Wicked ‘witches’ reach pinnacle of musical theater
Dreams do come true. That’s true for the two actresses playing the witch-gonnabes in the North American tour of Wicked, which starts a nearly three-week “sitdown” Wednesday (24 performances through Jan. 19) at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall.
Allison Bailey, after four years on the tour as the understudy, is taking a step up to playing bubbly, blonde Glinda, which she has been doing for two months.
She had left the tour for six weeks over the summer, but got the call that she was coming back a week and a half into her “vacation.”
It wasn’t a done deal, however: “I did have to re-audition,” she says.
The setting is the Land of Oz prior to Dorothy’s arrival; the focus is on a young woman named Elphaba, smart, fiery, misunderstood and possessing a rare talent — along with emerald-green skin that makes her the object of discrimination. In school, she develops an unlikely friendship with her rival, a bubbly, popular blonde named Glinda.
This is now the only current U.S. touring company for the show, which recently celebrated its 16th anniversary on Broadway. The 35-member cast is on stage in St. Louis before heading to Little Rock.
Bailey, a Pensacola, Fla., native, saw Wicked when she was 12 in New York, “so it has always been a part of life and my dream,” she says. “One of the reasons I wanted to pursue musical theater [she has a bachelor of fine arts from Boston Conservatory] was because of Wicked.”
She has always also had a lifelong affinity for Oz — “definitely a couple of Halloweens I was Dorothy, and I have the pictures to prove it. I’ve always loved The Wizard of Oz.
“I believe that some of my life goes into Glinda. We both have a very bubbly personality; we [both] lead with our heart. I find that my Glinda has a lot of heart to her, and I try to bring that to my character each night.
“I find nuances every single night. Truly. There are different things I do every night; that’s the fun of doing it eight times a week, is that each show we find different things.”
Meanwhile, according to her official biography, Talia Suskauer has dreamed of playing Elphaba since she saw the show on Broadway at age 7. Her credits include the Broadway and off-Broadway casts of Be More Chill.
She started rehearsing in August and has been performing as Elphaba since Sept. 24, and “we never stop finding things. As long as I’m in this role, I’ll continue to be growing in it. That’s the type of role it is.
“It absolutely is, in my opinion, one of the best roles written for a woman in musical theater.”
Suskauer considers herself a mezzo-soprano with a high “belt,” which
shows up particularly in the final note of Elphaba’s signature song, “Defying Gravity.”
“It requires training and stamina,” she says of Elphaba. “I had great training at Penn State, where I got a degree in musical theater; I’ve studied voice, and I feel like I’m very well prepared to take on a ‘beast’ like this.”
In putting her own personal stamp on Elphaba, Suskauer says, “I bring a unique quirkiness to it, just by the nature of me being a quirky, weird person, that sort of seeps into Elphaba a little bit. I think that’s cool.”
And where the stamina comes in: “I do all eight shows [each week] unless I’m sick,” she explains. “I’m on stage most of the show. That’s kind of a new thing for me; usually, you have breaks in a show, but I’m rarely off the stage for more than two or three minutes.”
That may explain why in the history of the show, there have been no middle-aged Elphabas. Or maybe, Suskauer says, “it’s only because she’s supposed to be entering college. She’s supposed to be younger.”
Some might consider playing Elphaba as the pinnacle of a young actress’ musical-theater career, but Suskauer reminds that Idina Menzel, who created the role on Broadway, has gone on to some pretty big things.
“Look what Idina did,” she says. “She forged the way for herself — went on to movies, TV, albums, other Broadway shows. There are endless opportunities. She just got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, so I guess she’s doing pretty well.”
Suskauer is also finding life on the road to be a challenge.
“It’s always going to be hard,” she says. “A transient lifestyle isn’t easy, [whether] you’ve been on the tour for a month or you’ve been on the tour for years, it’s always going to be challenging. But with each travel day, I’m learning more and more about myself, and little things to do to help me stay sane on the road.” Some performers take their pets, she notes. “I don’t have a dog, but we have like 14 dogs that travel on the tour.”
It’s helpful if you’ve seen The Wizard of Oz, but not necessary, she adds, and you should consider Wicked as standing on its own and not a prequel.
Suskauer describes Wicked as “a show for everyone, for anyone that has been through anything, really. It’s an incredible story of friendship, of love — not just romantic love but love between friends. It teaches a lot of important lessons, such as not judging a book by its cover, and treating everybody with respect. It’s an all-around great, important show.”
“So many people come, from 8 to 80, and we see the houses packed every night. It’s a wonderful feeling,” Bailey adds.
Bailey says she and Suskauer have formed a strong bond even over the short time they’ve been working together.
“She’s so wonderful, I love her; truly she has become a wonderful friend,” she says. “You share so much time on stage together, but some of the important [bonding] is offstage. We spend a lot of time together — going to dinner, shopping, getting our nails done together, so I hope that comes across onstage as well.”
And is there a real-life parallel in the song “Popular,” in which Glinda gleefully anticipates giving her new but socially backward friend a popularity makeover?
“She definitely has style,” Bailey says. “So I don’t have to help her with that.”