I Just Saw 'Wicked' and, Yeah, It's Amazing, But I Can't Stop Thinking About Ariana and Cynthia's Body Language

The Wicked movie cast were fantastic, from Jonathan Bailey's charisma (he was robbed of People's Sexiest Man) to Michelle Yeoh's eloquence to even Peter Dinklage's impressive voice work as Dr. Dillamond.

But it's no surprise that the shining stars were Cynthia Eviro and Ariana Grande. They were meant to play Elphaba and Glinda. Whether they were singing together or solo, these two powerhouses didn't outshine each other. If anything, they complement each other so well. It makes sense why they are so in sync during red carpets and interviews. Their real life friendship truly shines through on screen.

As someone who's a massive fan of her music, was it going to be easy separating the pop star from the actor? She proved me wrong (not like my approval matters) and it was her body language that sold me.

Grande has always been hilarious. Whether it was her time on Victorious or making guest appearances on Saturday Night Live, she knows how to put on a persona. As Glinda, she really became the character, as evidenced by her body language and behavior. The exaggerated hair toss ("Toss, toss"), her passive aggressive tone towards Elphaba and her flirty moves with Fiyero.

I wanted to roll my eyes every time her character was on screen (in the best way possible), but I was also captivated by her. I wanted to see what silly show she was going to do next. Despite her being a full-on bully and stuck-up at times, I noticed how Grande completely transformed into the Good Witch. The way she walked with a posse and how she constantly tried to keep her head held high to appear taller, almost superior, to Elphaba (even if they are similar in height).

The "What Is This Feeling?" number perfectly described how different these two are beyond the obvious. They portray anger and annoyance well through their singing, but also how they shuffle around each other and perform childish shenanigans to get under each other's skin.

I can also go on and on, about how amazing "Wizard and I," "Dancing Through Life," "Popular" and "Defying Gravity" were—but one of my favorite scenes was actually a non-singing one. At this point, we already spent time learning that the two main characters despise each other, so much so, that Glinda plays a rather cruel joke on Elphaba before the Shiz students sneak out to go dance the night away.

There's a cool dance number, an awkward moment between Glinda and Madame Morrible and more heart-melting moments with Fiyero. But it's when Elphaba finally makes an appearance that the music stops, people begin to mock her and my heart breaks.

The empowering scene has Elphaba making her way to the middle of the dance floor and putting on the iconic hat (tilting it to truly make her own) before she starts to slowly dance in silence. At one point, Elphaba is dancing for us, doing graceful hand movements and eyeing us as if we, too, were judging her. Similar to with Grande, Erivo's body language says it all. I can't express enough how Erivo has made Elphaba into a strong (but also secretly broken) character we all want to root for despite her donning the label The Wicked Witch of the West in the future.

As the viewer, we then turn to Glinda and watch her demeanor change into something of guilt. The way Grande uses her brows to display regret is chef's kiss. The camera also offers more close-ups of Erivo's face, filled with so many mixed emotions that only this EGOT winner can portray. So when Glinda finally joins her, despite her minions' protest, it becomes a turning point in the film.

In this scene, the story is told through physicality. There's no belted tune, no out-of-this-world dance number, no comedic line. I even forgot there were background actors. These two characters moved across the dance floor, finding a new middle ground without uttering a word.

As director Jon Chu shared, "Wicked to me, at its very core, is about friendship." Whether I was looking inwards at my own friendships, the moment they grew tired of fighting each other and used this dance to form a bond left chills.

I still plan on seeing it again (and even joining the sing-along viewings happening on Christmas), but for now, I'll just wait until Friday when they release the track list because "Defying Gravity" is truly the hit of the film (well, after Erivo and Grande's incredible physical acting, of course).