For the love of Oz, please do not sing the Wicked songs when you go see the movie

Something Wicked this way…sings?

Rather than just recline in the comfy theater seat, eat some Goobers and soak in the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Wicked, The New York Times reports that some Wicked fans are treating early screenings of the film as their personal sing-along space.

Oh yes. People are going to a movie theater, a place where thousands of public announcement videos have aired before movies to encourage you to please just shut up for two hours and enjoy the show, and belting out their favorite Wicked songs as if they’re auditioning for a community playhouse.

As much as rampant cell phone use and idle chatter are heinous crimes in the filmgoing space, loudly singing a Broadway tune around other people who have absolutely no desire to hear your voice is a cardinal sin of going to the movies. It is a gross violation of a sacred space. It is just flat-out wrong.

Sure, historically, people have sang songs in theaters in the past. That’s typically reserved for midnight movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show or specifically designated sing-along screenings.

Hearing a theater major loudly belt “Popular” right next to you while you’re just trying to drink your Diet Coke and enjoy the IMAX movie you paid good money for is like having someone blow cigarette smoke in your face while you’re trying to enjoy a nice steak dinner.

If it’s really that important to you to sing Wicked songs loudly with strangers, Universal will be offering sing-along screenings starting this Christmas. It’s then when you can dress like your favorite Wicked character and sing all the songs you want in a public space with other people without driving the rest of us bonkers.

For the love of Oz, please don’t do it before then. This is going to be one of the most packed houses this holiday season at the movies, and there are a lot of people who just want to hear trained professionals sing the songs. No disrespect, but if you’re getting such an outrageous itch to sing the Wicked songs loudly at the movies, you’re probably not a trained professional.

Just wait until Christmas to open your pipes and sing at the movies. We all pay a good amount for the movie ticket, and we all deserve the decency to enjoy the movie in silence. If you defy that silence and use the movies as your personal audience to sing, you deserve to be splashed with water.