeah, I remember Wizard of Oz. Cool. But you were doing something different.

[15:33] Jess: We should talk about the fact that the WICKED musical is based on a book, which is decidedly a very, very, very different piece, a different beast altogether than the WICKED musical.

[15:43] Andrew Duol: Well, that's what I was gonna ask. Is this are they basing this on the book more than the show?

[15:48] Jess: Is that what they're saying?

[15:49] Andrew Duol: No, I do not believe that's what they're doing. Other people are suggesting it, but I fundamentally just don't think that's what's gonna happen.

[15:57] Jess: Because does anyone even care about the book at this point?

[15:59] Andrew Duol: There are some fans, but it's just a very political story, very overtly sexual. There's like an animal orgy scene, like Alpha and Glinda make out. Like it's much more implied that the wizard raped Alphabet's mother. Like there's some real stuff that you really can't cut from the story, I mean without doing without a fatal compromise.

[16:23] Jess: That's the thing that he's like, "Oh, we need the animal orgy, come on." It's like, well, they cut it from the stage show, so um yeah, it's the politics of Munchkin Land, which yeah, that's a big part of the book, and it's not good. The book isn't good, guys. I know a lot of people like it, but my full thought here is just even if it ends up being good, I'm still gonna be disappointed because I'd rather just have one good movie than two.

[16:52] Andrew Duol: Well, the thing, it'll be like It and It Chapter Two, where everyone kinda liked It Chapter One, the first one, and then the second one was just kind of hot garbage. And now either no one watches either.

[17:04] Jess: I just don't quite understand why, like, in It they didn't just do one movie.

[17:09] Andrew Duol: I almost understood it in It, because it is kind of broken up into two distinct sections in a way. I almost understood that argument.

[17:17] Jess: The problem is that the second section is just bad.

[17:20] Andrew Duol: Yes.

[17:21] Jess: And that's why the first movie is good and the second movie isn't.

[17:24] Andrew Duol: But have you watched the first It movies since that second one came out?

[17:27] Jess: No, I haven't.

[17:28] Andrew Duol: No one has, because that second one ruins the first one retroactively. And I think that's the situation we might be in here.

[17:35] Jess: Well, I know that I watched all three of the Hobbit movies.

[17:39] Andrew Duol: You did?

[17:40] Jess: Yeah, and I was hugely disappointed, and I just wanted, I was just like, man, if this was just one movie, it probably would have been good.

[17:46] Andrew Duol: I gave up after the second one. I'm like, I'm done. This is bad. This is a bad experience.

[17:52] Jess: So how long do you think each part is gonna be? Do you think they're gonna be their own like two-ish hour movie? Or do you think they'll give us a tight 90 minutes like Sonic the Hedgehog?

[18:01] Andrew Duol: Well, that's my real worry. Like, movies are kind of expected to be like at least two hours at this point, if not more. Like when was the last time like a big movie came out that was 90 minutes long?

[18:12] Jess: Sonic the Hedgehog, probably.

[18:13] Andrew Duol: But then the sequel is like two and a half hours.

[18:15] Jess: Everything Everywhere All at Once was like 90 minutes, and that felt great.

[18:19] Andrew Duol: Sure, sure, but that wasn't like a...

[18:21] Jess: No. That didn't even get like a full release, did it?

[18:23] Andrew Duol: It got like...

[18:25] Jess: It did eventually.

[18:26] Andrew Duol: It did eventually, but it didn't at first.

[18:27] Jess: Um, so they're saying that they can't fit it all into a two-hour slot.

[18:33] Andrew Duol: Which is a lie. That like that is a lie, fundamentally.

[18:38] Jess: Well, yes, but they're saying that's the case, so does that mean that they have like six hours of material and we're gonna get two three-hour movies?

[18:45] Andrew Duol: If that's the case, I might not even want to watch this, Jess.

[18:51] Jess: We have to for content.

[18:53] Andrew Duol: Oh, you know we're gonna fucking watch this if we're still doing this show somehow in 2024.

[18:58] Jess: Movies have just gotten bad. What happened to movies? You know what movie I watched recently that just reminded me of how good movies used to be?

[19:05] Andrew Duol: Uh, The Quick and the Dead, which is a film that was a flop and got bad reviews, and I'm like, no, this movie's fantastic, and they just didn't understand good things when they had it back in the day.

[19:15] Jess: I mean, there's still like good movies that come out, but like it feels like big budget, like, you know, triple-A type movies or whatever they call them in the movie scene. They're all just long and bloated and padded and like can we just tell like a story?

