John Powell & Stephen Schwartz - Wicked (2024) & Wicked: For Good (2025)

[PrayodiBA 973]

Glorious new sneak peek of Powell’s score in this video:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DA3PmwpuuYK

Here I extracted the audio:

 

 

This shaping up to be a new Powell masterpiece? 

[Edmilson 12,053]

51 minutes ago, PrayodiBA said:

This shaping up to be a new Powell masterpiece? 

Hopefully! This year's Christmas is going to be great for JP fans.

[Thor 9,344]

Nothing could possibly interest me LESS than WICKED (that goes for both stage and film version). But sometimes good scores may come from the most uninteresting sources. I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt; it's been a few years since Powell made much of an impression on me. Might have been SOLO, acually, and that's already six years old.

[PrayodiBA 973]

13 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Hopefully! This year's Christmas is going to be great for JP fans.

YES INDEED!

It’s like we are entering a Powell renaissance era

[Edmilson 12,053]

Hopefully for 2025 and 2026 he will have other projects that we don't know yet, just like it was this year with Wicked Part 1.

[PrayodiBA 973]

20 minutes ago, Thor said:

Nothing could possibly interest me LESS than WICKED (that goes for both stage and film version). But sometimes good scores may come from the most uninteresting sources. I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt; it's been a few years since Powell made much of an impression on me. Might have been SOLO, acually, and that's already six years old.

Yeah, I have no interest for Wicked at all.

But now Powell scoring this, I have to force myself to see this movie in the theatre to see the full impact of Powell’s score. It’s said that the running time of this movie is around 2hrs40 min 🙃

 

Well, “good scores from the most uninteresting sources” is best described for John Powell actually 😄

[Marian Schedenig 11,529]

17 minutes ago, Thor said:

Nothing could possibly interest me LESS than WICKED (that goes for both stage and film version).

 

What about the book?

[Jurassic Shark 16,280]

Which book?

[Marian Schedenig 11,529]

3 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Which book?

 

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

[Thor 9,344]

Meh. I have an academic interest in the old THE WIZARD OF OZ film from 1939, but that’s about it for me when it comes to this fictional universe.

[Edmilson 12,053]

14 minutes ago, PrayodiBA said:

It’s said that the running time of this movie is around 2hrs40 min 🙃

2h40min and it's just "Part 1 of 2"? Geez...

 

I'm not really a fan of musicals (especially the long, epic variety), so no thanks. Not even with my love for John Powell's music. I mean, I haven't seen Pluto Nash either despite JP's awesome score lol

[GerateWohl 6,467]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

Meh. I have an academic interest in the old THE WIZARD OF OZ film from 1939, but that’s about it for me when it comes to this fictional universe.

But the world building...

 

[Thor 9,344]

Not my world.

[Jurassic Shark 16,280]

Not yet...

[Stark 951]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

Meh. I have an academic interest in the old THE WIZARD OF OZ film from 1939, but that’s about it for me when it comes to this fictional universe.

But Return to Oz!

[Marian Schedenig 11,529]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

Meh. I have academic interest in the old Wizard of Oz film, that’s about it for me.

 

Fair enough. I liked the book (I've only read the first one), it's a rather clever exploration of fascism, civil resistance, and terrorism, all based on reframing the original Wizard of Oz into an unreliable propaganda narrative. I like the musical too, and I suppose it does a decent job of turning the book into a stage entertainment for the masses as these things go, but it's very much toned down from the book.

 

Considering the expected running time of these films (and the fact that there are two films to begin with), I wonder how much more of the book might make it into the films.

[Jay 45,648]

1. No One Mourns the Wicked (feat. Andy Nyman & Courtney Mae-Briggs & Jeff Goldblum & Sharon D. Clarke & Jenna Boyd) – Wicked Movie Cast & Ariana Grande
2. Dear Old Shiz (feat. Ariana Grande) – Wicked Movie Cast & Shiz University Choir
3. The Wizard and I (feat. Michelle Yeoh) – Cynthia Erivo
4. What Is This Feeling? – Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo
5. Something Bad (feat. Cynthia Erivo) – Peter Dinklage
6. Dancing Through Life (feat. Ariana Grande & Ethan Slater & Marissa Bode & Cynthia Erivo) – Jonathan Bailey
7. Popular – Ariana Grande
8. I’m Not That Girl – Cynthia Erivo
9. One Short Day – Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande
10. A Sentimental Man – Jeff Goldblum
11. Defying Gravity (feat. Ariana Grande) – Cynthia Erivo
12. Ozdust Duet (Bonus Track) – The Wicked Orchestra

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJHJVWZ6

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJPQ5KPQ

 

[Edmilson 12,053]

Not a single John Powell track... Hopefully they're saving everything for a separate score album.

