"Get Happy/Happy Days" represents a perfect full-circle moment for Ariana Grande, connecting her Glinda era to Hollywood's golden age with elegance and intention.
Winston literally had no ending when Grande asked—and she saved the entire finale with one Zoom call pitch and a texted video of herself performing the duet.
"I don't know, I haven't really thought about it," Winston admitted to Grande when asked how he'd end the show. She responded by pitching "Get Happy/Happy Days" within minutes over Zoom. The arrangement was reconstructed note-by-note from Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand's original version.
Grande didn't just perform in this production—she essentially co-created its emotional thesis. When the producers were scrambling for an ending, she handed them a message about hope that tied Wicked to Hollywood history.
When Ben Winston sat down with Ariana Grande over Zoom to discuss "Wicked: One Wonderful Night," he had a problem: he didn't have an ending. At all. The executive producer—whose credits include "The Late Late Show" and "The Grammy Awards"—was honest about his creative blindspot when Grande asked the million-dollar question. "'I don't know, I haven't really thought about it,'" Winston recalled telling her at that fateful conversation. Grande didn't freeze or defer to the professionals. Within minutes, she pitched him on performing a rendition of "Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again"—the iconic Judy Garland duet originally performed with Barbra Streisand in the 1954 film "A Star Is Born." She followed up immediately by texting Winston a video of herself performing it. They watched it together at the same time, and Winston's reaction was swift: "'This is amazing. What a great message to end it.'" What makes this pitch particularly audacious is that Grande essentially handed the production team its emotional thesis with zero hesitation. Music director Stephen Oremus revealed the reconstruction process was meticulous: "We reconstructed the entire arrangement that Judy and Barbra Streisand did note by note, and it was really just so emotional and so beautiful." Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz even wrote a new bridge specifically for this moment, giving the duet fresh context while honoring its vintage roots. The result? A closing number that tied Grande's Glinda era to Hollywood's golden age in one fell swoop. But here's what really caught my attention: Winston admitted at an FYC event on the Universal lot in early June—moderated by director Jon M. Chu—that this wasn't some carefully orchestrated masterplan. The team was genuinely scrambling. "What we tried to do is just make it a real variety special," Winston explained, describing their approach as intentionally "old-school." They had the Dolby Theater for exactly two days of rehearsal time. Two days to stage "Popular," "Defying Gravity," and "Thank Goodness"—the latter featuring Michelle Yeoh in choreography inspired by her martial arts background that she learned during hotel room rehearsals with choreographer Christopher Scott. "She turned it on, and she did it," Scott said of Yeoh. "She added this wink, which nobody told her to do, but it was Michelle Yeoh at her finest." The finale brought together Cynthia Erivo and Grande with Broadway's original Elphaba and Glinda—Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth—who both make special appearances in "Wicked: Part One" currently in theaters. Oremus described the collective feeling after the performance: "It took everyone out in such a positive, beautiful way. To have something refreshing that wasn't from 'Wicked' was connected in some way with the whole Judy Garland of it all." As "One Wonderful Night" vies for Emmy consideration across multiple categories, it's worth noting this could become one of the first properties since 2000 to complete the EGOT sweep—winning an Emmy, Oscar, Tony, and Grammy. Grande's last-minute Zoom pitch may have just sealed that legacy.
