'Wicked' Stars Ethan Slater and Ariana Grande Have Chemistry

By Jason P. Frank, a Vulture writer covering comedy, theater, and music

Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater’s relationship has been, since its inception, a point of controversy. We can’t definitively say what the timeline was, but, to many online, it sure looked like Slater left his wife, who had recently given birth, for Grande while filming Wicked, in which he plays Munchkin man Boq and she plays good witch Glinda. But what we do know for sure, after seeing part one of Wicked, is that they have chemistry. It’s true! They’re funny together! It’s sweet! In fact, out of everyone in the cast, they are two of the only people who seem to have the exact same vision for the movie: daffy and sweet, with heightened yet specific characterizations. They are in sync!

Within Wicked, the two don’t talk a lot. Boq is in less of the show than you remember, especially Act One, which is all this first movie covers. Within the film, he just grovels at Glinda’s feet while she ignores him entirely and forgets his name. They have a few conversations early on, but the real showcase comes during the “Dancing Through Life” sequence. In the middle of Fiyero’s schoolwide corruption to fun, Boq comes up to ask Glinda if she would like to dance with him. She rejects him by making him ask Nessarose, Elphaba’s disabled sister, to the dance instead. Both actors have a little twinkle in their eye throughout the short scene and, despite their characters not making a romantic connection, it’s clear sparks are flying.

Notably, Grande has less chemistry with Jonathan Bailey’s Fiyero than she does with Slater. Perhaps that’s partly by design — no spoilers but Fiyero doesn’t exactly have a soul connection with Glinda — but there’s no faking the chemistry we do get to see. Part of the fun is that they’re quite clearly the only two who really get what the original Wicked was. Everyone else makes the whole affair more dour than it needs to be. Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba is very serious, without Idina Menzel’s deadpan humor, and Bailey’s Fiyero is played like a straight-ahead charmer, not a slyly fun slacker, and Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible is grounded instead of grand. Those versions of the characters make for a good movie but not necessarily a fun one.

Grande and Slater, meanwhile, are less scared of leaning into Wicked’s ridiculousness and come out the better for it. Both are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. They have aligned “manic theater kid” energies, that, when paired, really work.

Part of the issue people have taken with their relationship, since its outset, has always had to do with Slater’s looks. He’s called SpongeBob (a reference to his Tony-nominated stage work), and most people’s vibe is not just “this was a bad thing to do” but, rather, “why him?” And look, we’re not saying we agree with leaving your child’s mother for the nearest hot pop star whom you’re co-starring in a movie with. If that happened, it is bad, sure. All we’re saying? We get it.