The past few years have been quite exciting for Wicked. The show had a buzzy 20th anniversary celebration in 2023, followed by the release of the two culture-defining movies in 2024 and 2025. Now, in 2026, Wicked is still going strong at its original home, the Gershwin Theatre, with the show’s latest stars, Keri René Fuller and Emma Flynn, bringing new interpretations to the much beloved characters of Elphaba and Glinda.
Broadway Direct recently sat down with the pair, halfway through their yearlong run, at the Gershwin to chat about entering the magical world of Wicked, their first chance meeting outside their Broadway home, and what they admire in each other’s portrayals of these iconic witches of Oz.
You joined the show earlier this year. How is the land of Oz in the summer? Are you fully settled into the show?
Emma Flynn: I don’t think that I’ll ever feel fully settled into the character [of Glinda] ever. It’s such an alive show and there’s so much to the characters, I feel like every time we do the show, I find something new about the show or about Glinda. And also, when there’s a new person on, then all of a sudden it changes the perspective that you saw the show through. That’s the best part about it, though: You never quite settle. It’s always very active.
Keri René Fuller: Yeah, I do not know that I will ever feel like I have Elphaba down pat. I think I could, hypothetically, do this show and this role for 10-plus years and still never feel like I figured it out. Which is also a fantastic thing about the role. You’re constantly growing in every single nook and cranny of yourself.
What was your first experience with Wicked?
KRF: My first experience with Wicked technically was when I was a very little girl in middle school. My mom won a pair of tickets to the tour in Oklahoma. However, I don’t remember anything about it. So I actually say that my first experience was last March. Lencia [Kebede] and Allie [Trimm] were my very first witches, and it was really amazing to see them in the role, come in as a standby that same year, and watch their show blossom.
EF: I’m gonna be so honest: I have no idea when I first learned about Wicked. Actually, I’m 99 percent sure that it was my best friend Katie’s car, riding in her family car because they would play, like, different musical soundtracks, and I remember hearing the song “Popular” in their car. I think that was my introduction to Wicked, but I don’t think I saw the show until I moved to New York in 2019. I went back and I looked and it was Ginna Claire Mason who was on as Glinda, and now we text, and I’m like, that’s crazy.
Keri, you’ve been with the show since last summer, starting out as the Elphaba standby. When did you find out you were going to take over the role full-time on Broadway, and how did you react?
KRF: I found out on November 18, 2025. I remember I was walking down 8th Avenue on my way to a show. It’s never a given that just because I was the standby meant that I was stepping into the role of Elphaba full-time eight times a week. But I do remember feeling a sense of relief, a sense of fear, a sense of, “Oh, I can financially plan for my future,” a sense of “But how am I gonna do eight shows a week?” It was a very complex experience, but the overarching feeling I think was just, I felt hopeful. I felt excited to learn something new about myself in the midst of extreme challenge. And then when I found out that Emma was gonna be my Glinda, I was just so excited. I was like, oh my god, she is Glinda.
Emma, this is your Broadway debut, and you joined the show fresh off making your West End debut last year in Clueless. Could you share what this last year has looked like, from London to Broadway?
EF: It’s been a crazy experience, and I hope it’s just a testament to the fact that anything can happen to anybody. I made my West End and my Broadway debut within a year of each other. I debuted in the West End on March 11, 2025, and I debuted on Broadway March 3 of the next year. I could have never dreamt that for myself. I never thought I’d get to be on Broadway. I definitely never thought I’d get to play Glinda.
Elphaba and Glinda are of course the relationship at the center of the story. Could you describe meeting each other and building your relationship on and off the stage?
KRF: [To Flynn] I think the first time I met you was at your photo shoot. [Photographer] Michael Hull texted me and was like, “Hey, we’re shooting with Emma Flynn outside the theatre if you wanted to come say hi.” And so I remember just putting on my coat and my little hat and it couldn’t have been a more kismet, beautiful, sweet little moment.
EF: It was so cute. The photographer captured the moment I got out of my taxi and saw Keri for the first time. It was very romantic. I feel so lucky because we’re both similar in the fact that our hearts are really just cracked open as people. We’re both just really trusting with each other. I would take a bullet for Keri.
KRF: There are times during the show, multiple times a week, where I am so grateful to just have you there. It’s like a sense of extended confidence because you believe in that other person so much. And then to see that reflected back at you is just really beautiful.
What is something you admire in Keri’s Elphaba? In Emma’s Glinda?
EF: I always say this to everybody who has ever heard me say anything about Keri. They know that I think she’s the best. I’m sorry, everyone: I think she’s the best Elphaba who’s ever done it. She sounds like to me, if Celine Dion sang Elphaba. I think you add so much vulnerability to Elphaba, because there are moments when Elphaba really is genuinely righteously angry, but you find these moments where you’re like, oh, she’s angry because she is deeply hurt, or she is standing up for this thing that is bigger than her. You find so much nuance in her that could be so easily missed. I wish I could watch Keri do it from the outside.
KRF: That’s just extraordinarily so kind of you. I mean, there are so many things to admire about Emma and so many things to admire about Emma’s Glinda. And because of who Emma is, they’re very much one and the same. Watching you from rehearsals into your debut, into the first month, into the challenges both you and I have had with allergies, with just navigating this mammoth undertaking, you just have always been so joyful. And you bring it on stage in a way that allows everybody to be joyful with you. It’s not like, “Look at me and how much fun I’m having on the stage.” Like, no: “Let’s have fun together, audience.” You are such a smart comedian, such a smart actress, such a deep actress, and then just the voice of an angel. But everybody knows that.
EF: Oh my god, thank you so much. I feel shy now.
Twenty-three years in, audiences new and old continue to flock to the Gershwin. Why is Wicked still one of the best shows on Broadway?
EF: I don’t wanna, like, toot our own horn, but toot-toot! I think that this cast is bringing something fresh to it. There’s so much deeper meaning to be found in the story of Wicked. Between the two girls, yes, but also in the deeper plot of the major themes of the show. When you come to see Wicked, you think you know what you’re coming to see, but then you come and you see it and it’s fresh and it’s alive, and it’s breathing. Come and see us and come and see Keri, seriously. If you’ve seen Wicked, you haven’t. You have to come back and see it again.
KRF: You know those children’s books that are written for youth, but it’s also written for adults? That is also Wicked. I think that it is a common misconception that this is a children’s family musical, and absolutely, the whole family is going to come and love every second of this show. However, I think it also offers a very unique opportunity to look deeper at humanity, to look deeper at our passions, to look deeper at how we love each other and how we support each other. That divided and fearful people are much easier to control. If you come here prepared to open yourself up to any and every possibility that this musical offers, you’ll come away with something way more than, “Oh my gosh, wasn’t it so nice when the green girl and the girl in the pink dress sang ‘For Good’ at the end? That was really moving.” Something much more palpable and human and transformative is in this musical, and it offers something that a lot of contemporary musicals, I believe, this is the template for.
