‘Wicked: For Good’ Composer Stephen Schwartz Breaks Down New Songs for Elphaba and Glinda

When the long-running and beloved musical Wicked was adapted into a film and released last year, it was no doubt lauded for its songs, sung by lead actors Cynthia Erivo (who plays Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda the Good).

A year later, the sequel Wicked: For Good — in theaters worldwide on Nov. 21, 2025 — adapts the second act of the musical by theater composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who’s also written two new original songs for the screen. In addition to reshaping songs from the original 2024 film soundtrack, Wicked: For Good has “No Place Like Home” written for Elphaba (with Erivo also getting writing credits) and “The Girl in the Bubble” written for Glinda.

Referring to Glinda’s song, Schwartz exclusively tells Rolling Stone India, “In this film, Glinda reaches a point of crisis where she just cannot continue to live the way she has been. She has been insulated from what is really going on, cutting off her own morality and sense of decency in order to have the trappings of what she thinks she wants. Finally, there is a moment where she must confront this, and it felt essential that we take the time to have a song in which to do that.”

For Elphaba’s song, “No Place Like Home,” Schwartz says it was important to show how much the Wicked Witch of the West actually loves Oz. Schwartz says, “Although it has not been very good to her, it is her home, and all of her heart and soul wants to stay there, fight for it, and make it a better place. When you are born somewhere, that place becomes part of you, and you cannot really explain why. That is a universal feeling, and I tried to capture that in this song.” It led to going in a different thematic direction compared to Glinda’s song, and also makes a reference to the famous line “there’s no place like home” from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

Buzzing with excitement about the new music he got to write and compose for Wicked: For Good, Schwartz also spoke about reworking the previous songs for a 12-track OST that will be released alongside the film on Nov. 21, 2025. He says, “There are the two new songs, but several of the other songs are not just reinterpreted in terms of performance but actually extensively rewritten, too. That, of course, is always challenging, but I am a writer, and that is the challenge that keeps me excited and keeps me going back to the piano.”

Schwartz has long been a powerhouse in composing music for stage musicals and films, with credits ranging from The Hunchback of Notre Dame to Enchanted. In 2005, he was also part of the musical stage production Thiruvasakam in Symphony led by legendary South Indian composer Ilaiyaraaja, transcribing Tamil poetry by saint-poet Manikkavasagar. In 2020, he joined forces with A.R. Rahman to write lyrics for “Hands Around the World,” which raised awareness about climate change.