Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo both dealt with a dangerous health setback before filming key Wicked numbers

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Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo each caught the coronavirus during the making of their upcoming musical Wicked, when they each had critical songs to perform.

Grande, 31, and Erivo, 37, who have toured Australia this week promoting Wicked, portray the respective roles of Glinda and Elphaba in the upcoming two-part musical movie, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz.

In a joint chat with The New York Times Wednesday, Grande and Erivo revealed that they each fell ill with the virus during production on the film involving major numbers - Erivo's Defying Gravity and Grande's Popular.

'There was one time when I got Covid, there was another time when she got Covid,' Erivo said, while Grande added: 'We only got sick once each, but both were before some of the most important works of the whole movie.'

Grande continued: 'I came to set with a mask on my final days of recovery … no one liked this joke but I loved it so I'll tell it.

'We were in the dorm room together and I sang in her ear, "Positive, you're going to be positive! But I wasn't positive anymore, don't worry! I took the test.'

Erivo said that she perceived that coming down with the virus at that time was a matter of fate.

'It was literally like, "Sit down, Cynthia, not yet,"' Erivo said.

The stars said that the making of the two-part musical film, directed by Jon M. Chu, also faced delays amid last years entertainment industry labor strikes.

Erivo said, 'At first, it felt like an interruption, and then as it went on, it felt like the rest we needed.

'We'd worked ourselves to the bone. I was really grateful because the next thing that we had to do was Defying Gravity, and it felt like the universe going, "You need your full strength to do this."'

Grande said that she and Erivo did not find it hard to get back into character amid the grueling production on the motion picture adaption of the Broadway musical.

Grande said, 'It was funny though because no matter how much time passed, the second we got back into those clothes, the characters were right there with us.

'We cried every minute, every hour. We both were in a horrible state for a few days ... we brought our corsets home and our shoes and our wands. I still have all of my wigs.'

Erivo said she 'still fiercely' loves her character Elphaba; and both she and Grande agreed that they'd be satisfied if their parts in the forthcoming films wind up as their signature roles. 

The Wicked cast also includes Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle and Marissa Bode.

The motion picture is slated to arrive in theaters the next two years with release dates of November 22, 2024 for Wicked: Part One, and November 26, 2025 for Wicked: Part Two.