As soon as upon a time, about 24 years in the past, when Marc Platt (“La La Land”) moved from manufacturing president of Common Footage to launch his personal producing shingle on the studio, he introduced with him a film adaptation of the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel “Depraved: The Life and Occasions of the Depraved Witch of the West,” a prequel to L. Frank Baum’s basic “The Great Wizard of Oz” and the 1939 Judy Garland musical. Linda Woolverton’s first script was a straight movie adaptation; a small a part of the combo was the origin story of two witches of Oz, Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Depraved Witch of the West.
A blockbuster film musical like “Depraved” (Common) is the sum of years of devoted labor and deliberate selections about what to maintain from the guide or the present, or what so as to add and alter for the film. By some means, over 20 years, producer Platt and author Winnie Holzman (ABC’s “My So-Known as Life”) stayed with the film and saved it on monitor by means of many iterations. Up to now, the studio image has grossed $680 million worldwide — and it’s not completed. Critics and the Globes and the Display screen Actors Guild have acknowledged the film. A number of Oscar nominations are within the offing, together with Greatest Image.
When Broadway composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (“Godspell,” “Pippin”) referred to as Platt and mentioned, “Would you ever contemplate turning it right into a musical?,” Platt noticed the sunshine. “I assumed, ‘that’s a superb thought,’ as a result of music provides it magic and wistfulness. It’s a world that wishes to be musicalized.”
Not each government in Hollywood would have made that pivot. “It’s additionally a narrative about folks presenting themselves a technique in Oz,” he mentioned, “or being perceived on this planet they’re in in a technique. And in a musical, a personality can sing one factor to the world, however one other factor in her monologue to the viewers and inform us what he, she or they’re truly pondering. And that opened the door utterly. I additionally thought, ‘if it was profitable on stage, perhaps that may be the reference level for ‘Depraved,’ not the outdated 1939 film.’”
Platt, Schwartz, and playwright-screenwriter Holzman moved ahead with Common Stage Productions on mounting a musical. “Stephen introduced up Winnie’s identify immediately,” mentioned Platt. “He and I liked ‘My So-Known as Life’ and I assumed, ‘That’s an attention-grabbing inside have a look at younger folks, and significantly the Claire Danes character.’”
Transferring the main focus of the story to the connection between the 2 girls was “an evolving discovery,” mentioned Holzman. “Stephen and I had been altering the plot of the novel. From the start, I used to be leaning towards incorporating the Glinda character greater than is within the novel. Gregory McGuire had this good concept that in faculty, Linda, the Good Witch and the Depraved Witch of the West had been faculty roommates. That’s simply an lovely, unbelievable, mind-blowing concept that all the time received amusing when Steve and I might point out it at cocktail events. We all the time knew that there was one thing about them being pushed collectively that was very important. As we had been doing readings, we started to know that the extra the 2 girls had been interacting within the present, the stronger the response was from the viewers, the extra invested the viewers grew to become.”
Holzman additionally understood that folks hadn’t seen a musical “that celebrated a feminine friendship at its core.” And after assembly Kristen Chenoweth at a week-long L.A. workshop, Holzman thought, ‘She’s not going to need to do it if it isn’t a adequate half.’ Fortuitously, the extra we made it a greater half, the extra we made it a greater play.”
“Depraved” opened on Broadway in October 2003 and grew right into a Tony-winning international smash. Platt and Holzman all the time saved their eye on the inevitable film to return, however waited for the present to play out over the a long time. “It’s so cinematic in its bones and DNA,” mentioned Platt, “however this was the journey we went on first, and it was exhausting to foresee that it could be as profitable because it was.”
Why did the musical work so nicely? “It’s exhausting to say when one thing turns into a phenomenon,” mentioned Platt. “We knew it was a satisfying leisure that had these unbelievable Stephen Schwartz tunes, that had this nice comedic characterization that Winnie introduced to those girls, significantly Glinda. After our first desk learn at Common, completely different folks got here as much as us on the finish. Everyone liked it, and there was laughter and crying. However folks appear to take one thing completely different from their very own life. They noticed themselves.”
“That’s taking place now, clearly with the film,” mentioned Holzman. “Our present is brazenly emotional. There’s a manner for sure sorts of entertainments to be cynical. And our tradition grew to become very cynical, and really harsh. Even 21 years in the past, after we first opened, there was a starvation for a manner that you could possibly come someplace and get emotional. Stephen’s songwriting has his coronary heart on his sleeve.”
Turning this standard present right into a film was a problem as a result of it was so beloved and the filmmakers knew they needed to change it with out alienating legions of followers. “We weren’t in a rush,” mentioned Holzman. “It wasn’t, ‘how fast can we make a film?’ It was, ‘how nicely can we make a film?’”
They had been ready for the street tour of the musical to play itself out. And it by no means did. “The present was doing nicely,” mentioned Platt. “We wished it to flourish all over the world. I used to be daunted and insecure, as a result of the bar was excessive, because it was for Stephen and Winnie. I felt stress from the followers I didn’t need to disappoint. I used to say to Jon Chu on a regular basis earlier than we left for London: ‘We don’t should make the film. We’ve got to get it proper.’ And I actually meant that.”
