"Wicked" director Jon M. Chu talks Elphaba-branded Swiffers and we preview "Melania"

22:53and that it's the passing on of the old musical to the new musical, because from then on, he knows how to do that. Wow. Oh. I'm just thinking. It was very deep. It was very deep. Yeah. It was very deep. I didn't have a different faith. You were a dancer. You studied tap dance for a long time, right? I did. I mean, I was forced to tap with my sister because my mom didn't. I was in the car when she would take all our brothers' sisters to different dance things. So I did tap with my sister. I didn't want any other people in our class. So me and my sister did our local talent show, our school talent show every year.

23:28Wow. Were you any good? If by tapping well, you mean like glitter and gloves. And I did this one, me and my shadow with my sister. And we got in a fight right before we're doing it in front of our school. And my mom brought in the wood panels. And my sister and I are fighting. And she's really shy. And I don't sing along with her. so she had to sing in front of our whole school by herself. And I'm in this big black unitard as her shadow. And so I haven't lifted down since then. Really? I actually still feel very guilty about that. So you have a big fight and you have to do this dance number and you won't sing.

24:06And she has to sing the whole number by herself. And you're just behind her in your black unitard tapping. And she's like, and my shadow. It was devastating. Devastating for her. And she's never seen any movie you've ever done because she's still mad. At some point, I will get in the unitard and sing in front of her at some point. Right. So you grew up on musicals. And so you must have been excited when you got to direct the movie version of probably the biggest musical of the last 20 years, right? Wicked? Yeah, I was psyched. I saw Wicked before it was ever on Broadway when it was at San Francisco because we had season tickets and my mom called me up.

24:47I was at USC at the time. She said, come watch Stephen Schwartz's new musical. So I got to watch it sort of as patient zero before anyone knew anything about it. I just have to ask, for personal reasons, when you were watching Wicked, were there any middle-aged men in the audience sobbing at defying gravity? Did that happen at all? We were all sobbing. We were all sobbing. Okay, so I have to ask you about this, especially with the first installment, Wicked. There were so many marketing tie-ins. There was Wicked-branded Crocs, Wicked Mac and Cheese Cups, Wicked Barbies, Wicked Stanley Cups, and Wicked Build-A-Bears.

25:30I'm assuming you own all of that? Swiffer's? Yep. Yep, you have it all? Now I know who sponsors this show, by the way. Did you have a favorite one of those that they threw at you? Listen, the Swiffer is pretty cool when you go to Target and you see the Elphaba and Galil sections, and they're there. I mean, it's not a broomstick, but it's close enough. Wicked Swiffers. It would make sense. Honestly, though. That's a good way to get your kid to clean the house, like your kid that loves Alphaba. It's like, I'm defying gravity. I got one more question. So I watched, before Wicked, some years ago, you made not one, but two movies with Justin Bieber.

26:15And I'm watching the second one. I had to. It's the one that's leaving Netflix soon. And here's the thing. You designed the concert in addition to filming the movie of the concert. And including, which I thought was intensely cool, Justin's entrance into the concert in which he flies in, foreshadowing Elphaba, right? With these enormous wings. And I was wondering, speaking to you as a creative genius, if you have any idea that how I can improve my entrance Because I just kind of walk out You need some lasers, you need some dancers, and you need your wings You know, his wings were made of all his things that he actually knows how to do It's built of all the things that have carried him, you know, again, I'm very deep, guys I'm about to find your wings Wow, wow.

27:08So my wings, all the things that got me here would be standardized tests and antidepressants. I could see it. And don't forget Havana Nights. No!

27:22John Chu, it is a pleasure to talk to you. We've invited you here today to play a game we're calling... That's Wicked Good. Since you directed Wicked for Good, we thought we'd ask you about a famously Wicked Good place, Boston, Massachusetts. Oh, God. By the way, now that I think of it, wicked swiffa sounds like something they'd say. A wicked swiffa. Anyway, answer two to three questions correctly, you'll win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose in their voicemail. Bill, who is John Chu playing for? Joe Robbins of Seattle, Washington. All right, you ready to do this?

