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WICKED live-to-film concert tour -- brilliant, or the beginning of the end?

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#1

WICKED live-to-film concert tour -- brilliant, or the beginning of the end?

So both WICKED films are going out as live-to-film concert experiences, full orchestra, arenas, the whole thing:
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/WICKED-and-WICKED-FOR-GOOD-to-Tour-Globally-as-Live-to-Film-Concert-Experiences-20260909&source=gmail&ust=1789074975771000&sa=E

I have genuinely mixed feelings. On one hand, a live orchestra playing that score in a room with 15,000 people who all know every word is going to be an event, and it gets the material to markets that will never get a sit-down production. On the other hand -- we already have a stage version of this. It is running eight times a week a few blocks from where I am typing this. Does an arena screening cannibalize the touring company coming through your city three months later, or does it feed it?

The precedent I keep thinking about is the film-concert circuit for the big fantasy franchises, which did huge business and did not seem to hurt anything. But those did not have a competing live stage version.

Two questions for the board:
1. Do they use the film vocals and just play the score live, or do they bring in live singers? That changes everything about whether this is a concert or a screening.
2. If this does arena numbers, does every movie musical adaptation get one of these now? Are we getting an arena tour of the DEAR EVAN HANSEN film? Please say no.

#3

WICKED live-to-film concert tour -- brilliant, or the beginning of the end?

Musical films being screened with a live orchestra is nothing new. I just saw The Wizard of Oz back in June played by the Philadelphia Orchestra and it was wonderful. But it's just the film on a screen while the musicians play the music. The vocals from the soundtrack are in tact, just with the live musicians playing.

The experience of seeing Wicked [the movie] on a screen with a live orchestra is not comparable to the experience of seeing the Broadway, London, or touring production. There's a magical feeling seeing the show live compared to watching the movie on a screen.

I think this is just Universal capitalizing on the success of the film and wanting to give audiences a new way to view the movie that's fun and exciting. I personally don't see any issue with it co-existing with the show running on Broadway/tour/London/etc because again it's not the same experience.

I would be more inclined to attend if there were actual vocalists performing with them rather than just hearing the pre-recorded vocals from the film with the live orchestra.

Also a DEH movie dig? In 2026? Groundbreaking. /lh


"Anybody that goes to the theater, I think we’re all misfits, so we ended up on stage or in the audience.” --- Patti LuPone.

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