When Chu (“Within the Heights”) and screenwriter Dana Fox (“Cruella”) got here on board they talked by means of each beat of the present and divvied up writing sections till they unified the script. “Each, each inch of the present he wished to listen to from us,” mentioned Holzman. “He had his personal imaginative and prescient for the film, however he wished to include what we had been envisioning. This took time, however even earlier than Jon Chu received concerned, there have been many alleys I went down. I wished to show over each stone. I considered this as my massive alternative. I felt fortunate to have the ability to stick with the challenge and be the one that might adapt our personal work. And due to that, I felt an unlimited alternative to open my thoughts to assume exterior the field, to go down this street, to go down that street. That resulted in a way of peace of thoughts, as a result of what we ended up with, I do know that we didn’t rush to it. I do know that we didn’t go, ‘oh, it’s gotta be this,’ and by no means thought of one other various.’”
There’s no query that it was tough, after engaged on their very own for thus lengthy, to open up and share the film with an out of doors director like Chu. “It drove me loopy at occasions,” mentioned Holzman. “There have been occasions I used to be pissed off with myself. It’s not a simple course of, to crew with this younger, thrilling director and make one thing new out of the identical story that we love a lot. That was our transient: how might we make one thing new and nonetheless maintain true to the spirit of our present? And that’s an unbelievable alternative for a author to revisit. ‘I feel I could make it a bit of higher this time.’ All of us introduced it to a different degree.”
Letting go wasn’t straightforward. “Once you’ve been there for the creation of one thing,” mentioned Holzman, “and you recognize precisely the intention of one thing, and within the theater, I’ve heard these strains mentioned a sure manner 20 occasions, most likely extra. I discovered myself wrestling at occasions to say, ‘Maintain on, be sure the intention is evident. However let Jon do his factor. Let your actor or actress interpret the best way they need, and and give you concepts.’ It was a continuing inner tug of warfare for me, simply because I wished to provide them that skill, after which I did really feel accountable as a guardian.”
Breaking the movie into two components was an enormous choice. “There have been sequences we’d minimize out of the present that dug a bit of deeper, however it was too lengthy,” mentioned Platt. “It needed to be additive to the journey, since you might fill in a lot of various things.”
Assembly the witches as little kids got here up years in the past. “It appeared proper for a film,” mentioned Holzman. “However secondly, in the event you see them as little kids, we wished to construct out that relationship between Elphaba and her sister. That’s a pure, natural method to really feel their bond.”
The film cuts songs and moments from the present. “There have been many strains which are beloved strains that we shot,” mentioned Platt, “however I knew going to the enhancing room, sure strains require the rhythm of an dwell viewers to play off of, and while you put it within the movie, that doesn’t really feel humorous anymore. And so we minimize a number of these strains out, which was exhausting for me, however there’s a distinction within the medium, and also you need to be good about the way you interpret for movie versus interpret for stage.”
Having two movies additionally allowed them to revive songs and depth. “Do we actually need to be slicing out numbers to achieve a time sequence?” mentioned Holzman. “Once you’re allowed to elaborate extra in two completely different chapters, the primary section, which is actually the primary act of the film, is the journey of Elphaba changing into the Depraved Witch and making a selection. Each women make selections in that film, they usually’re massive life selections which are satisfying for the tip of the movie: ‘I select that I’ve to struggle this wizard, regardless that I’m giving up the whole lot I all the time wished in my complete life, and I’m going to talk reality to energy.’ And the opposite character, who we’ve come to like, chooses to remain, she’s shopping for into that world and that’s an enormous, massive concept that seems like the tip of the film.”
“The studio was supportive,” mentioned Platt, who did should struggle exhausting for the inexperienced prepare to Emerald Metropolis. “We wished to construct it. We didn’t need to do CG, we wished to construct that precise prepare, so that you’d really feel it pull into the station. I mentioned, ‘It’ll be in each TV spot, each business. It’s the journey to Oz, and also you’re experientially getting on a prepare and going as an viewers member.’ It looks like a small factor. It’s solely within the film for a couple of minutes, however it was price each cent.”
And audiences responded. At one of many first analysis previews 4 rows of individuals stood and applauded. “It was a blind recruit,” mentioned Platt. “I’d by no means seen that occur. It was transportive, you get to go away your life for some time after which be in Oz and and emote and snicker and and discover pleasure.”
“You’ve received these two wonderful girls in Ariana and in Cynthia,” mentioned Holzman. “They’re really masters at what they do. As girls and as artists, they’re distinctive. This present mattered to them in a deep, deep manner. It was of their coronary heart, they usually wished to make it their very own and but be be respectful.”
The place the play and the unique “Wizard of Oz” are identified, “Depraved” the film is taking part in nicely, nations like Australia, the UK, Korea, Germany.
Subsequent up: “Depraved: For Good” (2025) is concerning the penalties of the alternatives the 2 witches made, “whether or not they dwell with these penalties, or whether or not these penalties change both of them,” mentioned Holzman. “As soon as we realized that, it decided straightforward for all of us.”
