I Rewatched Wicked: For Good, And I've Got To Defend Michelle Yeoh

Adapting a Broadway stage musical into movies is a tricky job, but a number of musicals have won Best Picture over the years. Jon M. Chu added two great installments to the genre with the Wicked movies, with the sequel For Good smashing records at the box office. The Wicked cast is stacked with talent, although Michelle Yeoh has gotten some flak for her singing voice. But after re-watching the second movie, I'm here to defend the Oscar-winning actress.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are some of the best singers out there right now, so they set the bar high in the Wicked movies. This is partly why the iconic Bond girl's vocals have gotten so much hate in both titles. But I think that the hate is totally blown out of proportion.

Madame Morrible Is Not A Role About Singing

Rather than an offbeat musical, Wicked is a beloved blockbuster that generations of theater kids were brought up on. This, combined with the incredible vocal talents of its leading ladies, is a big reason why Michelle Yeoh has gotten so much hate for her (brief) vocal solos in Chu's movies. Was she belting out her limited vocal lines? No. But is this the point of Madame Morrible as a character? Also no.

In both the stage musical and the film adaptations, Morrible is never given her own song. Instead she briefly sings at the beginning of "The Wizard and I" as well as "Thank Goodness." That's it. For Good cut down her feature in the latter song even more, further highlighting that it's ultimately not a singing role. Instead, her focus in the movie is the dialogue, and the villainous way she manipulates Glinda, Elphaba, and the citizens of Oz as a whole.

When I attended a private screening of Wicked: For Good upon its release, there were groans from the audience when Yeoh briefly sang during "Thank Goodness." But while she's not a professional singer, I thought that she pulled off her limited vocal solos. There are plenty of non-vocalists who have been given much more singing in movie musicals before, and to worse results. I'm looking at you Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia! and Russell Crowe in Les Miserables.

I also think that focusing too much on Michelle Yeoh's singing is a disservice to the strong work she put out throughout both Wicked movies. Her Madame Morrible is manipulative and chilling, especially through her relationship with Glinda. And seeing the actress using tai chi to create a Tornado in For Good was beautiful and worth the price of admission.

Could Jon M. Chu have cast a singer like Cheryl Lee Ralph as Madame Morrible? Probably. But I think that putting too much emphasis on Yeoh's vocals is a mistake; her performance overall was very strong and definitely did the beloved character justice.

Wicked: For Good can be purchased digitally now, and the first movie is streaming with an Amazon Prime subscription.