The Wicked movie compelled me to do something I never thought I would do: actively choose to listen to the movie-musical versions of certain songs over the original Broadway cast recording. While movie musicals sometimes have one or two songs that stand out, like Reneé Rapp’s sultry cover of “World Burn” in the Mean Girls musical movie, they usually pale in comparison to the Broadway versions. Sometimes it’s a case of the originals being so iconic in people’s minds. Sometimes it’s because musicals usually cast famous actors instead of good singers.

But in 2024’s Wicked, the majority of the songs, largely sung by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, are just as good as the original recordings featuring Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel. Some of the movie tracks, dare I say, are even better than their stage equivalents.

I know, I know — it’s musical theater blasphemy. But I have reasons!

Wicked is now available on VOD for home viewing, so we have a good excuse to compare them all again. Here’s a track-by-track comparison of all the songs in the movie and Broadway versions of Wicked, with my picks for (and defenses of) which ones should be more… popular.

[Ed. note: General spoilers ahead for the plot of Wicked, as told through these songs.]

On the Broadway soundtrack, Glinda (Chenoweth) sounds like she’s processing the news of Elphaba’s death in real time and putting on a face as the PR branch of the Ozian government.........

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