27:56All right, let's go, Joe, I got you. Okay, man, here we go. Here's your first question. Scientists have tried to study what makes people from Boston become people from Boston. And one actual study discovered which of these findings. A, Bostonian skulls are 5 % thicker than the average Americans. B, 15 % of Boston toddlers drink coffee. Or C, all Boston school districts have a unit on how to climb light poles. Oh my God. The one that is like crazy enough, but not too crazy, would be the coffee bee. You're right, John. That's the one. What? Yeah. Here's your next question. Boston sports fans are known for their enthusiasm.

28:49During the parade to celebrate the New England Patriots' first Super Bowl win in 2002, what happened? A, the crowd started chanting, Yankees suck. even though they play baseball B. Three fans were arrested for trying to throw beer bottles right into the hood of Bill Belichick's sweatshirt or C. Fans crowd surf Tom Brady all the way from his duck boat to a nearby bar I'm going to go A. You're right, that's what they did. Of course that's what they did. That's what I would do. That seems fun. Yankees suck. I gotta tell you, I saw it on TV. It was wicked Swiffer. Here's your next question. Earlier this month, Boston's WBZ News i-team launched an investigative report after a man had something he'd been saving to pass on to his kids ripped away from him heartlessly.

29:44What did that man lose? A, his Red Sox season tickets located where his heckles could be heard on TV. B, a 1981 Pontiac Trans Am that was missing both axles. or C, 93 ,000 Dunkin' Donuts rewards points. Ripped away from him. I'm just going to go with my, what I think is just the most logical. I'll go C. You're right. That's what it was. He had accumulated 93 ,000 rewards points at Dunkin'. He was hoarding them to hand out to his children. It was his only legacy and then Dunkin' changed the rules and they vanished. Isn't that sad? It's terrible. It's terrible. The injustices. Listen, we had a great partnership with Duncan for Wicked for Good.

30:27You could get these little munchkin tins. It was great. It's fantastic. Of course. Munchkins. Yeah. It's right there. Can you talk to them about this guy's points? I think we should talk to them. Come on. Come on. Dunkin' Donuts, if you're out there, help this guy out. Bill, how did John Chu do in our quiz? Three right answers is wickedly good. Wicked awesome. Wicked awesome. Wicked awesome.

30:55John M. Chu is the award-winning director of the Wicked Movies. You can stream Wicked for Good now. John M. Chu, thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for your wonderful movies. I cried like a baby. Take care. Good time. In just a minute, Bill reveals a secret beluga whales have been hiding for years. Find out what it is in our Listener Limerick Challenge. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to join us on the air. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. This message comes from Whole Foods Market. Head to Whole Foods Market for savings on zesty flavors. It's the Cocina Latina event with yellow sale signs throughout the store.

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32:32From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis. We're playing this week with Annie Rowarda, Nagin Farsad, and Peter Gross. And And here again is your host at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. In just a minute, it's about time we sat you down and finally had the talk, the one where we talked to you in limericks. It's our Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news. Peter, in the battle to eradicate invasive predators from New Zealand, a big problem there.

33:16Scientists have discovered the perfect weapon. What is it? I don't know. Something from Australia? No. I'll give you a hint. Dunking these things in milk makes them especially powerful. Chocolate chip cookies? A kind of cookie. A kind of cookie. Oreos? Yes. Oreo cookies. So there is an invasive possum species in New Zealand. And while most of them can be caught in traditional ways, there were some who were far too clever and wary to literally take the bait. So officials needed something, quote, so tempting that it triggers reward-seeking behavior to override caution, which is basic. That's Oreos, right?

33:59Can confirm. Invasive raccoons, they're just like us. I mean, honestly, isn't that the slogan of Oreos printed on the package? So tempting that it triggers reward-seeking behavior to override caution. You're like, yeah, don't say it out loud. Just let me shove nine of these. They definitely override the part of my brain that tells me, you bought this for your kid to take to school. One sleeve per person in the thing where there's three sleeves. Exactly. And it worked. In the two weeks before they switched to Oreos, they caught one possum. In the three weeks after the switch, 15. Well, it would work on me if I was ever in New Zealand.

