On Monday, October 30, 2023, the first official National Wicked Day was celebrated at the Gershwin Theatre in honor of the beloved musical’s 20th Anniversary on Broadway. Broadway Direct was on the scene, chatting with Wicked stars of past and present about their favorite memories as audience members of the long-running hit.
What’s your favorite memory of seeing Wicked as an audience member?
Alli Mauzey, Former Glinda
“The very first time I saw it, and I’m not spoiling anything I don’t think, but how the story ends for Elphaba shocked me, and it shocked the whole audience. We know the story of the Green Witch except when we see Wicked we don’t. I was so thrilled, I couldn’t believe how happy I was that Elphaba didn’t melt.”
Allie Trimm, 20th Anniversary Glinda Standby
“I first saw Wicked when I was maybe 11 on tour, Kendra Kassebaum and Stephanie J. Block were my Glinda and Elphaba. And I stage doored, I got a photo and I saw it the following year and I waited at the stage door in a T-shirt that I had made with Kendra and me. I bedazzled it, I was like decked out. And I waited and, you know, people can’t always stage door, but I waited for four hours. And she finally came out probably to go home and saw that I was waiting and she was so kind and she offered to take me backstage actually and kind of ‘Galindify’ me and she showed me the magic of the show behind the emerald curtain. And she absolutely changed my life. Like, as a little girl, I just remember thinking, I want to do this. Not even just Wicked, but like, I want to ‘Galindify’ young people. I want young people to understand the beauty of musical theater and the beauty of Wicked and she gave that to me.”
Alyssa Fox, 20th Anniversary Elphaba
“I really love just the journey of Elphaba. Immediately I felt like really connected to the character of Elphaba, and so when I first saw Wicked on tour in Dallas back in 2005 or 2006, I remember watching it and being like, ‘Wow, this character is me, and I am this character, and this is what I want to do with my life,’ and it really touched me in such a very deep way.”
Christine Dwyer, Former Elphaba
“The first time I saw it with Idina and Megan Hilty. I had begged my mom to go see it. It was the only thing that I wanted for my life at the time, you know, I was very dramatic. And I remember watching Idina run forward and I just burst into tears because she was such an idol of mine and then to be able to see what she brought to that character and the energy that it took to do that.”
Dee Roscioli, Former Elphaba
“I saw one of the very first previews of Wicked, and I remember there were some lines in there that didn’t actually make it into the show. I remember in the beginning, Elphaba said something like, ‘Is there something in my teeth? Is my petticoat showing?’ For some reason, those things stick in my head. I was completely taken with the show when I first saw it though. I sat all the way in the nosebleeds in the Gershwin and of course, this story is well known, but my best friend who’s my manager, said to me, ‘Oh, you’ll play that part someday.’ And I was like, ‘There’s no way I can play that part. There’s no way I can do that.’ And he’s still my manager now to this day.”
Jackie Burns, Former Elphaba
“The very first time I saw the show was with Kristin and Idina. I sat there and the second the orchestra started playing and the Time Dragon Clock started moving, I was transfixed. I was speechless like I am right now. That moment on lives in my brain.”
Jennifer DiNoia, Former Elphaba
“It’s gotta be the reopening from after the pandemic. It was unbelievable to be in that audience, just the energy.”
Jordan Litz, 20th Anniversary Fiyero
“When I first joined the tour, watching it for the first time and seeing Elphaba fly, knowing that I was going to be a part of that. Even at that point, it was a small cog in a very large machine [joining the ensemble], and even a role that small felt really special to me.”
Kara Lindsay, Former Glinda
“Getting to see my husband [Kevin Massey] as The Wizard. He’s in the show now and this show has been a part of our lives for many years since 2014, which is so cool and we are so grateful. When he went on for The Wizard for the first time, I couldn’t get a babysitter for our son, so my friend Ginna Claire [Mason], she said, ‘Kara just bring Emerson, his dad is The Wizard.’ And I was like, ‘But you have to be a certain age.’ And she was like, ‘His dad is The Wizard!’ So I brought Emerson. He was silent except whenever Kevin came on stage and he said, ‘Why is dada so silly?’ But he loved the show and getting to watch my son experience the show that shaped me and my husband, that takes the cake.”
Kimber Elayne Sprawl, 20th Anniversary Nessarose
“I gotta say it was when I saw it for the first time on Broadway. I saw one of my best friends, Ryan Vasquez, go on as Fiyero. It was pretty soon after we all graduated from college, so to see one of your best friends do the thing that we all have been in pursuit of doing, it was such a beautiful memory.”
Laura Bell Bundy, Original Broadway Glinda Standby
“I was the first Glinda standby and so I had to watch Kristin Chenoweth like a hawk. What I loved the most as an audience member was watching her evolve her performance night after night. There was always something new, always something fresh, always some funny adlib, and that was my favorite to watch. I also was just totally in awe of Idina singing through that every night after she did Bikram hot yoga between shows.”
Mandy Gonzalez, Former Elphaba
“I think just the whole show and how fabulous it is. [My daughter and I] were able to go see it, I think in 2021, we saw the show, and it was so nice to just see how excellent it is all those years after I was in it, how it just continues to just amaze people.”
Mary Kate Morrisey, 20th Anniversary Elphaba Standby
“It has to be when I saw Shoshana Bean and Megan Hilty the first time I ever saw Wicked, and it changed my life.”
McKenzie Kurtz, 20th Anniversary Glinda
“When I saw the show for the first time, I remember seeing the governor’s mansion scene where Elphaba appears in the wardrobe and being so shook by that. I was like a nine-year-old. And that’s still one of my favorite moments of the show where Nessa has her big moment where she becomes the Wicked Witch of the East. So, yeah, I’m a fangirl, if you can’t tell.”
Saycon Sengbloh, Former Elphaba
“I love to see Glinda coming down in her bubble. I also love to see when [Elphaba and Glinda] fight. It’s hilarious.”
Talia Suskauer, Former Elphaba
“Either the first time I saw it when I was a child or when I knew I was going into the tour as Elphaba and I got to watch it knowing I was going to do it. Very cool.”
William Youmans, Orignal Broadway and 20th Anniversary Doctor Dillamond
“‘I’m Not That Girl,’ which is my favorite song. And then they go into ‘One Short Day,’ and that reminded me of when I was a teenager coming into New York, trying to be an actor for the first time, and I studied at Circle in the Square Theatre School, and [the Gershwin Theatre] was right next door, and my parents said, ‘Someday you’ll be in that, on that stage,’ but they were one off. It was the Gershwin Theatre, not Circle in the Square.”