Yahoo Lifestyle I Genuinely Can't See "Wicked" On Broadway The Same Way Again After Reading These Facts About The Original Production And More
1.First, Wicked composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz discovered Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel after a friend recommended it, and he knew he wanted to adapt it for a stage musical. However, Gregory had already sold the rights to Universal for a film adaptation. He pleaded with producer Marc Platt and Gregory to allow him to have the rights for a musical instead.
In 1998, Stephen secured the rights for his own musical adaptation with Marc and producer David Stone joining the project, too.
Stephen convinced writer Winnie Holzman to join as the book writer for the musical adaptation.
Of course, 29 years later, Wicked has finally become a live-action movie adapted from the Broadway musical.
2.According to writer Winnie Holzman, it took "almost a year" just to get an outline for Wicked that she and Stephen Schwartz felt comfortable with. During this time, director Joe Mantello also joined to help adapt Gregory Maguire's book and bring it to the stage.
Speaking with Playbill in 2004 about the out-of-town workshops for Wicked, Winnie said, "Stephen wisely had insisted on having three months to rewrite in between the time we closed in San Francisco and when we were to go back into rehearsals in New York. That was crucial; that was the thing that made the biggest difference in the life of the show. That time is what made the show work."
During the time between San Francisco and Wicked hitting Broadway in 2003, Winnie said she "rewrote [something] on every page" of the script.
3.Kristin Chenoweth started with Wicked in 2000 during the workshop stage of the musical. Stephen Schwartz said he composed the music with Kristin in mind and called her a "natural" Glinda.
At the time, Kristin had won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her work in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown in 1999.
Idina Menzel actually remembered meeting Kristin for the first time while she was performing in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, telling Vulture, "I told her how amazing I thought she was. We had common friends and stuff, but I didn’t want to bother her because I knew she was exhausted."
4.Meanwhile, Stephanie J. Block was initially attached as Elphaba during the workshop stage in 2000 after she was recommended to Stephen Schwartz as a theater actor living in California, where the workshop was taking place. Idina Menzel replaced Stephanie in 2001.
Steve Russell / Toronto Star / Getty Images, Bruce Glikas / FilmMagic / Getty Images
Stephanie stayed with the project, even understudying Idina when the workshop moved to San Francisco.
Eventually, Stephanie played Elphaba on the first national tour and then on Broadway from 2007 to 2008.
5.Also, during the early workshop stage of Wicked, Gavin Creel played Boq. He booked the workshop shortly after moving to NYC after graduating college. Seth Rudetsky wrote in a Playbill article shortly after Gavin's death in 2024, "Many people don’t know, but he played Boq. As in Boq, the munchkin! Gavin was decidedly not short and told me that his height was the joke. Glinda would say, 'Do you see that unusually tall munchkin?'"
Alongside Gavin, Sutton Foster was also reportedly involved in the early Wicked workshops. Gavin and Sutton would instead go on to star in Thoroughly Modern Millie on Broadway in 2002.
6.The now-iconic riff at the end of "Defying Gravity" was something Idina Menzel brought to the song after she was cast as Elphaba. Kristin Chenoweth recalled that the notes weren't explicitly written until Idina joined the production.
Idina also told Vulture that "so if you care to find me" in "Defying Gravity" was originally written in a much lower register, but she said, "Can I please take that out of the basement? She's going up here."
7.In "Popular," when Glinda runs around going, "La la...," it was something Kristin Chenoweth came up with, and now every Glinda who has taken over the role does it, too. Kristin told Vulture she did that little dance because she imagined Glinda "in her room growing up. She probably loved ballet. She was a girly girl."
"So I went with the idea that she probably practiced and she wasn’t any good," Kristin added.
Idina said she loved watching Kristin first figure out the blocking for "Popular" during rehearsals because she had "confidence" and knew immediately how she wanted it to look. Idina added, "Kristin can pick up the paper and hear the rhythm immediately. It was something I always aspired to."
8.Kristin Chenoweth was the one who suggested that Glinda sing "No One Mourns the Wicked" as a soprano, as it was initially written that Glinda starts the song "low and belting."
In an interview with Vulture, Kristin recalled suggesting Glinda be a soprano throughout Wicked, saying, "I went to Stephen [Schwartz] and said, 'I feel she should be a soprano.' He goes, 'You just want to sing your high notes.' I go, 'Well, kind of, but I also want the character to come alive.' And that’s Glinda. If anybody’s a fucking soprano on the show, it’s her."
9.During several early readings, there was originally a song called "Making Good," which was going to be the first song Elphaba sang before it was replaced by "The Wizard and I."
Stephen Schwartz said that after readings, no one ever mentioned that "Making Good" was their favorite, which he took as a bad sign.
When Idina Menzel joined the cast, Stephen realized that he could make a song that was more "high energy" that fit Idina's personality more. He sped up "Making Good," but it still didn't work.
10.Another song that was changed after initial readings was "Which Way's the Party?" which was replaced with "Dancing Through Life." Stephen Schwartz explained that "Which Way's the Party?" ultimately didn't introduce the character of Fiyero well enough.
11.Due to the intense tech schedule prior to Wicked opening in San Francisco, Idina Menzel had to stay in Elphaba's green makeup "all day" because producers and crew members needed to see how the green makeup would look "under different lights."
