Ariana Grande proposed the closing number of Wicked: One Wonderful Night itself, and it turned out to be one of the most memorable moments of the special.
Executive producer Ben Winston revealed during an FYC event on the Universal lot in early June that when Grande asked him on a Zoom call how he planned to end the series, he didn’t have an answer ready.
“I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it,” he admitted.
Grande immediately floated the idea of closing with a rendition of Be happy/happy days are here again, the iconic duo associated with Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand.
She sent him a video on the spot.
“She immediately presented it and she texted the video. We watched it together at the same time and I was like, ‘This is amazing. What a great message to end it,’” Winston recalls.
Musical director Stephen Oremus explained the care that went into realizing Grande’s vision alongside co-star Cynthia Erivo.
“We pieced together the entire arrangement that Judy and Margaret did note by note, and it was really so moving and so beautiful,” he said, adding that the choice to conclude with something outside of the Wicked The catalog felt right given the deeper connections of the material.
“Having something refreshing that doesn’t come from Wicked was somehow related to all of Judy Garland. »
He described the ending as bringing out “everyone in such a positive and beautiful way”.
Winston, whose credits include The late show And The Grammy Awardssaid the guiding philosophy behind the entire special was to honor the old-fashioned variety format.
“What we tried to do is just make it a real variety special in the best way possible,” he said, mixing comedy sketches, musical performances, choreography and never-before-seen footage.
“The team simply tried to create a real old-fashioned special strain that people would remember for many years to come.”