34:40Oh, my God. They caught four possums and Peter Gross? Yeah, exactly. I don't know what to tell you, man. It was worth it. Absolutely worth it. Annie, we all know there are secret formulas for Coke and KFC, the Colonel's Secret Recipe, while the Wall Street Journal wrote about another even more secret formula. Hidden in a bank vault, seen only by a few dozen people over the decades, is the secret formula for what? Okay, the Krabby Patty is not real. It is going to be the secret formula. Is it food? Can you tell me that? It's not a food. It's not a food? It's not a food. Can you give me a hint? Yes.

35:19Okay. You know what they say. The squeaky wheel gets the highly secret formula. WD-40. Yes, WD-40. Wow. Amazing. Whatever the formula is, it's working so well. It really is. Props to you, secret formula. Yes, the Wall Street Journal wrote all about this. Two amazing things in the story. First, that the formula for WD-40 is one of the world's most highly guarded industrial real secrets and second that it has a formula. I thought it was just a thing that there was. On the periodic table. Yeah, like gold, neon, WD-40, argon, carbon, you know, it's just a thing. It seems like it should be down there on the bottom with the weird ones.

36:01The big numbers, yeah. The Californium and all the other ones. Yeah, one of the elements. But also isn't it just, I've always felt like it's just secretly olive oil or something, You know what I mean? Like, it's not anything. No, no, it's an entire mystery what it is. In fact, the WD turns out to stand for What Dis? I work so well. Like, I haven't had a sore throat in years. I know, it's amazing. The formula is written down in a notebook that is locked in a bank vault in an undisclosed location somewhere in San Diego. Only a handful of people have seen it over the past 70 years because, unfortunately, the notebook also reveals the name of the inventor's secret crush.

36:40Myrna Loy! I don't want anybody to know. Coming up, it's Lightning Fill in the Blank, but first it's the game where you have to listen for the rhyme. If you'd like to play on air, call or leave a message at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. You can come see us most weeks right here at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, or you can catch us on the road. And if you live in Chicago and you want to see our show's weird little sister, come check out our special Comedy Grab Bag live stand-up show March 11th at the Den Theater in Wicker Park. Adam Burke will be hosting, along with panelists Alzo Slade, Rachel Koster, and more special guests.

37:16For tickets and more information for all our live events, go to nprpresents.org. And while you're at it, head over to nprshop.org and check out our new merch. You can grab one of our new wait-wait tees or sweatshirts, but you will still need your own pants. Hi, you're on Wait-Wait, Don't Tell Me. Hi there, Peter. I'm Rachel from Las Cruces, New Mexico. Hey, Rachel. How are you? Doing phenomenal. It's absolutely been a wonderful day for me so far. I am so glad. What a good attitude. What do you do there? I moved here to work on a trail crew with Conservation Corps New Mexico. Oh, how very cool.

37:54I like it. If that's your job, what do you do for fun? Accounting? No, I'm a musician for fun. Well, Rachel, welcome to the show. Bill Curtis is going to read you three news-related limericks with a last word or phrase missing from each. If you can find that last word or phrase correctly in two of the limericks, you will be a winner. You ready to play? Let's go. Let's do it. Here's your first limerick. The airport lounge likes to promote deals, but their mush had an ultra-hot throat feel. I am making demands because I scalded my hands. I have sued because they served me hot... Oatmeal. Oatmeal!

38:35There you go. Got it. Good, good, good. A man sued Air Canada for$5 ,000 for medical expenses and pain and suffering because of an injury he received while eating oatmeal in their airport lounge. He says he spilled some oatmeal onto his hand and it burned, it burned. He asked for$5 ,000. He claimed that Air Canada was negligent in allowing people to serve themselves from the hot container. A tribunal said no, it was not an unreasonable risk and also said the oatmeal container had a large red flame symbol on the front warning people it was hot. The guy said he just thought that meant the oatmeal was extra spicy.

39:17He really said that? No. But he really did say, and that was their defense. I said, you know, we'd say it's hot. He said that they should have a trained person there to scoop the oatmeal for people to prevent this injury. Because it's too dangerous. Someone who went to college for four years. They went to grad school. Specialized in oatmeal studies. This guy's really into workforce development. He really is. I appreciate it. All right. Here is your next limerick. We snakes like to seek new domains, but slithering is such a pain. When home ground seems stale, we start riding the rails. We snakes like to get on a...

