One very popular Broadway musical is heading to television, and Ariana Grande will help deliver its iconic numbers.
According to TVLine, Wicked will receive a concert tribute event at NBC, just in time for Halloween. Titled A Very Wicked Halloween: Celebrating 15 Years on Broadway, the program — which airs on October 29 — will be filmed at New York’s Marquis Theater and include the still-running musical's Broadway company, as well as a slew of celebrity hosts and performers.
Grande is one such performer, though whether she'll belt out "Defying Gravity" remains to be seen. (This would be an interesting song to be in conversation with sweetener, in which Grande sang, "Girl, what's wrong with you/come back down.")
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The "God Is A Woman" singer, who recently released her album sweetener to rave reviews, is returning to her roots with the Wicked concert. Pete Davidson's soon-to-be wife has a Broadway past (she appeared in the coming-of-age musical 13 prior to her Nickelodeon days). In 2016, she starred in Hairspray Live! on the same network readying Wicked for TV.
It's not just the pop star who will help celebrate 15 years of the Wizard of Oz spin-off. Frozen's Idina Menzel and recent Trial & Error murderess Kristin Chenoweth, who originated in the Broadway show as witches Elphaba and Galinda, will also grace the stage. (This is a "name a more iconic duo, I'll wait" moment if there ever were one.)
NBC has been trying to make musicals hip again. In addition to Hairspray Live! with Grande, the network has recently put on live performances of shows like Peter Pan, The Sound of Music and, most recently, Jesus Christ Superstar, which earned John Legend his EGOT.
While this won't be a full musical with all the bells and whistles of the Broadway show, Doug Vaughan, Executive Vice President of Special Programs and Late Night at NBC Entertainment, did suggests that the good and wicked witch would appear in the flesh.
"We’re especially excited to have Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth reunited along with big guest stars in front of an audience – in costume hopefully – to help us celebrate the Halloween season," Vaughan revealed in a statement to TVLine.
Will we see Grande paint her face green and don a broomstick for her own performance? Or, better yet, she can pop on after "I'm Not That Girl," and sing that there are "no tears left to cry."
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