In an interview with Vulture, Idina recalled, "We had this long dinner, we were all going to some diner or something nearby, and a really hot guy was walking toward me. He was staring at me, and I was like, I still got it. I totally forgot that I had the green makeup on. Then I turned to look at the restaurant and I see myself in the window. And I was like, Oh my God, I look like a freak out here. That’s what he is looking at."
12.During the San Francisco tryout for Wicked, Kristin Chenoweth injured her neck during a performance, which led to chronic neck pain, according to Kristin. She re-injured her neck in 2003 and notably performed in the show on Broadway wearing a neck brace during previews.
In an interview with Vulture in 2023, Kristin said, "I like to remind [the Wicked producers]. I remind them every chance I get I have a bad neck."
13.Wicked premiered on Broadway on Oct. 30, 2003, after 25 preview performances, at the Gershwin Theatre. As of November 2024, the show has played 8,168 performances on Broadway. This makes it the fourth longest-running Broadway musical in history.
In terms of longest-running Broadway musicals, Wicked is right behind The Lion King, the 1996 revival of Chicago, and The Phantom of the Opera.
Like Wicked, the Broadway productions of The Lion King and Chicago are still running.
14.Norbert Leo Butz, who originated the role of Fiyero on Broadway, married Michelle Federer, who originated the role of Nessarose, in 2007. In an interview with Broadway.com in 2012, Norbert joked, "I got me a wife out of [Fiyero's tight pants]. I got Michelle Federer, who was checking out those white pants when I was 'Dancing Through Life.' Now she's dancing through wife!"
Bruce Glikas / FilmMagic / Getty Images, Axelle / FilmMagic / Getty Images
Both Norbert and Michelle joined Wicked when the production was performing in San Francisco before it transferred to Broadway.
They welcomed a daughter together in 2011, and they also share two other children from Norbert's previous marriage.
15.When designing Glinda's signature bubble gown for Wicked, costume designer Susan Hilferty was inspired by a 1950s Dior gown, as well as Princess Diana's wedding dress. However, she had to jump through some legal hoops because it looked too close to what Glinda wore in the movie The Wizard of Oz.
Susan explained to Playbill that originally, they were only allowed to use the illustrations from the original book for inspiration, and they reportedly had "no rights to anything connected to the movie." So Susan wrote a letter to the production's lawyers detailing how her inspiration was actually Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth, and Dior, not the film.
The bubble inspiration ended up being fair game because it was determined that it originated from the Oz books, not the movie.
16.As for Elphaba's final dress, Susan Hilferty took inspiration from the Earth and gems in order to visually give "the sense of [Elphaba] being grounded," versus Glinda, who is "light, and bubbles, and air." Also, while the dress may appear black, it's actually filled with darker colors and was built using "over 40 yards of fabric."
The over 40 yards of fabric were stitched together in order to "have a continuous sense of being from the Earth. It's created to look like the lines you would see in a chunk of earth," according to Susan.
17.In 2004, Wicked was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, making it the musical with the most nominations that year. Ultimately, the show won three Tonys, including Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Idina Menzel.
The show also won Best Scenic Design for Eugene Lee and Best Costume Design for Susan Hilferty.
Wicked notably lost to Avenue Q for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics).
18.Kristin Chenoweth played her final performance as Glinda in Wicked on July 18, 2004, after being with the production for close to four years and less than a year after it opened on Broadway. She was replaced by Jennifer Laura Thompson.
In an interview with Vulture in 2023, Kristin recalled asking to leave Wicked in order to pursue other opportunities. She added, "I didn’t go into the Gershwin Theatre again until we did the 15-year reunion because I think I would’ve cried."
Shortly after leaving, she began starring in The West Wing.
19.Idina Menzel played her final full performance as Elphaba in Wicked on Jan. 8, 2005, with her returning the following day to take her final bow after being injured on stage. She was replaced by Shoshana Bean, who was her understudy.
When she came on stage on Jan. 9, Idina told the crowd at the Gershwin Theatre, "I love you all. It's been the best year of my life. Thank you."
Idina would later return to the role of Elphaba when Wicked opened on the West End in London in 2006.
20.Just one day before her final performance, Idina Menzel fell through a trap door on stage during Elphaba's melting scene and broke a rib. For what was scheduled to be her final performance, Idina famously came on stage wearing a red tracksuit to celebrate with the rest of the company.
Shoshana Bean stepped in for Idina and played Elphaba during what was Idina's final performance up until the melting scene, then Idina stepped on stage in the red tracksuit and finished the final minutes of the show.
21.And finally, Kristin Chenoweth first met Ariana Grande when Ariana came backstage at Wicked with her grandmother in 2003 while Kristin was starring as Glinda. Recalling when they met, Kristin told Today, "When she was 10, she came to my dressing room backstage and met me and she said, 'I wanna play Glinda.'"
Kristin Chenoweth / Ariana Grande / Instagram / Via instagram.com, Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for Universal Pictures
Celebrating Ariana's casting as Glinda, Kristin shared a throwback photo of Ariana and her Nonna backstage at Wicked, with the caption, "I’m not sure if I’ve ever been this proud. From the very first day I met you (swipe to see!!), you were destined for this role. Congratulations @arianagrande! The best Glinda you will be with @cynthiaerivo by your side 💗💚 I love you!!"
You can see Kristen's full Instagram post, complete with a tweet from Ariana from 2011 below:
Do you have a favorite behind-the-scenes fact about Wicked that's not mentioned above? Tell us in the comments below!
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