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Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are celebrating their final time premiering Wicked in New York City — for good!
At the Monday, Nov. 17 premiere of Wicked: For Good (in theaters Friday), the two actresses appeared on the red carpet together and alongside director Jon M. Chu and costars Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater and more.
Grande, 32, and Erivo, 38, posed for photos together and skipped most press interviews. Earlier today, Universal Pictures confirmed to PEOPLE that Erivo had lost her voice and she and Grande, who regularly do press together, would not be doing red carpet interviews.
“Unfortunately, Cynthia is not feeling well and has lost her voice, therefore she and Ariana will not be doing interviews this evening,” read a statement from the studio.
Holding hands, the two made at least one stop together on the red carpet. “I’m not letting her speak. She has to rest her voice!” Grande explained while speaking to host Justin Sylvester on the premiere’s livestream, arm-in-arm with a smiling Erivo. “It’s so full circle to be in New York City where the Gershwin [Theatre] is, where Wicked is and to be celebrating tonight together.”
A hoarse Erivo chimed in to echo her: “It’s really beautiful that we’re finishing here, where it started.”
John Nacion/Variety via Getty
Grande served as her costar’s hype woman, name-checking Erivo’s Grammy-nominated solo album and new book Simply More, “coming soon! Two days. Am I doing OK?” she asked Erivo, who laughed and nodded.
“She’s throat-coating, we’re nourishing the throat,” concluded Grande, apologizing to viewers. “Thank you for understanding. There’s only so much the human body can endure.”
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Promotion for the second of two Wicked movies, which have adapted Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz’s ongoing Broadway musical for the big screen, has not been without incident.
Earlier this month, Grande was forced to miss the Wicked: For Good Brazil premiere due to plane safety issues. The Grammy winner was also charged by a man on the red carpet of the movie’s Singapore premiere; he was then sentenced to 9 days in jail.
Universal Pictures
Erivo, who quickly stepped in to protect Grande during the viral incident on the Singapore red carpet, said that the Wicked team “have come through some s—” while at a Sunday, Nov. 16 Los Angeles screening of For Good, per Variety. “I mean, f—, even this last week, let’s be honest.”
She and Grande play Elphaba a.k.a. Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good, respectively, in the two Wicked movies. The second installment picks up after the events of 2024’s Wicked: Part One, following the characters as their destinies overlap with Dorothy Gale’s in The Wizard of Oz.
The two Oscar-nominated actresses have remained close throughout the press tours for both Wicked movies. In an Instagram post on Nov. 1, Grande shared a photo of herself and Erivo showing off matching “For Good” tattoos inked on their palms.
“It was one of the most beautiful friendships to watch grow,” Chu, 46, told PEOPLE exclusively in October of his leading ladies.
“They could have hated each other,” the filmmaker added. “There could have been insane divaship, but they always put Wicked bigger than themselves, and I think that’s a great sign of a great artist that they could immerse themselves in Elphaba and Galinda and they could find themselves within these characters.”
Wicked: For Good is in theaters Friday, Nov. 21. Go behind the scenes of the sequel with PEOPLE’s new special issue, available here.
