Ariana Grande Previews ‘Wicked’ Riff in ‘Moulin Rouge’ Spoof on ‘SNL’: Watch
Written by djfrosty on March 10, 2024
Ariana Grande appeared with her Wicked co-star Bowen Yang in a hilarious spoof of Moulin Rouge during Saturday Night Live on March 9.
The five-minute sketch begins as a PBS special, hosted by SNL‘s Mikey Day, that examines what the 2001 movie musical’s “Elephant Love Medley” would’ve looked like if director Baz Luhrmann has been able to secure rights to other popular songs.
In the spoof, the 30-year-old pop star portrayed Nicole Kidman’s Satine and Yang played Ewan McGregor’s Christian, mashing up Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel” with the nursery rhyme “Wheels on the Bus” and comically performing snippets of hits like TLC’s “Creep,” Jennifer Lopez’s “Waiting for Tonight” and Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”
SNL host Josh Brolin briefly joined in on the fun to deliver spoken word lines from the film’s soundtrack song “Lady Marmalade,” by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya and P!nk.
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The skit ended with Grande and Bowen belting out the “Defying Gravity” end riff from Wicked. Grande will appear in the upcoming live action adaptations of the Broadway musical, in which she’ll play Glinda opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba. Yang will play the role of Pfannee in the Jon M. Chu-directed film.
Elsewhere in the SNL episode, Grande performed a pair of new songs from her latest album, Eternal Sunshine. She opened with “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” and closed with “Imperfect for You.” The “Yes, And?” singer also appeared in another sketch about a support group of people pleasers.
The songstress has appeared on SNL twice before: once as the musical guest in September 2014 and once pulling double-duty as both host and performer in March 2016.
Watch the “Moulin Rouge” SNL sketch below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes.