Ariana Grande came up with the closing number for Wicked: One Wonderful Night herself, and it turned out to be one of the most memorable moments of the special.
Executive producer Ben Winston revealed at an FYC event on the Universal lot in early June that when Grande asked him during a Zoom call how he planned to end the show, he didn’t have an answer ready.
“I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it,” he admitted to her.
Grande immediately proposed the idea of closing with a performance of Be happy/Happy days are here again, the iconic duo associated with Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand.
She sent him a video of the act.
“She immediately proposed and texted the video. We watched it together at the same time and I was like, ‘This is amazing. What a great message to end it with,'” Winston recalled.
Musical director Stephen Oremus explained the care that went into bringing Grande’s vision to life alongside co-star Cynthia Erivo.
“We rebuilt the whole arrangement that Judy and Margaret did note by note, and it was really so emotional and so beautiful,” he said, adding that the decision to close with something outside of the Wicked The catalog felt right given the deeper connections of the material.
“Having something refreshing that wasn’t Wicked “He was connected in some way to all of Judy Garland.”
He described the ending as “bringing everyone out in such a positive and beautiful way.”
Winston, whose credits include The last late show and The Grammy AwardsHe said the philosophy behind the entire special was to honor the old-school variety format.
“What we’re trying to do is make it a real variety special in the best way,” he said, combining comedy sketches, musical performances, choreography and previously unreleased material.
“The team really tried to make a real, old-school variety special that people would remember for many years.”
