| Happy “Wicked” release day to all who celebrate! Of course, that includes the girls and the gays. But Universal Pictures is hoping — nay, expecting — that the appeal of the movie will extend well beyond the usual gang of musical theater obsessives. The film cost $145 million. Variety reports that the movie already made $19.2 million in previews, putting it well on its way to its expected haul of $110 million this weekend. That is some serious money, especially for an industry increasingly reliant on tentpole blockbusters to prop up its revenue and relevance. Hence, the long (long) PR campaign in which Ariana Grande wore lotsa pink, Cynthia Erivo wore lotsa green, and both actors cried lotsa tears, prompting memes and ribbing online. People mourn the death of monoculture at the hands of the internet. IDK, from my vantage point it seems that the internet has made monoculture smaller but stronger. We may only have one Barbenheimer (“Barbie” + “Oppenheimer”) in 2023, only one Glicked (“Gladiator 2” + “Wicked”) in 2024, but doesn’t it seem that they hit harder than most movie premieres did pre-Netflix? Other stray thoughts: the power of the color pink, the Jungian archetypes in the Oz cinematic universe, the fact that the 1939 “Wizard of Oz” movie premiered exactly one week before the start of World War II during a time when totalitarianism was sweeping the West, and the fact that “Wicked” is so very relevant to today’s political moment. But more than that, I’ve been plagued by my own “Wicked” journalistic quandary: How do you spell the ululation made by Elphaba at the end of “Defying Gravity”? | “ | Oh-Ah-Ah-oh-uh-AH-uh-UHHHH!” | | - How I spell Cynthia Erivo’s final vocal run in “Defying Gravity” | | | | The official Wicked Vevo account just spells it as “AHHH!” But when you read that, doesn’t it just sound like someone screaming? I’ve settled on this spelling: “euh-AH-ooh-AH-UHHH!” for the Idina Menzel version. For the Cynthia Erivo movie ending I’d go with “oh-Ah-Ah-oh-uh-AH-uh-UHHHH!” | 
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