Black History Month kicked off with Beyoncé making history as the first Black woman to win the Best Country Album Grammy Award. Now, as Black History Month wraps up, Black women on Broadway will continue to carry the torch of Black history beyond the month of February.
This season, three Broadway musicals are featuring their first Black leading ladies in roles that are historically white: Audra McDonald as Mama Rose in Gypsy, Adrienne Warren as Cathy in The Last Five Years, and Lencia Kebede as Elphaba in Wicked.
Racial and gender representation on Broadway, and in the larger entertainment industry, has a complex and problematic history. The devaluation of Black women offstage led to characters steeped in misogynoir onstage, fueling centuries of Black women relegated to stereotypes like the Mammy or the Jezebel, or background characters, if they were even included at all.
Looking back over the last decade, Black women have stepped into the spotlight for lead roles. They’ve sung in styles beyond the assumed gospel belt and offered multidimensional humanity, whether it was replacements, like Ciara Renée as Elsa in Frozen or Nicolette Robinson as Jenna in Waitress, or originating roles, like Maleah Joi Moon as Ali in Hell’s Kitchen or Anna Uzele as Francine Evans in New York, New York.
As the industry addresses years of inequality and strives to better reflect the world, there has been an increase in “first” milestones. Breaking barriers and history-making representation are noteworthy and worth celebrating, but being the “first” comes with certain pressures. Emilie Kouatchou, the first Black actor to play The Phantom of the Opera’s Christine Daae, said to People in 2022, “I just think that Black women, especially in theater, have to be — and it shouldn’t be this way — 10 times better and work 10 times harder. … There were a lot of nights just feeling like maybe I’m not good enough for this, or feeling like I have the weight of all these people who are looking up to me [on my shoulders], and I wanted to do the best that I could.”
As for Kebede, McDonald, and Warren, they offer three different characters with three different vocal types singing three different musical-theater scores. This expanded representation means that young Black theatergoers can see themselves in a variety of ways on stage, and all audience members get to witness an array of new takes on familiar stories. Regardless of if the director’s vision cast them in a “color-blind” or “color-conscious” way, their Black womanhood, along with other aspects of their individual identities, will add nuanced layers to these well-known characters just by them inhabiting the roles.
McDonald is no stranger to the moniker “first,” as she is considered a modern trailblazer who has inspired many Black actors, including Kouatchou, to pursue Broadway. She was the first Black woman to play Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel, earning her her first Tony Award. Her Tony Awards history is packed with “first” superlatives, and of course, she holds the record for most Tony Award wins ever, with six. McDonald being the first Black woman to take on the renowned role of Mama Rose on Broadway doesn’t feel surprising at all.
Gypsy is considered a classic within the musical-theater canon. The original production starred Ethel Merman, and Broadway legends Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, and Angela Lansbury also took turns as Rose throughout the years. The McDonald-led revival opened December 19 as the newly reopened Majestic Theatre.
Considering McDonald’s race in the musical’s historical context leaves audiences with plenty to infer, especially with the casting of Jordan Tyson and Joy Woods as Rose’s daughters, seemingly offering commentary on colorism within the entertainment industry. Just examining the character alone, McDonald explores emotions and motives rarely afforded to Black women, like anger and ambition. McDonald delivering lines like “Well, someone tell me, when is it my turn?” and “Don’t I get a dream for myself?” pack an extra punch when thinking of how Black women historically have been diminished, disparaged, and denied opportunities.
Warren, McDonald’s costar in the 2016 Broadway musical Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, is also making history this spring. The Tina: The Tina Turner Musical Tony winner leads the Broadway premiere of The Last Five Years opposite Nick Jonas. Though Tony winner Cynthia Erivo played Cathy in a one-night-only concert in 2016, as did Broadway standby Nasia Thomas in a 2021 streaming version, Warren’s performance marks the first time a Black woman is playing the role full-time, as white actors Sherie Rene Scott and Betsy Wolfe played the part in the 2002 and 2013 Off-Broadway productions, respectively.
Though The Last Five Years doesn’t open at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre until April 6, audiences have already gotten a taste of Warren’s distinctive voice and fresh stylistic choices singing the contemporary score with this music video. In presenting Cathy and Jamie as an interracial couple, the production may offer observations about the professional perception of race and gender with a Black woman navigating the struggles of an aspiring actress in juxtaposition to her white male partner quickly rising to fame.
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As for everyone’s favorite gravity-defying witch, Kebede will be the first Black woman to play Elphaba on Broadway full-time when she starts at the Gershwin Theatre March 4, just three months after the film adaptation hit theatres with Erivo in her Academy Award–nominated performance, and three years after Brittney Johnson became the first Black woman to play Glinda. This milestone has already generated a lot of emotion, as seen in the video Kebede released for the announcement.
Over the course of Wicked’s 20-plus-year run on Broadway, there have been many women who have been a part of its green girl sisterhood, such as Idina Menzel, Shoshana Bean, Stephanie J. Block, Eden Espinosa, Lindsay Mendez, and Jessica Vosk. Black actors Saycon Sengbloh, Brandi Chavonne Massey, and Lilli Cooper donned the iconic Elphaba witch hat as standbys. Having a Black woman play Elphaba illuminates the themes of skin color discrimination, personal freedom and autonomy, and the resilience required to resist the status quo, as seen when the movie version was released in November.
Regardless of if they were ascribed the title of “first” or not, there is a long parade of Black women who have contributed to the legacy of Broadway — from pioneers like Florence Mills and Lottie Gee to newcomers like Maya Boyd, who made her Broadway principal debut in &Juliet, and Jasmine Amy Rogers, who will make her Broadway debut in the title role of BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical this spring. McDonald, Warren, and Kebede are adding their own threads to the tapestry, treating audiences to a range of humanity and unforgettable performances.