[19:33] Andrew Duol: You know what movie definitely tried to tell a story, but you know what? We just decided not to accept it, Jess.

[19:39] Jess: What's it?

[19:40] Andrew Duol: Dear Evan Hansen. They just wanted to tell a story about a little boy that told a lot of lies.

[19:45] Jess: Okay, on the real though, yeah.

[19:47] Andrew Duol: Dear Evan Hansen, they got to fit in two hours.

[19:51] Jess: Yeah. How the fuck could you not fit WICKED in two hours? They got Les Mis to fit into a movie that made money.

[19:58] Andrew Duol: Yeah, you cannot tell me that Les Mis has less plot than fucking WICKED.

[20:03] Jess: Have you seen the book, Les Mis? It's a fucking encyclopedia.

[20:09] Andrew Duol: Um, yes I have. I read it when I was in high school 'cause, you know, I hate it.

[20:12] Jess: The thing is like this fucking big.

[20:14] Andrew Duol: It is, it is.

[20:16] Jess: And I fit that in one movie. Wicked is just so important, Andrew. Like the good girl becomes bad and then green, bad green girl.

[20:26] Andrew Duol: Yeah.

[20:26] Jess: Are they gonna cut out all the Bush era politics?

[20:29] Andrew Duol: That would be nice.

[20:30] Jess: I'm sure they'll just replace them with Trump era politics, but by politics.

[20:34] Andrew Duol: Whatever.

[20:35] Jess: The Oz gas prices are too high because we're at war with Hogwarts.

[20:39] Andrew Duol: Bruh.

[20:41] Jess: I I'm just so deeply baffled by this decision. And it's like I don't understand any net positive of this, 'cause I feel like the second one's probably gonna get cancelled in between. Or an actor is gonna get cancelled in between. Or even if they're both good, if I want to watch WICKED, now I have to watch six hours of content.

[21:00] Andrew Duol: You're right.

[21:01] Jess: Okay, that is a good point. If I want to tell my friend how great the musical WICKED is, and the only way I can legally show them a good version of WICKED is gonna be a six-hour two-part fucking event movie.

[21:12] Andrew Duol: What the hell?

[21:13] Jess: It's like, alright, well, I could have showed them like an hour and a half movie. They probably would have enjoyed that, but now they're like, oh, let's make a goddamn event and stay up all fucking night and watching like Lord of the Rings.

[21:26] Andrew Duol: If we want the musical equivalent of Lord of the Rings, people can't even handle watching The Sound of Music once a year.

[21:32] Jess: And that is an intermission.

[21:33] Andrew Duol: Lord of the Rings, if that came out now, that would have been like nine movies.

[21:37] Jess: Yeah.

[21:38] Andrew Duol: They made every single one of the Lord of the Rings books, which are thick books, into one movie.

[21:42] Jess: One movie each.

[21:43] Andrew Duol: So don't say that Lord of the Rings or whatever, oh, they did it. Because each one of those movies is only one book.

[21:49] Jess: And each one of those movies made a lot of money at three hours in length, which is also important to clarify.

[21:55] Andrew Duol: Three-hour movies make money.

[21:57] Jess: Oh, okay.

[21:58] Andrew Duol: I don't know. This is an annoying one. I don't like this.

[22:01] Jess: Um, I feel like there's no good reason for it other than just they think they can sell it twice.

[22:06] Andrew Duol: Like they just think, oh, we can sell this movie two times.

[22:09] Jess: Yeah, I have no answers. I just confusion, just overall confusion.

[22:13] Andrew Duol: Um, Jess, what would you do if you're the director of the WICKED movie? And the studio comes to you saying, "Hey, this is our last musical tentpole we own. The last two we held on to really blew up in our fucking faces. I know what's a good idea. We'll fucking do something that will get a ton of negative press, and nobody will be like will like. That'll really sell this third one that we have."

[22:37] Jess: Yeah, it's the last one, I think. It's the last musical they own. Like, because they held on to Cats forever. They got Dear Evan Hansen when the iron was hot, and they've had WICKED forever, because every time they've gotten a director, they've quit or whatever the fuck. This movie was thought to be cursed for so long, Andrew.

[22:53] Andrew Duol: Well, apparently they were right, because you know, now it's two movies.

[22:57] Jess: Um, do you know anything about the casting choices that were announced like a couple months ago?

[23:02] Andrew Duol: No, I don't.

[23:03] Jess: It's Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

[23:06] Andrew Duol: Okay.

