Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz details what he originally wrote for Elphaba’s new ballad.

Discover what was cut from Cynthia Erivo’s new Wicked: For Good song ‘No Place Like Home’

Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz details what he originally wrote for Elphaba's new ballad.

By Patrick Gomez

Patrick Gomez is an Executive Editor at . Formerly at People magazine and The A.V. Club, the Critics Choice and Television Critics Association member has appeared on 'Today,' 'Extra!,' 'Access Hollywood,' 'E! News,' 'CNN,' and 'Nightline,' and can be seen frequently on 'Good Morning America.' Follow the Texas Native at @PatrickGomezLA wherever your media is social for all things 'For All Mankind' 'Top Chef,' and puppy related.

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January 3, 2026 11:00 a.m. ET

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Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba in 'Wicked: For Good'. Credit:

*Wicked* lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz says "Girl in the Bubble," his new Glinda song in *Wicked: For Good*, "arrived, essentially, full-born." His new song for Elphaba...not so much.

It was — somewhat — obvious where Glinda (Ariana Grande) earned another musical number and what it would be about. But crafting Elphaba's (Cynthia Erivo) additional tune started with the why rather than the when.

Schwartz tells ** that he, screenwriters Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, director Jon M. Chu, and producer Marc Platt "felt it was really important, given the sacrifice Elphaba makes at the end of the movie, that we understand how much she loved Oz, despite the fact that it doesn't show a lot of love to her — and how painful it would be for her to even contemplate leaving Oz."

"In looking for a place to explore that, Winnie came up with the idea that animals would be trying to escape, and that Elphaba would come upon them and try to persuade them not to," he continues.

Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba in 'No Place Like Home' scene in 'Wicked: For Good'.

Universal Pictures

Where exactly that would happen in the film "did move around a bit," as the structure of the expanded second act of the *Wicked* story solidified. And that wasn't the only thing in flux as "No Place Like Home" came together.

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"There was more of the song written, as frequently happens, than wound up in the movie," Schwartz reveals. "There was a whole intro that [Elphaba] did by herself, which is now one spoken line of dialogue in her cave. And there was a whole thing afterwards when she arrived back at her childhood home and responded to it. Those went away, and just the core of her in treating the animals remained."

In an attempt to get the animals to stay, "she tries to express what she feels about the place that she's in and what she wants for those she's fighting for," Erivo recently said in a video exclusive to EW. "It almost becomes the mission statement for her."

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"I think it really becomes a beautiful song of resistance," Erivo concluded. "I loved singing it and when we did it on the Yellow Brick Road, which is really iconic and special, it felt really powerful. That home that she's known and loved this entire time might not want her, but it doesn't mean that it makes it any less like home."

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Movies”