Note: This article contains spoilers for Wicked, in theaters now.
Ariana Grande has nothing but praise for the Wicked movie’s secret cast members.
Wicked is an adaptation of the hit musical that is so faithful to its source material, it includes cameos from the original Broadway team.
Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the roles of Oz witches Elphaba and Glinda back in 2003, appear midway through the characters’ introduction to the Emerald City.
As Grande, 31, tells PEOPLE, theater fans have “loved” the Jon M. Chu-directed movie’s two biggest guest stars “for 21 years on stage.” In the same “One Short Day” musical sequence, Wicked musical creators Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman also make appearances in full Ozian get-up.
“I mean, it was just such a surreal honor,” says Grande of filming alongside costar Cynthia Erivo with those who originally birthed the show. “To be coming up with bits together with them and to watch them sing and to do their shtick,” she adds, was an “out-of-body experience, truly.”
Menzel and Chenoweth, in fabulously colorful dresses, are given a grand entrance in the film. Playing members of a troupe of Emerald City singers performing the tale of the Wizard’s heroic arrival to Oz, they greet Erivo’s Elphaba and Grande’s Glinda, ushering them toward their appointment with the man behind the curtain himself.
Jonathan Bailey, who plays Fiyero in the film (inheriting the role from Broadway originator Norbert Leo Butz), tells PEOPLE it was special seeing the two Elphabas and two Glindas unite onscreen.
“We watched it for the first time,” he says, at the movie’s Nov. 3 Sydney, Australia premiere. “The image of the four of you… People went absolutely wild. And you realize how seminal that is and how singular the four of you are.”
“It was emotional,” recalls Grande. Wicked: Part One “couldn’t have happened without that piece because this entire film is a love letter to [Menzel and Chenoweth] and to the original Broadway show. So it felt like a really imperative and full-circle moment and a gift as a fan.”
Says Bailey, “It’s a real moment.”
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Menzel, 53, and Chenoweth, 56, joined the movie’s two leads at the Los Angeles premiere on Nov. 9. Also attending were cast members Jeff Goldblum, Marissa Bode, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater and Bronwyn James.
Wicked: Part One is in theaters now, with Part Two due Nov. 26, 2025. Go behind the scenes of Wicked with PEOPLE’s new special issue, available here.
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