Yahoo Lifestyle 'No Place Like Rome': Watch Paul Mescal Defy Gravity In 'Gladiator II' Musical On 'SNL'
“Gladiator II” star Paul Mescal slayed his way through songs while handling “Saturday Night Live” hosting duties this weekend as the show imagined what Ridley Scott’s historical epic would be like if the film was a musical.
Mescal reprised his role as Lucius Verus Aurelius in the musical sketch as he sang with “SNL” cast members Kenan Thompson, who portrayed Denzel Washington’s “Gladiator II” character Macrinus, and Bowen Yang, who reprised his role as Pfannee from the movie adaptation of “Wicked.”
“There’s no place, no place like — Rome,” Mescal sang as he wore Elphaba’s witch hat and flew on a broomstick, belting out a “battle cry” similar to “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo’s riff in “Defying Gravity.”
Elsewhere in the musical sketch, Mescal is seen fighting in the Roman Colosseum while he makes a musical declaration.
“I’m going to stab my way to freedom, cut my way to the next act. Now while I’m in the Colosseum, when I go on the attack, someday they’ll know my name,” Mescal sang as he sliced off attackers’ heads and stabbed another in the chest.
The “SNL” parody promised the same violence audiences expect out of “Gladiator II,” but with “an extra 50 minutes of songs” as well as numbers by Lin-Manuel Miranda, played by Mikey Day, who broke out into a “Hamilton”-like song in the sketch.
Check out more of the sketch below.
