Wicked: One Wonderful Night
Wicked: One Wonderful Night is a 2025 American television special promoting Universal Pictures' two-part film adaptation of the stage musical Wicked by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. Led by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, performances included songs from the 2024 Wicked film, along with previews of songs from its 2025 sequel, Wicked: For Good.
Wicked: One Wonderful Night first aired on November 6, 2025, on NBC, before streaming on Peacock the following day. A live album of the night's performances was also released.
Cast
Performers
- Cynthia Erivo
- Ariana Grande
- Ethan Slater
- Bowen Yang
- Marissa Bode
- Michelle Yeoh
- Jeff Goldblum
- Idina Menzel
- Kristin Chenoweth
- Stephen Schwartz
Appearances
; Pre-recorded- Jonathan Bailey
- Ludacris
- Lainey Wilson
- Ben Schwartz
- Khloé Kardashian
- Gayle King
- Heidi Klum
- Rob Gronkowski
- Shaquille O'Neal
- Leslie Odom Jr.
- Ken Jeong
Setlist
- "No One Mourns the Wicked" – Ariana Grande, Bowen Yang, Ensemble, Audience
- "The Wizard and I" – Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Goldblum on piano
- "What Is This Feeling? / Dear Old Shiz" – Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande
- "Popular" – Ariana Grande, Remington Glass
- "For Good" – Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth, Stephen Schwartz on piano
- "I'm Not That Girl" – Cynthia Erivo
- "Dancing Through Life" – Bowen Yang, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode
- "Thank Goodness" – Ariana Grande
- "Defying Gravity" – Cynthia Erivo
- "Get Happy / Happy Days Are Here Again" – Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande
Production
On July 9, 2025, during their upfront, NBC announced a two-hour Wicked special titled Wicked: Event Special to air in November 2025. It was confirmed that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande would be part of the show and that songs from both films would be performed during the show.On September 24, 2025, the show was filmed at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. During the special, Erivo and Grande wore outfits by Marni and Alexander McQueen. The "For Good" performance was recorded later and filmed at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City, where the musical Wicked has been staged since 2003, and was not shown to the audience during the filming.
In October 2025, the title of the special was changed to Wicked: One Wonderful Night, and NBC set a release date for November 6, 2025, to celebrate the release of Wicked: For Good two weeks later. Marissa Bode, Jon M. Chu, Jeff Goldblum, Stephen Schwartz, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, and Michelle Yeoh were also confirmed to appear.
One significant edit was done to Bode's introduction to "Defying Gravity", where she initially said the song was about standing up to a "power-hungry dictator", which was interpreted as a dig at the second Trump administration.