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Video: WICKED Alumni Come Out to Celebrate 20 Years of Green (and Pink)
May 16, 2024
Since Wicked opened on Broadway in 2003, 25 women have taken the stage as Elphaba, and 19 more have portrayed Glinda- and those figures don't even include the many understudies and standbys who have also covered the beloved roles. Many of those women were on hand Monday night as the show celebrated its 20th anniversary.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Over 65 million theater goers have seen Wicked Worldwide, with over 14 million here at the Gershwin
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where I am standing on the green carpet to celebrate this milestone
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with many of the past Wicked Stars and alumni. Look at this, the Sisterhood
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What does it mean to the both of you tonight? I don't have words. I just have tears
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I'm so happy to get to be here with her today. This is our family, you know, years
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You know, years apart, but like it doesn't change the fact that they're a part of you
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And inside your DNA, as I always like to say, but it's very nice for us to all be together
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You know, tonight is a real full circle moment to be here with my beautiful daughter
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and to celebrate this community that I absolutely love and this beautiful show
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with this incredible music and incredible cast, incredible book. It's just, it's a full circle moment
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You know, I dreamed of being on Broadway since I was her age. And to be here with her and share this, it's pretty incredible
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I'm just so honored to be here. I can't. There were many moments. Me and Talia and Christine and Jenny De Noia, we all got ready together
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And we were like, can you believe that we're a part of this? I think there's something like 24, 25, 26 women that have played the principal track
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let alone all of the covers and all of the standbys on the understudies
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and the people that come in and swing in and save the day. It's a wild legacy to be a part of
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And that's just the Alphabet side of it. Yeah. And I'm looking around at all of these people
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some of whom I recognize because they've either seen Wicked a thousand times
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they've seen me or friends of mine in the shows that we're all in. They were at reopening in 2021
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I mean it an amazing thing to see And that what the whole story is about is that the show belongs to the people that love it And it an amazing thing to belong to the show in a way
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So it's cool. You know what I mean? It's so wonderful. I'm so proud to be a part of this incredible cultural institution
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And time flies and it's horrifying. She was too little to see it
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She would have been scared of the monkeys. And so we didn't let her see it, even though she was, I think, an infatible
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when I was doing it in Chicago. Oh, my God. I'm just excited to see everybody
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You got little cutie patooties running around with great outfits. We got a green carpet
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We're going to razzle-dazzle them. I was thinking about when I performed the role of Elfabah and Ben Boreen was the wizard at that time
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I had a wonderful time. I'm excited to see the show tonight. Well, I was the first standby for Glenda
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I was Kristen Chenowis' standby. and so it was also the only time that I've been a cover
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And so it was wild. I had just come from doing hairspray
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I was sort of thrust in. I remember being at H&M checking out at 7 o'clock when I got a call that was like
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Laura Bell, you're on tonight. And I just dropped all my bags, I mean all my clothes
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And I ran to the theater and got ready. And I honestly, I think that night was the first night
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I'd actually ever been in the bubble. I think I was going on a little sooner
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than we thought that I would go on. And it was wild
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I don't think I could feel my face when I went on, but it taught me so much
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I learned a lot from doing this role I learned a lot from watching Kristen Shenoweth who a genius And I learned a lot about you know being an understudy and a cover and a standby is very humbling
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And it's the hardest job on Broadway, and it's made me really appreciate what the understudies that I've had
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It's a wild experience. The Wicked family to me, I've made so many close friends
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like friends that babysit my kids, friends that I've been in my wedding party. These women mean the world to me
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and I would not have met them if it wasn't for Wicked. It is very surreal, and I think I might cry a lot
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So, I mean, in a happy way, so I wore waterproof mascara on purpose. Is there something that happened in Wicked that the fans don't know
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like when you're getting ready or being up in the bubble or something? Is there something fun you could tell our fans
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Oh, everything goes wrong. Something has anything that you can imagine has gone wrong
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The bubble gets stuck. You forget to wear something. Like the little collar falls down and you're just there
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But really, I think what everybody does know, though, is that the magic happens offstage
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shoe and these friendships are forever. I'm so happy to be here
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I'm so happy to be here. It's nice to just know that I'm a part of such an amazing legacy and just, I'm just happy
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to be a part of it. Oh, I'm just so, so excited. be here celebrating with everybody. I'm so excited to see all my all my witches from my
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time and wicked and just yeah, watch the show with a glass of wine in hand. So much better
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than actually doing it sometimes. I can't believe it's been 20 years. I feel like I just got
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done doing the show like last year last week Yeah it incredible I mean I knew it was going to be around this long but I just can believe we here already I feel incredibly honored to be here I was a childhood wicked fan and so to have gotten an opportunity to play Alphabet
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and then be here tonight, I'm actually a wicked fan girl tonight. So I knew exactly where I was sitting
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So to get up there and perform Defying Gravity every night and look down at some little girl sitting exactly where I sat all of those years ago
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I mean, I never took that for granted. What's just so beautiful about this evening and celebrating all the..
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these women is that each one of us are different and that is such a testament to the piece because
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it is such a special piece. Anyone can play these parts with different spirits and souls and I'm amongst
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them tonight and I am just truly so honored. Being here for the 20th is like kind of a full circle moment
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It's 10 years ago I made my Broadway debut in this show and to be able to be back here and celebrate
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Alyssa Fox and I have been in the show together and we've been in the same company and we start
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around the same time, so I'm so excited for my girl. And I'm just overcome with the fact that this show after 20 years
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still matters as much as it truly does. To all of us and to all of the fans
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Okay, what do you remember about the first time you were painted green and when you saw yourself in the mirror
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What do you remember? It was magical. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I'm getting so emotional
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This is a big deal. I mean, this is really, really a big deal. Why do you think this show is so special
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over 65 million people around the world. Yeah, I think that it brings, excuse me
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it brings like a strength to someone that might, probably knew it was inside of them
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but they had a hard time finding it. And that's what it did for me
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I mean, that's what it does for everybody
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