[Anthony 895]

Not the album we want, however I am not concerned. Naturally, the above is the album that is expected to and needs to make the big bucks.

 

We're the minority that want the niche thing.

 

P.S. The last track could be score. 🤔

[PrayodiBA 973]

Well, again, there is no need for concern whether there will be a separate score album or not, because it’s already confirmed there will be

 

Based from the information on website https://5catstudios.com/listen like we have discussed before, the score album will be released on December. Possibly after the release of That Christmas soundtrack because as you can see on that link, Wicked is placed below That Christmas, indicating that it will be released after that. 
 

Even John Powell himself has confirmed that the score album will come soon, as seen on his Instagram post here https://www.instagram.com/p/DAtgpr-y58g/?igsh=eHMwc2czYnV6NjE5

 

For now, score album is already confirmed and Powell appears to have got himself a deal with the executives.

 

But, it could change if the executive above changed their mind or Wicked movie itself is flopping at the box office. This is what we need to worry 🙃

[Marian Schedenig 11,529]

10 hours ago, Anthony said:

Not the album we want, however I am not concerned. Naturally, the above is the album that is expected to and needs to make the big bucks.

 

We're the minority that want the niche thing.

 

Well, it's based on a stage musical, so in this case it would be really odd not to have the songs as the main soundtrack.

 

…I guess the last track is a teaser to maybe get more people to buy the score album, too.

[Luka 307]

That last track looks to me like it's gonna be some kind of diegetic music. "The Wicked Orchestra" sounds like it could be an orchestra in the movie playing a piece of music. Like the school orchestra or something maybe. 

[Marian Schedenig 11,529]

Or it's just a joke, like the Outatime Orchestra credited on the BTTF OST.

[PrayodiBA 973]

John Powell’s score for Wicked is already listed for Universal Pictures’s 2024 FYC

https://awards.universalpictures.com/wicked/for-your-consideration

 

Uni only submitted for original score, not for original song category (as of course we have already known that there is no new song for this part)
 

But still no audio tracks. Maybe next month

[Jay 45,648]

I wonder how "original" it is?  Will he have recurring melodies that didn't originate from the old songs?

[Edmilson 12,053]

Stephen Schwartz is credited in the original score category alongside Powell. Does that mean he wrote cues for the movie, or the cues Powell wrote are based on his themes and songs for the musical? I think it's the latter but we'll see.

[Drawgoon 130]

On 10/10/2024 at 11:02 AM, Anthony said:

P.S. The last track could be score. 🤔

 

That's what I thought at first. Though it also made me wonder why a score track would be considered a bonus thing. The target audience of this album aren't the type that'd be won over by the addition of one extra "instrumental" track.

[Marian Schedenig 11,529]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

Stephen Schwarts is credited in the original score category alongside Powell. Does that mean he wrote cues for the movie, or the cues Powell wrote are based on his themes and songs for the musical? I think it's the latter but we'll see.

 

It's a leitmotivic musical, so I'd expect Powell to use at least some of the original themes.

[Tydirium 1,563]

23 hours ago, Jay said:

I wonder how "original" it is?  Will he have recurring melodies that didn't originate from the old songs?

 

Schwartz said in an interview that Powell will have some of his own themes.

[Jay 45,648]

Great!

[Bat1989 172]

23 hours ago, Jay said:

I wonder how "original" it is?  Will he have recurring melodies that didn't originate from the old songs?

I think that it having new recurring melodies from Powell isn´t something that we need to worry about.

 

We need only to know if this score is a Happy Feet, a Lorax, or a Rio.

 

Happy feet has 9 themes(if i remember correctly) made by Powell, and his score doesn´t references the soundtrack, while Lorax is almost totally in tune in score and Soundtrack, and then there´s Rio that uses Favo de Mel as a recurring theme in the score, while all the others parts are from Powell.

 

And i have to admit that I really want Wicked to be more like Happy Feet but if it had only very short and few references to the songs, the longer runtime can make him do so much more in the themes, if he made 9 in 1h and 48m while having to deal with a lot of songs, imagine with 2h and 40m.

[PrayodiBA 973]

A new, full 3 minutes Powell’s score track has been released on the Shiz University website.

 

Here is the audio link:

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-dorm.mp3

 

^^
After listening it in full, I am filled with joy as it’s fully imbued with characteristics from Powell’s ‘00-‘10 animation scores, in particular Bolt, Horton Hears A Who, and I also can hear a dash of Happy Feet there; and I personally have been yearning for this particular Powell’s style to return!

