The magic of the big screen is drawing crowds once again as moviegoers packed Cinemark Tinseltown Friday night for the highly anticipated debut of “Wicked,” the Broadway musical-turned-film starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

Ethan Slater, best known for his Tony-nominated starring role in Broadway's “SpongeBob SquarePants” brings his talent to the big screen in the musical adaptation of “Wicked," out Nov. 22.

“Musical” has been a dirty word in marketing some recent song-and-dance studio films, but there’s no avoiding it in bringing “Wicked” to the big screen.

My fellow Ozians, the moment we’ve been waiting for it finally here. The first theatrical trailer for part one of the “Wicked” movie was released Wednesday afternoon, and it is nothing short of magical.

We’re not getting part one of the highly anticipated “Wicked” movie until November of 2024, so I will take any kind of sneak peak or update on the filming, even if that includes behind-the-scenes videos and photos.

Many of Broadway’s biggest lights — including Kristin Chenoweth, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Chita Rivera and Idina Menzel — will make appearances at Sunday’s TV celebration of Broadway’s return.

Kristin Chenoweth, Julie Taymor and Lin-Manuel Miranda welcomed back boisterous audiences to “Wicked,” “The Lion King” and “Hamilton” for the first time since the start of the pandemic, marking Tuesday as the unofficial return of Broadway.

The long-gestating film adaptation of the Broadway hit “Wicked” has hit another snag. Director Stephen Daldry is exiting the project, a studio representative confirmed Tuesday. The “Billy Elliot” director has been associated with the adaptation for years, going back as far as 2012. Writer Winnie Holzman, who wrote the musical, wrote the script with “Wicked” composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. At one point, the film was supposed to hit theaters in Dec. 2019.

The cast of Wicked is in the News4Jax studio todayPublished: November 26, 2019, 9:34 amWicked Is the Broadway sensation that looks at what happened in the Land of Oz but from a very different angle.