Get Ready for Another Wicked Press Tour

There’s a wind blowing in from the west. It’s faint now but will be picking up sooner than you might think. That’s right, it’s time to batten down the hatches: The Wicked: For Good press tour will be here before you know it. In fact, it’s already started.

If you can believe it, the height of Wicked’s first media blitz was only six months ago. That’s when we got all those tears from Ariana Grande, the pink-and-greenifying of every product in Target, and, of course, “holding space for the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity.’” Whether or not that feels like it was seven years ago or two weeks ago is your own journey to go on, but for me, it’s somehow both.

Wicked: For Good won’t be out until November 21 — that’s more than five months away, for those keeping track — which means it’s high time to get things rolling. By this time last year, Cynthia Erivo and Grande had already appeared at the Oscars in their respective colors, gone to the Met Gala together, and were preparing to head to the Olympics. It may seem like they aren’t doing as much this time around — which is reasonable for a movie that no longer needs to prove itself — but you can see the gears moving if you pay attention. Whether that rejoicifies or digustifies you probably depends on how you feel about made up Ozian lingo.

Grande has stayed relatively quiet since this year’s Oscars but has managed to keep fans engaged. In March, after releasing the deluxe edition of eternal sunshine, she did a duet with her Wicked co-star Jeff Goldblum for his album, Still Blooming. (They performed a cover of “I Don’t Know Why [I Just Do].”) Then, in May, she and Erivo served as the guest judges on the season premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars..

Erivo, meanwhile, is preparing for the busiest summer anyone has ever had. This weekend alone, she’s releasing her second solo album, I Forgive You, on Friday, then she’s appearing at World Pride on Saturday, and then on Sunday she’s hosting the Tony Awards. At the Tonys, I imagine there will be Wicked banter from Erivo, as well as a reminder of what her “Defying Gravity” battle cry sounds like live. That’s all just this weekend. Throughout the rest of the summer, she’s going to be performing live with orchestras across the country, and then in August, she’s doing a three-night run as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar.

What does all of that have to do with Wicked? Well, technically, not much. But Erivo staying booked, busy, and front of mind for a significant portion of Wicked’s audience (theater nerds who will devour bootlegs of her singing “What’s the Buzz”), is its own kind of press tour. She’s already hyped up Elpheba 2.0 during a Billboard profile about her new album. While preparing to tackle filming the second movie, she said, “The scent I wore changed. The makeup changed. Little shifts that bring you to a more mature version of who Elphaba becomes.” Based on this, I think it’s safe to assume both Erivo and Grande are ready to deliver another round of emotionally intense soundbites in the coming months.

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Then, of course, there is the Universal Pictures-sanctioned push. On Tuesday, we got a teaser for a trailer. In it, we see all our old friends in slightly different costumes. Elphaba has taken her hair out of her braids; Glinda has incorporated some blue into her outfit; Boq is wearing a hat. All of this means that Wicked: For Good season is officially upon us. Are you ready for more tears, more touching, and more of Ariana Grande’s transatlantic accent?