 

Truly can’t wait for the score album!

Imagine with the movie’s 2hrs40min running time, how much score we are going to get!

 

[Bat1989 172]

Ok, it’s only me or the first motif that appears in the track sounds like somewhere over the rainbow?

[PrayodiBA 973]

19 minutes ago, CT-7567 said:

Ok, it’s only me or the first motif that appears in the track sounds like somewhere over the rainbow?

 

Well, a lot of people heard that as well, me included initially and it's understandable to make that connection.

 

But upon closer listen, it's actually a melody from the song Dear Old Shiz, hear it below:

 

Now, whether Stephen Schwartz was intentional or not in making that similarity, I don't know. I never watched the original broadway material

 

[Marian Schedenig 11,529]

Might very well be intentional.

 

 

I don't recall where I read or heard about it, but I seem to remember that at least the refrence in Unlimited was definitely intentional.

[Gabriel Bezerra 758]

I sent both tracks from the website to a friend who knows her stuff and she said both interpolates the songs.

 

"home" - The Wizard and I

"dorm" - Dear Old Shiz & Popular

[Muad'Dib 2,028]

Yeah, I heard the "Popular" references too! Very nice.

[Tydirium 1,563]

Some new score in this video!

 

 

[PrayodiBA 973]

3 hours ago, Tydirium said:

Some new score in this video!

 

 

^^
The melody that starts from 0:24 is lovely. I am not familiar with Wicked material whatsoever, I wonder from which songs this tune is adapted

———-

 

Plus,

along with this clip, again, a new score track has been released on the Shiz University website.

 

Here is the audio clip, titled “Classroom”

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-classroom.mp3

^^
The melody on the second half of this audio clip is so Powell, it could very well be Powell’s own creation, but probably it’s still a variation from the songs

 

[Tydirium 1,563]

I’m fairly familiar with Wicked (one of my favorite musicals!), and my first thought was that 0:24 of the video is a Powell theme. I could be wrong, of course.

[Anthony 895]

How many score tracks have been released on that website now? Could the links be collated together, please?

[Edmilson 12,053]

I'm not familiar with Wicked at all. Is this one of those prequels where we see the hero and the villain being lifelong friends but then a succession of tragedies tear their friendship apart and now they're enemies? 

 

I mean, that Transformers animation had the same plot and it was a box office bomb, but with Wicked they're going to make two parts of it.

[tomsmoviemadness 4,742]

On a very basic level, yes, that's it.

[Jay 45,648]

4 hours ago, Anthony said:

How many score tracks have been released on that website now? Could the links be collated together, please?

 

Took two seconds

 

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-home.mp3

 

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-popular.mp3

 

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-dorm.mp3

 

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-classroom.mp3

[Tydirium 1,563]

If Powell adapts any of “One Short Day” (especially the Wizomania show-within-a-show theme starting at 1:43) into the score, I’m going to go nuts.

 

 

[Marian Schedenig 11,529]

7 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Is this one of those prequels where we see the hero and the villain being lifelong friends but then a succession of tragedies tear their friendship apart and now they're enemies?

 

7 hours ago, tomsmoviemadness said:

On a very basic level, yes, that's it.

 

On a very superficial level. And not really. They don't start out as friends, they don't quite exactly end up as enemies, and the whole personal stuff is just the vehicle for the underlying political story anyway.

[Anthony 895]

6 hours ago, Jay said:

 

Took two seconds

 

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-home.mp3

 

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-popular.mp3

 

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-dorm.mp3

 

https://www.shizuniversity.com/sounds/music-classroom.mp3

 

I'm glad you were able to do it so easily. Thank you,

 

However, the second link gives a 404 error.

[Marian Schedenig 11,529]

25 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

and the whole personal stuff is just the vehicle for the underlying political story anyway.

 

Well, in the book, that is. The musical is obviously more focused on the characters.

[Bat1989 172]

On 24/10/2024 at 9:26 AM, Edmilson said:

I'm not familiar with Wicked at all. Is this one of those prequels where we see the hero and the villain being lifelong friends but then a succession of tragedies tear their friendship apart and now they're enemies? 

 

I mean, that Transformers animation had the same plot and it was a box office bomb, but with Wicked they're going to make two parts of it.

Transformers One only bombed because of the other movies being bad plus the marketing being really bad to be honest, the movie is much more than meets the eye.

[Marian Schedenig 11,529]

Absolutely wasn't expecting this, but apparently the film is getting rave reviews:

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/wicked-first-reactions-ariana-grande-cynthia-erivo-oscars-1236194355/