Hi. I'm Britney Johnson here at Playbill
to talk about Wicked on Broadway.
Stay tuned
When I was in
Les Mis on Broadway, I was playing Eponine and I
I was still understudying Fantine at the time.
And so one day I came into work just expecting to go on to play Eponine,
and my stage manager was like, so how about how about Fantine today?
And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I'll play Fantine this morning.
And so I played Fantine for the matinee.
And then I went back and played Eponine for the evening show.
And somebody on Instagram actually reminded me that it was February 14th
that that happened, which is the same day that I made
history again, in this show.
So I guess Valentine's Day is my day. I guess
I started in
Wicked in the ensemble, and I was understudying and Glinda.
My audition for Wicked kind of came out of the blue.
I wasn't really it wasn't even on my radar really anymore
because I'd been trying for so long to get an audition I never got one.
So I just it's like Wicked, it's just to show that I'm going to love from afar.
And I got an audition and I had audition callback
maybe two more callbacks.
And then I started the next week.
So it was very fast.
And it was honestly probably one of the the fastest audition processes
I've have ever had for a Broadway show.
Any time that I go on
for this role, you it's nice to be up in the rafters
and have that time to yourself because it is very grounding.
And, you know, what was I think what was the most different
for me about being up there
this time is that there's a little note that the previous Glinda
always leads, and it was the first time that it was for me.
I’m going to cry a little bit because it just was like really special.
It's like one of those things that it's kind of like, wow,
this really is my like, it's my role now, you know?
And so it was really special to, to see that
that was I think I was like,
that's me! That note was for me.
And then I got to do the show.
One of the things that I think Wicked does really well with it being a long running
show is that they really want you to find
who the character is in your body.
So when you go into the rehearsal process, it's not like
this is how Kristin did it, and so this is how we do it.
You know, there are
obviously you have to hit certain marks, you know, for staging purposes.
But when you're learning the character, it's very much like
this is her personality.
These these are givens based on the script, you know, but
actually infusing her with your personality and like how
how you bring those qualities to life.
And that's why I think people love the witches that they love, you know,
because we're all so different for that reason.
They they encourage it.
I do hope that the musical theater landscape changes for the better
and for good.
I think it's about opportunity.
I think that especially when when we're telling stories
when we are creating worlds, literally specially,
I mean, OZ it's a made up place, I mean, that I know of, I don't know. But,
you know, when when we get to create these characters,
these should represent our world so that we can all come to the theater
and experience something in real time that is parallel in some way
to what we're going to experience in the real world
so that we can be changed by it or at least affected in some way by it
And so for me, I think that it really just is about opening up opportunity.
I always think the best person for the job should get the role and
the person that
can best tell the story for that time
is that we have to we have to expand opportunity
so we can, again, can see everybody that's their role.
You know, I really, really hope that audiences
come to Wicked
kind of with no expectations
and kind of allow the story to happen to you because
there really is so much, I think, to learn.
And like you said, there's so there's such an arc to Glinda
and I, I work really, really hard to,
to be very clear about the journey that she's going on.
She's not the same person in the beginning that she is at the end.
We are always rooting for Elphaba because she's, she's the underdog and she,
you know, we see ourselves in her
but I hope people really do see themselves in Glinda, too.
There's room for change and all of us, you know, no matter who we are,
no matter who people think that we are, because people do they come
in, they expect something very specific from Glinda and then
hopefully I show you that she can change and grow.
And so it's the same for all of us in real life, you know, we can change and grow.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you, Playbill, for having me. This has been so lovely.
You can catch me on Broadway at Wicked, at the Gershwin Theatre.
See you there!