Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Actor goes from Oakland Park to Broadway
Thompson playing dream role in national tour of ‘Wicked’
Oakland Park-born and -bred Christian Thompson has the role of his life: He’s playing the dashing prince, Fiyero, in the national tour of the Broadway musical “Wicked.”
When Thompson steps on stage in Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, where the show is running through March 5, it will mark only his ninth performance in the role.
“I premiered in the tour in Orlando on Feb. 7, just in time to do the shows in Miami,” says Thompson, who is one of five actors that became new cast members mid-tour, all beginning the run with the show in Orlando. The other new cast members are Tara Kostmayer as Nessarose; Kyle McArthur as Boq; Boise Holmes as Doctor Dillamond; and Timothy Shew as The Wizard.
Inspired by the Gregory Maguire novel, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” the Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman looks at what happened in the Land of Oz long before the events of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 classic “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” begin. It focuses on the friendship between high school students Elphaba and Galinda, who eventually become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda, Good Witch of the North. (In Baum’s book, she’s Glinda; in Maguire’s, she changes her name from Galinda.)
For Thompson, 30, stepping into the role of Fiyero isn’t only a dream come true — he’s been in the audience nine times since he first saw “Wicked” on Broadway at age 10 — there’s another special significance, too. The Jamaican-American actor says he is among a small number of Black actors who have portrayed the dashing prince.
“I believe that in the history of ‘Wicked’ there have been less than 10 [Black actors] that have
been cast in the role in the show’s 20-year run, and there have been companies all over the world, so it means a lot to me,” says Thompson.
He credits his mother, Sherri Patterson, with taking him to see his first Broadway musical, “Cats,” when he was 7 years old at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts. After that, he says he was hooked on musical theater.
He saw “Wicked” on Broadway three years later. “My mother and I were in New York for an event, and it was the day we were supposed to go home, but my mother said, ‘Let’s try to go see ‘Wicked,’ ” he says.
They put their names in for last-minute tickets, a lottery as it is called, for the matinee, but “we lost,” he recalls. “Being the supportive super-woman that she is, my mother wanted to try again for the evening show.” They won — and had to change their flight back to Florida — and saw the original Galinda/ Glinda, Kristin Chenowith, at the Gershwin Theatre.
His mother continues to be his biggest fan, he says, driving from South Florida to Orlando to see him make his debut as Fiyero and she plans to be in the audience at the Arsht Center, too.
Thompson decided he wanted to be an actor when he was in the third grade, and he fondly remembers dancing with a hip-hop troupe from “the time I was 9 until I was 13,” his mom driving him to Boca Raton for rehearsals. The family lived across the street from North Andrews Gardens Elementary School of the Arts in Fort Lauderdale, then he went on to Parkway Middle School in Lauderhill. He earned a performing arts scholarship to American Heritage School.
When it was time to apply to colleges, he headed to New York to take part in the National Unified Auditions, where more than two dozen universities and colleges from across the country audition students to join their theater programs. He was offered a scholarship to Penn State University. After multiple roles in regional theater, in 2016 he was cast as Benny in the national touring company of the Broadway musical “Rent,” which came to the Broward Center. He remembers the feeling of life coming full circle when he was on stage in the same place where he had sat in the audience as a youngster to see his first Broadway musical.
When he talks about “Wicked,” his genuine love for the show comes through. “It’s one of the best-written musicals of all time. It has the perfect mixture of originality, a lot of spectacle, plus a lot of heart and intellect,” he says. “There’s something really wonderful about my role.”
He finds an even deeper depth in the bond that develops between Elphaba and Fiyero: “She is looked at as different because she is born with green skin
... Elphaba is a ‘person of color’ in a way. So, when you have these two outsiders connecting, that’s a slightly different story that has an impact in a different way ... and I’m looking forward to exploring just what that means.”
The actor says he hopes he can make an impact on the “little me” that may be sitting in the audience, a kid like the wide-eyed, 10-year-old Thompson who first saw “Wicked” on Broadway.
“I want to be an inspiration. I think that I’ve been given a huge opportunity,” he says.
What: Broadway in Miami presents “Wicked”
When: Through Sunday, March 5
Where: Ziff Ballet Opera House at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
Cost: $33-$193 Information: 305-9496722; arshtcenter.org
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