Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, whose new movie Moana 2 debuted in US theaters on November 27, 2024, divided many people online after encouraging singing in theaters. Now, he has found an ally in Wicked‘s Cynthia Erivo, who agrees that patrons should sing along with musical numbers if they want to.
Cynthia Erivo allows Wicked fans to sing along in movie theaters
Cynthia Erivo portrays Elphaba Thropp in the 2024 cinematic adaptation of Wicked. Based on the stage musical of the same name, the movie has quite a few musical numbers. Accordingly, when Erivo appeared in the NBC booth at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, she was asked what she thought about people in theaters singing along with tracks such as “Defying Gravity” and “Popular.”
“Good! I’m OK with it,” Erivo stated. “We’ve spent this long singing it ourselves, it’s time for everyone else to join in.” (via TVLine)
Erivo’s comment comes a few days after Johnson made his opinion clear on the matter. “Sing! You’ve paid your hard earned money for a ticket, and you’ve gone into a musical, and you’re into it. Sing,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
Moana 2 is the sequel to the 2016’s Moana. Its voice cast features Johnson as Maui, Auliʻi Cravalho as Moana, Alan Tudyk as Heihei, Awhimai Fraser as Matangi, and Hualālai Chung as Moni.
Besides Erivo, Wicked stars Ariana Grande-Butera as Galinda Upland, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar, Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp, and Jeff Goldblum as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Johnson and Erivo’s remarks shed light on an ongoing discourse about etiquette in theaters. Whenever they screen a musical, several theaters request the audience to maintain silence. This hasn’t changed with Wicked. AMC Theatres, for instance, exhibit two different signs to the moviegoers. “AMC has a long-standing policy that prohibits disruptive behavior,” Ryan Noonan, a spokesperson for the company, told the Indy Star. “The Wicked preshow spot incorporates the themes of the film as a fun, engaging reminder to moviegoers to not disrupt the experience for those around them as they enjoy the show.”
