John M. Chu gives Wicked fans permission to bug theaters to turn up the volume

If you attend a screen of Wicked this weekend and feel like "Defying Gravity" isn't defying the sound of the theater playing Gladiator 2 next door, it turns out you have an ally in your camp: Director Jon M. Chu.

Chu hopped on social media this weekend to give some very specific pointers to fans viewing the movie musical, reporting that in some of the screenings of the film he's been to, the volume has been "more like a 6.4." "Tell your movie theater to turn it up to a 7…" Chu told fans, heralding what we can only imagine will be a cavalcade of theater staff headaches in the coming days. "If you want it the way it was intended 7 is the way."

Not being either projectionists or the directors of mega-budgeted movie musicals ourselves, we don't know what scale Chu is specifically talking about here—we're guessing that 7 is louder than 6.4, although this is, admittedly, only speculation. But we do have decent enough imaginations to picture a lot of people walking up to some very tired teenagers and showing them Chu's tweet, and perhaps asking to see a picture of the dial (lever? widget?) to ensure it's cranked to the right whatever.

For what it's worth, Chu got a vote of support from the Dolby sound company itself, which responded to his tweet with a salute and a "we've got you covered." (Which, because this is the internet, was instantly disputed by multiple angry conversational partners who had found that Dolby had not had them covered.) And while we might kid around a bit about Chu unleashing the hordes, it's also undeniable that a moviegoer's Wicked experience is going to hinge hugely on the sound balance in their individual theaters; you might be able to blast the movie's soundtrack all you want in your personal car stereo, but you don't want to get to the theater and be craning to hear Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande belt out their big numbers (especially once the inevitable chorus of theater kids start singing along, despite theater company fiat).

[via THR]