Executive producer Ben Winston is no stranger to producing variety specials. He counts “The Late Late Show,” “The Grammy Awards,” and more among his credits. When it came to bringing “Wicked: One Wonderful Night” to audiences, his biggest concern was: “How do we do justice to this thing?”
Winston was speaking at an FYC event on the Universal lot in early June in a conversation moderated by the film’s director Jon M. Chu. Winston explained that the solution was a simple one: relying on the traditional, old-school variety show formula. “What we tried to do is just make it a real variety special in the best way,” he said. That meant weaving in comedy sketches, musical performances and choreography as well as clips that audiences had never seen before.
“The team really just tried to make a real, old-school variety special that people would remember for many years.”
The special aired just before the second film, “Wicked: For Good,” was released in cinemas, and featured live performances of al features live performances of “Popular,” “Defying Gravity,” and a performance of “Thank Goodness.” Winston revealed there wasn’t much time to rehearse the musical numbers. “We only had the theater for two days,” he said, referring to the Dolby Theater.