[23:07] Jess: And people are like very against Ariana Grande, strangely.

[23:10] Andrew Duol: Um, to be honest, I don't know enough about Ariana Grande to have any opinion.

[23:14] Jess: Well, they're like, she's a pop star, and then other people tend to forget she got her start at a fucking Jason Robert Brown musical, and then after that she was on Nickelodeon doing comedy for ten years. Like she has both acting chops and stage chops, and then she also just became super popular. So if there's anyone to do it, it should be fine that it's her.

[23:32] Andrew Duol: Also, being a pop star and being in WICKED are not like... That's a good thing.

[23:36] Jess: That's a net positive.

[23:37] Andrew Duol: Yeah, isn't like one of the WICKED songs like literally just a pop song at this point?

[23:41] Jess: Yeah, it's popular.

[23:42] Andrew Duol: I oh, Ariana Grande did a cover of "Popular," and yeah.

[23:46] Jess: Okay, as long as you can emote while you're singing, I think you're okay.

[23:50] Andrew Duol: Yeah, I think so too.

[23:51] Jess: Um, I was actually pretty excited for this movie, and really this dropped my excitement to the fucking down below dinosaur bones.

[24:01] Andrew Duol: Yeah, I'll be honest. I thought that this could have been good, and now I'm just like, this is just gonna be a fucking slog, isn't it?

[24:08] Jess: It's gonna be like padded to shit. And I can't imagine what they could do to the first act to make it longer, or are they just gonna create a new second half of the movie?

[24:19] Andrew Duol: Also, how is that first act gonna like resolve? With "Defying Gravity" and her running off and everyone it's gonna have Empire Strikes Back and we'll say continued in part two or some shit like that.

[24:29] Jess: I can see it right now.

[24:31] Andrew Duol: Yeah. It worked once, guys. It literally only worked once. It has never worked again ever since.

[24:38] Jess: Also, what if the first part is bad?

[24:41] Andrew Duol: Yeah.

[24:43] Jess: Are you gonna do that? The first part is bad. Are we gonna have the second part? Is that just gonna be gone and then we're gonna have half the WICKED movie?

[24:50] Andrew Duol: What if it's like Morbius levels bad?

[24:50] Jess: Level bad? Where they like so like we got Michael Keaton, we're gonna have him fight Spider-Man. The movie's just so terrible, so unwatchable. Like if it's Dear Evan Hansen level of meme quality, terrible.

[25:03] Andrew Duol: I don't... they might... they're probably gonna film both the movies at the same time, so they might just put it out anyways, but direct to HBO Max or whatever the fuck or direct to Peacock.

[25:12] Jess: Well, I have no more to say. I've expressed all of my opinions on this. This is a bad decision, that's all I've got.

[25:19] Andrew Duol: What is your guys' thoughts though? Let us know over on our Twitter page at Cheesy Musicals.

[25:25] Jess: And you know what? Later this week, we got a pretty fun episode coming out. Um, yeah, I think it's gonna be a good one. So we'll see you again. You got a little extra. You got a little extra salt on your taco this week.

[25:36] Andrew Duol: I'm salty, alright.

[25:38] Jess: Yeah. Um, let's m uh, we'll keep you updated on more WICKED news on this WICKED channel, alright?

[25:46] Andrew Duol: Maybe we can get the Sonic thing happening.

[25:48] Jess: We'll just... everybody hates this so much they don't do it.

[25:51] Andrew Duol: Honestly, that was the thing I wanted to bring up. Like, do you think we could get them to undo this with like enough social media backlash? Because I don't want this.

[25:56] Jess: Nobody wants this.

[25:59] Andrew Duol: No one was like, "Oh boy, great. More WICKED."

[26:01] Jess: Yeah.

[26:03] Andrew Duol: Alright, Jess.

[26:04] Jess: Andrew's tired. We gotta let him go to bed.

[26:06] Andrew Duol: He gotta have his little anger boy now.

[26:09] Jess: I'm just... yeah. Hopefully they don't... hopefully they don't follow through with this, but I just don't... I don't see how that's happening.

[26:14] Andrew Duol: Yeah, they seemed pretty excited about this and thought that everyone was gonna be real pumped about it, but it's not how it's looking, guys.

[26:22] Jess: But you know what? We'll see you next time on Musicals with Cheese.

[26:27] Andrew Duol: Bye-bye, folks.

[26:28] Jess: Bye-bye, everybody.

[26:29] ♪ Musical number: "Defying Gravity" — performed by Idina Menzel ♪