Ariana Grande came up with the closing number for Wicked: One Wonderful Night herself, and it turned out to be one of the special’s most memorable moments.
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 had no answer ready.
“I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it,” he admitted telling her.
Grande immediately pitched the idea of closing with a rendition of Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again, the iconic duet associated with Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand.
She sent him a video on the spot.
“She immediately pitched it, and she 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,'” Winston recalled.
Music director Stephen Oremus explained the care that went into realising Grande’s vision alongside co-star Cynthia Erivo.
“We reconstructed the entire arrangement that Judy and Margaret did note by note, and it was really just so emotional and so beautiful,” he said, adding that the choice to close with something outside the Wicked catalogue felt right given the material’s deeper connections.
“To have something refreshing that wasn’t from Wicked was connected in some way with the whole Judy Garland of it all.”
He described the ending as taking “everyone out in such a positive, beautiful way.”
Winston, whose credits include The Late Late Show and The Grammy Awards, said the guiding philosophy behind the whole special was to honour the old-school variety format.
“What we tried to do is just make it a real variety special in the best way,” he said, blending comedy sketches, musical performances, choreography and previously unseen footage.
“The team really just tried to make a real, old-school variety special that people would remember for many years.”
