\n<\/p>\n
A packed house of fans in the audience\u2014some dressed in pink, most in green\u2014did scream when they saw Cynthia Erivo,<\/strong> as her character, Elphaba, had predicted in the first film\u2019s \u201cThe Wizard and I.\u201d They also screamed when they saw Ariana Grande,<\/strong> whose high, bouncy ponytail was as buoyant as the bubble her Glinda favors for transport. They screamed for Jonathan Bailey<\/a>,<\/strong> for Bowen Yang,<\/strong> and for Colman Domingo,<\/strong> as well as Chu<\/a>, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Marissa Bode,<\/strong> and Ethan Slater.<\/strong> Hell, they screamed at the very mention of Winnie Holzman,<\/strong> who wrote the musical\u2019s dialogue. Let\u2019s hear it for the book!<\/p>\n Led by a contingent of uniformed Yellow Brick Road guardsmen, the film\u2019s cast and director joined producer Marc Platt<\/strong> at the front of the house to rapturous applause.<\/p>\n After brief remarks by Platt, Chu took on spokesperson duties for his company, who were huddled close and clutching at one another\u2019s elbows in excitement for this final bow.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you describe what it feels like to work on a project for five-plus years?\u201d Chu said. Once again, he marveled that the films he once worried would \u201cend\u201d his career<\/a>\u2014and send him back to the exile of shooting wedding videos\u2014have instead became an unstoppable cultural juggernaut.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had three children while making this movie,\u201d Chu said of himself and his wife, Kristin Hodge,<\/strong> who share five kids total. \u201cOne was born on the day of the premiere last year. I watched it from the delivery room while she was pushing. I was just peeking. It was when Fiyero runs into Elphaba for the first time in the forest. I marked it, and didn\u2019t tell [Hodge]. That\u2019s a reveal tonight.\u201d Surely an astrologer can work this into the kid\u2019s chart.<\/p>\n