“Ladies and gentleman,” a disembodied voice announced from the stage, bringing the crowd, which had gathered for the reopening of “Wicked,” to its feet: “Kristin Chenoweth.”
That brought an even louder roar from the audience, as Chenoweth, who originated the role of Glinda when the show opened on Broadway in 2003, strode out onto the stage of the Gershwin Theater.
“Things like this don’t just happen,” Chenoweth, wearing a glittering dress, said. “It takes a lot of people.”
“My personal favorite relationship is probably between the actors and the audience,” she continued, “which is probably why I’m in therapy.”
The audience burst into laughter.
Chenoweth brought a little star power to the return of “Wicked,” which chronicles the frenemy-ship between Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. It is a revisionist back story for “The Wizard of Oz.”
The musical, which opened on Broadway in 2003, has been seen by more than 60 million people in 100 cities around the world. It also became the first touring Broadway production to reopen since the pandemic, beginning on Aug. 7 in Dallas.
Source: Theater - nytimes.com
