We’re less than a week away from the much-anticipated release of Wicked. Despite some initial backlash, fans are stoked to see leads Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo do their thing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to imagine a world in which producers of the musical adaptation walked down a different Yellow Brick Road. At least that’s the premise behind an SNL sketch this week which wound the clock back to the auditions and showed us numerous celebrities busting out their best inner-witches.
From Al Pacino to Sydney Sweeney to JoJo Siwa, the Saturday Night Live sketch casts a really wide net covering all sorts of ages, performance styles and levels of celebrity. The only thing they have in common is they all want to be in Wicked. Well, all of them except Janet Jackson, who isn’t looking to get cast, despite showing up for the auditions. You can watch the fun below…
If you’ve watched enough Saturday Night Live before, you no doubt recognize the basic structure of this sketch. It’s something the cast members and writers talk about now and again, as well. It’s a loose audition or highlight premise that allows everyone to get their more obscure or in-progress impressions on the air. Here's one for Jurassic Park.
Some of these celebs featured in the Wicked one like Sydney Sweeney, Al Pacino and Adele have enough star power that we could see them make appearances in a more traditional sketch in the future, but others are a little less likely, which is why I love to think about someone like Chloe Fineman arguing to get her take on Leslie Mann on the air. It probably feels like now or never.
Sometimes the key to a good impression is knowing when to get in and when to get out. Some of SNL’s more famous impressions appeared on the show dozens of times. Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump is probably the most famous recent example, as it was featured prominently on an almost weekly basis for years. That works when there’s a lot to say or analyze, but for many others, the knee-jerk appeal is more in the surprise of the particular celebrity randomly showing up, in seeing who is playing them and in getting a few lines of dialogue to see how accurate the voice is. In those cases, sketches like this are perfect because they give fans a bunch in random succession.
This sketch is also a good little reminder of how many cast members are contributing on a regular basis to the show right now. The current Season 50 cast might be a little short on household names, at least apart from Kenan Thompson and kinda sorta Bowen Yang, but there is so much depth and talent, all of whom are fighting for and earning airtime. Sometimes that’s ultimately better because it really allows the show to feature a wide blend of styles and senses of humor.
You can catch the next new episode of Saturday Night Live on December 7th with host Paul Mescal and musical guest Shaboozey. It’ll air on NBC and stream on Peacock.
