Various Artists - Wicked: The Soundtrack

Stephen Schwartz's score has been running on Broadway since 2003, which meant the film adaptation's soundtrack had an unusually demanding audience waiting for it. Released November 2024 alongside Jon M. Chu's first instalment, it mostly delivers.

Cynthia Erivo sings Elphaba, and "Defying Gravity" closes the record the way it has to — an eight-minute build that she takes somewhere no cast recording has. Ariana Grande's Glinda is the surprise: "Popular" is played for comedy and lands it, and her control in the upper register turns what could have been stunt casting into the best argument for the film's existence. Stephen Oremus and Greg Wells produced, recording at Air Lyndhurst with an orchestra rather than programming the arrangements, and the difference is audible in "No One Mourns The Wicked" and "One Short Day."

This is the first half of the story only — the film split the stage show in two — so the record ends at intermission, on the biggest possible note.

Double LP on split pink and green vinyl, from Republic and Verve.