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Video: Original WICKED Cast and Creatives Reunite on the Green Carpet
May 16, 2024
Everyone deserves a chance to fly, and the cast and creative team of Wicked has been flying high since the show took flight on Broadway 20 years ago. In this video, watch as BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge checks in with the original company on the red carpet!
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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The hit musical Wicked has become a worldwide phenomenon, and now the show is celebrating its 20th anniversary
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here on Broadway. I am standing on the green carpet to celebrate this milestone
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with many of the past Wicked stars and alumni. -♪♪ What does tonight mean to you, Kristen, being here
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Something I did last year. I'm so happy. I had wanted Tony for a show that closed the week next week
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and I prayed, Lord, please let me be in a show that someone will have heard of
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And I got my wish. Over 65 million people have fallen in love
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with this show around the world in the 20 years. Why do you think that is
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Because they like the girls' relationships. They like the themes. Love, friendship, forgiveness
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Forgiveness being the hardest. Tonight means... It's hard to put into words
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There's this tremendous sense of pride having been a part of the creating
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of this incredible show with my family, the people I love, Kristen, Steven, Winnie
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Joe, David, the whole entire cast. The character, the character that I played
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she's been with me all of these years. I continue to sing her music and to try to do right by her
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The things that she professes, the things, the way that she stands true
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she's true to her convictions, the way she embraces who she is
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all of those things are what I've tried to sort of, the credo I've tried to live my own life by. Yeah
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I remember sitting in your dressing room when we did our interview and you were being painted green. Yes
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And that has become such an honor for every Elfie. I posted every... Yes, I know you did the other night
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Thank you for that. What that honor meant to you, like the first time you saw yourself
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being painted green and being created on you, what that meant to you
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Well, it was exciting, but it was a little nerve-wracking because I had to walk into the room
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and I wasn't so comfortable with drawing attention to myself, even though I know we're performers
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and that's what we want, but we're sort of tortured in that way and we contradict ourselves
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So walking into a room, feeling uncannily beautiful, but also everyone staring at me
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it was actually a good exercise for the character. It's surreal. I don't know what's happening. Yeah
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How do you do that? How do you do a show that's 20 years old? Yeah. You know us
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We've been like in and out of all of them, right? So I don't know. It's so insane
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I think back of the clean slate when we first started, there was no palette
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there was nothing. There was no world and then you create it and here it is. Yeah
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And there's thousands of people that are playing those roles. I don't know what to say. Yeah
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It's great. You're uniting with all this alumni tonight. I know. I had to leave the bar
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because it was the cast. It was like, do I need to choreograph them now
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What's going on? I'm as blown away as by a tornado. I mean, it's not something I ever anticipated or dreamed of
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but it sure is gratifying. And seeing all the fans and their happiness
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it's just a wonderful feeling. And it's something we all did together. Yeah
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And so it's a wonderful, gratifying feeling. And seeing all the alumni here tonight
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I mean, they all made this happen. Yeah. They're the people that made this happen
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So they're very precious. And we always got so lucky. We've had the most incredible cast all over the world
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not just here on Broadway, but certainly on Broadway. Yeah. We've been very proud
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Stephen and I are very, very proud. Stephen Aremus was the first conductor
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but I would conduct every now and again. I was in the pit playing piano on opening night
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And funny story, the drummer's bass drum pedal broke halfway through the show
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so that was a little bit of drama. But it was fun. I mean, we were all so worried about what the critics were going to say
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And, you know, in the end, it didn't matter what they said because the audience was responding to the show
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So here we are 20 years later. So we're grateful. Over 65 million people have fallen in love with this show around the world
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Why do you think that is? I think what's amazing is that the show deals with sisters
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And sisterhood is a very different kind of love than two people who aren't related
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So I just love that it's a show with two women. I love that the music is so fantastic
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Stephen Schwartz has a way of writing songs that cut to the core and feels so emotional
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He's a genius. I've admired him since I was a child. So it's an honor to have worked on his music
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And I think that's why people still are loving the show all these years later
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I am kind of drunk without actually being drunk. You know, my head is up here bobbing as if it's a helium balloon
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or one of those bobble heads. You know, I just I can't get it down into my collar
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As much as I'm glad people identify with the characters and they do
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what really is essential to me is the underlying story about the nerve
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and strength and heart it takes to fight against depression, which is why I wrote the book and why I think the play continues to have
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resonance even as contemporary times change. There's always something to work toward and to fight against
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Because Wicked began with your book, of course, which is so beautiful. That's what we all first fell in love with
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How did you come about to write it? I began to think about the story of The Wizard of Oz
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really when I was five or six or seven, because it was one of the few things my parents let me watch on TV
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And so it became a kind of biblical text to me about how the world works
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and what to be wary of. You must hear that a lot, right
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Never more than tonight, I think
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