ITNTW: A Wickedly Good Press Tour

The highly-anticipated release of Wicked finally arrived last week, as the blockbuster musical hit cinemas around the world. Its star-studded cast, featuring the likes of Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Johnathan Bailey has had the media in frenzy during the production and press of the film. More often than not, the cast had found themselves in the midst of media controversies. Despite the backlash faced, however, it seems the film has been able to rewrite its narrative in the eye of the public and win back audiences, with millions of fans having headed to see the film on its opening weekend. 

So how exactly did they do it? 

The first major controversy that arose from the film, was the timeline around Ariana Grande (Glinda) and her co-star Ethan Slater’s (Boq Woodsman) off-screen relationship. The pair began dating shortly after meeting on the set of Wicked and it was not taken lightly by fans and the wider public. Slater was accused of cheating on his previous wife and mother to his young child. Grande was quick to be labelled a ‘home wrecker’ and was slammed across social media. It seemed public opinion was not in her or the film’s favour. 

Bouncing back, Grande released her seventh studio album “Eternal Sunshine” in March, with two of its singles “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends” both reaching number 1 on the Billboard charts. In particular “Yes, And?” was deemed to be a snap back at Grande’s haters following the reaction to her relationship with Slater including lyrics such as; 

“Now I’m so done with caring

What you think, no, I won’t hide

Underneath your own projections

Or change my most authentic life” 

With the wide success of her album, it was clear fans were falling back in love with Grande again. It seems perhaps this timely released album was the perfect PR move by her team. 

Later this year, Wicked was in hot water once again. This time, however, the drama surrounded Cynthia Ervio (Elphaba). Following the release of the film’s poster, fans were quick to call out the difference from that of the original iconic stage musical poster. One fan took matters into their own hands, making their own version of the movie poster that saw the face of Erivo’s character covered up, mimicking the original poster. Although the wide majority could see that the creation was not a dig at Erivo, but rather a tribute to the film’s inspiration, Erivo herself did not have the same feelings. She addressed the poster on Instagram stating; 

“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting… Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face & hide my eyes is to erase me. That is just deeply hurtful”

Fans were quick to call out the absurdity of Erivo’s response, believing she was naive and ungrateful to not address the history of Wicked as a stage musical and the strong fandom that comes with it. The fan art was an appreciation of Wicked as a franchise and seemingly had nothing to do with Erivo as a person. The creator later removed her post, following the backlash from Erivo.

Despite all this controversy, upon release,Wicked was back in the good books of the public. Much of this comeback was thanks to their successful press tour that allowed the public to gain a more personal connection with the actors in a controlled format. Some of the more notable features included Ariana Grande’s hosting of SNL that featured the viral ‘Domingo’ skit. Her episode has become the most viewed since Elon Musk hosted in 2021. Grande and Erivo also appeared on Vanity Fair’s “Lie Detector”  in which they address several controversies around their personas. 

Throughout the press tour it was clear Grande and Erivo’s newfound friendship was positioned as the focal point. This was most likely to defer from the relationship between Grande and Slater, of which were rarely seen together on tour. It was clear the team wanted to shift away from these controversies and put the focus back onto Glinda and Elphaba. 

The success Wicked is currently having following its release is a very clear indicator of the power of a good press tour!

Written by Victoria Guest – PR & Influencer Coordinator @ InsideOut PR