‘It’s wonderful’: Wicked star Cynthia Erivo says she’s fine with crowd singing along | Film

Wicked star Cynthia Erivo has joined the debate over whether it’s acceptable to sing along to the blockbuster musical in theaters—and she’s fine with it.

In an interview with NBC during the traditional Thanksgiving Day parade in New York on Thursday, Erivo was asked about the issue, which appears to have divided moviegoers down the middle, and came off as very much in the pro camp, saying, “I’m fine with that. We used this long time to sing it yourself – it’s time for everyone else to join in. It’s wonderful.”

Erivo plays the green-skinned witch Elphaba opposite Ariana Grande’s Galinda in the big screen adaptation of the musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, a Wizard of Oz prequel that is itself an adaptation of the novel by Gregory Maguire. After being released the same weekend in North America as Gladiator II , it broke box office records for Broadway musical adaptations and comfortably surpassed the numbers of the Gladiator sequel — with which it’s been paired, Barbenheimer-style, under the Glicked hashtag.

Whether fans should be able to sing along to the film’s musical numbers has sparked great debate. Erivo echoes the words of Dwayne Johnson, voice star of Moana 2, who, when asked about said the question from the BBC: “Sing! You’ve paid your hard-earned money for a ticket, and you’ve entered a musical, and you’re into it. Sing!” On the other hand, the American cinema chain AMC cited its policy on audience disruption in the issue a warning saying: “No singing. No wailing”, while Australian writer Patrick Lenton wrote in the Guardian that it was unfair and disrespectful to “impose your voice on the public without consent. Who do you think you are to compete with Cynthia Erivo, (and ) Ariana Grande’s trained musical prowess?”

Rows about singing may be a thing of the past in a few weeks, however – interactive “singalong” screenings of Wicked will be available from Christmas Day in North America.