Social media posts promoting the upcoming Wicked special, Wicked: One Wonderful Night, generated controversy this week because they included Israel on the list of 15 countries and regions where the show would be broadcast.
Wicked: One Wonderful Night is set to air in Israel on both Hot and Yes in early November.
Once the posts, which have since been taken down, appeared on Instagram, Threads, and other social media platforms, some fans called for a boycott of the program because Israelis would be able to see it, or insisted that the Israeli broadcasts be cancelled.
Wicked: For Good
Wicked: One Wonderful Night, is a two-hour show to promote the sequel to Wicked, called Wicked: For Good, which opens in late November. Wicked: For Good continues the story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Galinda (Ariana Grande), characters who are younger versions of the Wicked Witch and the Good Witch in the famous Wizard of Oz movie. Wicked and Wicked: For Good are an adaptation of the hit Broadway show, Wicked, split into two parts.
Wicked: One Wonderful Night features Erivo, Grande and other cast members, along with exclusive footage from the upcoming movie, and two news songs. The show was filmed at the Dolby Theatre and is an official NBC/Universal production.
The irony is that Wicked is an allegory about intolerance and racism, with Elphaba fighting for social acceptance because she has green skin.
In September, a pledge posted online by Film Workers for Palestine urging entertainment industry professionals not to work with Israeli “film institutions” was posted, and since then, it has been signed by over 5,000 people, including Emma Stone, Javier Bardem, and Cynthia Nixon.
These thousands of signatories either do not know or do not care that all Israeli films, even those that represent Palestinian suffering and criticize the government, receive support from the film institutions they are calling to boycott. The reality is that the pledge is a call to boycott all Israeli films and Israeli creators, even those who are Arabs.
This call to boycott a musical special if it is shown in Israel and to pressure a network not to broadcast it here is a further step, a call to cancel Israeli audiences.