40:03Train? Train, yes. King cobra snakes are spreading really efficiently throughout India, and researchers have finally figured out why there are mother effing snakes on these mother effing trains. Researchers know that the snakes typically prefer forested areas in the inland of the country, but they've been found making homes in a handful of unexpected and far-flung places. And it turns out they all line up to nearby railway lines, right? So they think the snakes are taking the trains. I mean, maybe they're doing it to be sneaky. Maybe they just look up and see this long thing moving around the ground and they go, daddy.

40:43They're promoting the railway lines. There's always the commercials for whatever, and they're too good. People are taking them, and the snakes are like, that looks like a lovely vacation. I've never been to Goa. It seems like a blast. This explains why I saw a suspiciously skinny man in an overcoat ordering a frozen rat in the cafe car. Here is your last lemurrent. We belugas aren't sexual clingers. For those keys in a bowl, we are ringers. On most of our dates, we are swapping our mates. Yes, beluga whale pods are all... Swingers. Swingers, yes. Scientists have determined that beluga whales are swingers, repeatedly switching mating partners from year to year.

41:29The findings were reported in the New England Journal of Ocean Perverts.

41:36Sluts. I had no idea. I knew. I could tell. Weird how Rafi never mentioned that. Bill, how did Rachel do in our quiz? Three in a row. Congratulations. Thank you so much for calling, Rachel. Take care. Yeah, you too, Peter.

42:11This message comes from LinkedIn, who knows the wrong hire can cost small businesses more than just time. That's why LinkedIn Hiring Pro goes beyond resumes, using insights you can't find anywhere else to give you a short list of candidates who truly fit. So you can hire right the first time. Post your first job and get$100 off at linkedin.com slash npraauthor. Terms and conditions apply. This message comes from Indeed. Hiring? Do it the right way with Indeed's Sponsored Jobs. Claim a$75 sponsored job credit to get matched with quality candidates at indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply.

42:52This message comes from LinkedIn, who knows an empty seat can cost small businesses more than just space. That's why LinkedIn Hiring Pro makes it easy to fill that seat with the right candidate, streamlining everything from posting jobs to shortlisting talent. Nearly 60 % of businesses find someone to interview in the first week. Hire right the first time. Post your first job and get$100 off at linkedin.com slash NPR offer. Terms and conditions apply. Now on to our final game, lightning fill in the blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as they can.

43:29Each correct answer now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores? Nagin has three. Andy and Peter each have two. So that means, Nagin, you are in first place. Andy and Peter are tied for second. Peter, we're going to start with you. Great. Here we go. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill-in-the-blank. On Tuesday, the new owners of social media app, blank, blamed a power outage for some posts being censored. Snapchat? No. tick-tock. On Monday, the White House announced it was increasing blanks on goods from South Korea. Tariffs. Right. On Monday, Russia confirmed that its Black Sea flagship was in fact sunk by a missile from blank.

44:05Ukraine? Right. According to health officials, blank expectancy in the U.S. is on the rise. Life expectancy? Yes. On Monday, the last two blanks on loan to zoos in Japan were returned to China. Uh, pandas? Right. After a Waymo self-driving car crashed into several parked cars in Los Angeles, the company assured the public that blank. there's going to be Waymo of this

44:33there's not going to be Waymo of this Waymo assured the public the car was being driven by a human at the time no injuries were reported after the vehicle crashed into multiple cars in a residential neighborhood but Waymo was still quick to point out that it was human error and that a self-driving car would never hit another car Only pedestrians. Phil, how did Peter do in our quiz? He got four right. Eight more points. Total of 10 puts him in the lead. All right. Very good. Hold your applause, folks. Annie, you are up next. Here we go. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, Senate Democrats and the White House reached a deal to avoid a blank.

45:12Government shutdown. Right. On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics released its updated childhood blank recommendations. Screen time? No, vaccine recommendations. This week, the Federal Reserve once again held blanks steady. Interest rates. Right. Citing declining sales, electric car maker Blank announced it was discontinuing two of its models. Tesla? Right. After fans pressured him to write a song against Trump, children's songwriter Rafi said he couldn't because blank. His voice is tired. No, because as Rafi, he is not allowed to use the F-bomb in his songs. On Monday, France faced a backlash after banning blanks from their high-speed railways premium cabins.

