Kristin Chenoweth Gave Ariana Grande Body Wash 20 Years Ago (Exclusive)

Ariana Grande had a “magical” early meeting with Kristin Chenoweth.

About two decades before he played bubbly Glinda the Good Witch in the movie musical Evil (in theaters Nov. 22), Grande, 31, met the role’s Broadway originator backstage.

Chenoweth, 56, gave the then 10-year-old “a little magic body wash” and “a little wand,” the singer-actress tells PEOPLE. “I think it was magical, because look where we are now!”

Directed by Jon M. Chu and adapted from the hit Broadway musical that originally starred Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, the two Evil movie (Second part due out in 2025) starring Grande alongside Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Oz’s future Wicked Witch of the West.

“I loved it so much,” Grande says of seeing the Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman musical and meeting the “friendly” original cast members backstage with her grandmother in 2003. “My chemistry as a person changed permanently,” she says, adding, that she divides life into “two chapters: before and after seeing Evil.”

Body wash and a wand aren’t the only things, “Yeah, and?” the singer remembers from the formative experience. Chenoweth’s “dog peed on the couch and I helped her clean it up,” she recalls.

Jonathan Bailey, who plays Winkie prince Fiyero in Chu’s film, calls in to inquire about the body wash: “Don’t you have one of those on set?”

“Pee?” laughs Grande.

She clarifies that she has saved another memory from 20 years ago, a lip gloss from Stila Cosmetics’ collaboration with Evil musical. “It can’t be good to use,” she says. “It must be poison. It’s old, but I brought it with me for a little extra magic.”

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Bailey, who started her acting career on stages in her native England as a child, tells PEOPLE that she also saw Menzel play Elphaba in London. “I was also a massive, massive fan,” says the actor, 36. “It was incredible. I remember the orchestration — the music, I think, was the thing I kept coming back to.”

Grande, who made her Broadway debut in the musical 13 in 2008, has remained close with Chenoweth, especially during the Evil film audition process.

Speaking to PEOPLE in October, Chenoweth said she “couldn’t be more excited” for Grande. “She’s great fun, a great actress, and she’ll get the chance to show that in this part.”

Wicked: Part One is in the cinema 22 November with Second part scheduled for November 26, 2025. Go behind the scenes at Evil with PEOPLE’s new special issue, available here.