{"id":1352,"date":"2024-12-08T16:14:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T21:14:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2024-12-08T16:14:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-08T21:14:39","slug":"what-i-learned-at-shiz-university-how-wicked-changed-the-lives-of-its-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/what-i-learned-at-shiz-university-how-wicked-changed-the-lives-of-its-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Learned at Shiz University: How \u2018Wicked\u2019 Changed the Lives of Its Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only the women who\u2019ve played Elphaba and Glinda in the show\u2019s two decades onstage understand why the roles are so taxing \u2014 and so rewarding, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The graduates of Shiz University are making their alma mater proud.<\/p>\n

In the 21 years since \u201cWicked\u201d opened in New York, 43 women have starred full-time as Elphaba or Glinda \u2014 frenemies who meet as Shiz undergrads \u2014 and many more have taken on the vocally taxing roles in productions across the United States and around the world.<\/p>\n

Shiz has taught them well. After leaving the show, many have gone on to glittering careers, on Broadway and beyond. Three former Elphabas were nominated for Tony Awards this year, while four former Glindas have appeared in principal roles.<\/p>\n

As a smash-hit Hollywood adaptation introduces millions more to this revisionist history of Oz, we checked in with alumnae of the stage show to ask what they learned there. These are edited excerpts from our conversations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Menzel, Tony-nominated in 1996 for playing Maureen in \u201cRent,\u201d won a 2004 Tony Award for originating Elphaba, then went on to enormous success as the voice of Elsa in Disney\u2019s \u201cFrozen\u201d films. She starts previews next month for \u201c<\/em>Redwood<\/em><\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

How did you begin with \u201cWicked\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had heard about it through the grapevine as being a really cool new project, and I wanted to be seen for it. I thought of Elphaba as very Goth and like Ally Sheedy in \u201cThe Breakfast Club,\u201d so I went in in a cool back dress with black Doc Martens and green eye shadow and green lipstick. I sang well, so they asked me to learn \u201cDefying Gravity.\u201d I started to get invested in it and was feeling that I was really right for it \u2014 it spoke to me. I was really desperate to get the role. I had a great audition, and was doing great, and I did \u201cDefying Gravity,\u201d and at the end I cracked. I looked at the accompanist and said, \u201cI\u2019m going to do that again,\u201d like, \u201cDon\u2019t even think about moving on to the next part.\u201d I got really angry, and I did it again, and I hit it. Joe Mantello [the musical\u2019s director] always says that\u2019s when he really thought I could be wicked.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the craziest thing that happened to you in the show?<\/strong>
\nI fell and almost died? I fell through a trap door. They cued one cue early, so I walked into an empty hole and slammed my ribs. They stopped the show, literally said, \u201cIs there a doctor in the house?,\u201d laid me down on the floor and closed the curtain. I broke a rib \u2014 just one. The next day was scheduled to be my last performance, and they said, \u201cIf you can get there, we would love to say goodbye.\u201d Shoshana Bean [who had taken over] did the most generous thing she could do, and stepped off two minutes before the end of the show and allowed me to come out in my red track suit, on so much Vicodin, and take a bow.<\/p>\n

How did it change your life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Between \u201cRent\u201d and \u201cWicked,\u201d there was a long chasm where I didn\u2019t really work that much and I lost a lot of confidence. I got \u201cWicked,\u201d which I was so excited about, but I felt super-insecure in the rehearsal room. Kristin\u2019s process is remarkable to watch, she can cold read, and she\u2019s fearless and superfast, and I just wasn\u2019t. I felt like at any minute they would replace me. But by having to walk in Elphaba\u2019s shoes, and face bullying and adversity onstage every day, and to have to truly find my voice and also reconcile power and sensitivity and empathy all at the same time, it changed my life. I feel like it saved me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only the women who\u2019ve played Elphaba and Glinda in the show\u2019s two decades onstage understand why the roles are so taxing \u2014 and so rewarding, too. The graduates of Shiz University are making their alma mater proud. In the 21 years since \u201cWicked\u201d opened in New York, 43 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[80,5],"class_list":["post-1352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-80","tag-wicked"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/R-8edQXd.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-lO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1354,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions\/1354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}