45:52Vapes. Cigarettes. Kids. Oh. On Sunday... More dangerous than vapes and cigarettes. These are the French headband kids lying with their cigarettes. On Sunday, the Seahawks and Patriots won their conference title games and will face each other at the blank. Super Bowl. Right. After two boys, age 9 and 11, at a daycare in Canada got in a fight over a Toei dinosaur, the younger boy blanked the older boy. Pooped on. No. He sued him. The 11-year-old hit the 9-year-old in the finger with the toy dinosaur, and in that classic schoolyard taunt, the 9-year-old said, I'll see you in court. In the end, the judge sided with the older boy and dismissed the suit, which is a huge relief because he was facing 10 to 15 years in the timeout chair.

46:40Bill, how did Annie do on our quiz? Hey, we've got a Super Bowl here. Four right, eight more points, 10 means she's tied with Peter. All right, then. And how many, then, does Nagin need to win? Four to win. Three and a half to tie. Here you are. Here we go, Nagin. This is for the game, Nagin. On Wednesday, the FBI raided a central election office in blank. Georgia. Right. On Tuesday, the acting president of Venezuela pushed back against the White House's demands to restart blank production. Oil. Right. This week, President Trump escalated his threats of military action against blank. Iran. Right.

47:13According to health officials, South Carolina's blank outbreak is the U.S.'s biggest in 25 years. Measles. Right. This week, an AI-generated ad promoting Tasmania's tranquil hot springs had to be removed because blank. The... They're not tranquil. No. They're not there. There are no hot springs in Tasmania. On Tuesday, the blank clock was set closer to midnight than it has ever been. Oh, the end of the world? Yeah, the doomsday clock. On Monday, Cadillac became only the second American carmaker to have a blank racing team. Uh, F1? Yeah, Formula One. Car shoppers suspected a car auction site was using AI when photos of a used Cadillac showed that the car had blank.

47:53Arms. No. The ad photo showed that the Cadillac had cobblestone floors. If you're unfamiliar with the 1999 Cadillac DeVille, one thing to know about it is that it does not have cobblestone floors on the interior. It's hard to say why exactly the auction site thought they should add that to the pictures of the car But honestly for me the only way I know I'm in a true luxury vehicle is if I might sprain an ankle Bill didn't again do well enough to win it really well six right 12 more points 15 gives her the win this week Congratulations Congratulations, Nikki! Yay! Suck it, you guys! Congratulations.

48:33Gracious in defeat. Not gracious in victory whatsoever. Coming up, our panelists predict, now that we know they can explode, what surprising thing will trees do next? Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord. Philip Gotica writes our limericks. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our tour manager is Shana Donald. Thanks to the staff and crew here at the Studebaker Theater, B.J. Liederman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dornbos, and Lillian King.

49:05Special thanks to Vinnie Thomas and Monica Hickey. Peter Gwynn is the apple of our eye. Our visual host is Emma Choi. Technical direction is from Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller. Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chilock. And the executive producer of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is Mike Danforth. and I'm afraid to say this is a sad day for us at Wait Wait because we have to say goodbye to our beloved tour manager Shana Dahmel. Shana came to us after working with people like the Eagles and the Rolling Stones and just by her presence we all got promoted from dorks all the way up to nerds.

49:42Her energy is magnetic, her dedication to making everything better for everybody around her is endless and we will miss her terribly. We just know that wherever she goes next, that place will not just be lucky, it will be much cooler. Now, panel, what will trees do next? Nagin Farsav. They can't have cracks so they're gonna get into skin care so their barks look hot. Annie Rowarda. The trees are going to apologize for exploding, especially in public. They will not do it next time. And Peter Gross. They're going to break out singing. It's time to try defying gravity. Don't you dare. Well, if any of that happens, panel, we'll ask you about it on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

50:32Thank you, Bill Curtis. Thanks also to Nagin Farsad, Peter Gross. And thanks for a great debut from Annie Rawrda. Thanks to our fabulous audience here at the Sudebaker Theater in downtown Chicago. Thanks to all of you for listening wherever you might be. I'm Peter Sagal. We'll see you next week.

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