Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
You may have seen it onstage before, in a musical calledWicked.
The reviews were middling to negative.
Im always so proud of what Idina and I laid down, Chenoweth says.
So many women have done so well in those roles.
That means that we did our jobs.
Kristin, you started on workshops forWickedin 2000 and then Idina auditioned and joined the show in 2001.
But do you remember when you first met?
She was there in her costume with the bucket.
I told her how amazing I thought she was.
Kristin Chenoweth: I didnt even know that.
What year wasRent, Dee?
:I was doingSteel Pier,and we performed at the Tonys in 1997.
I had a couple of friends inRent,and I had gone on the sly.
So I saw her backstage at the Tonys.
:Well, at least, thank you.
:I mean, it changed a lot.
I thought it got better and better, frankly, and it needed to.
:Were both working on original musicals now, and its scary.
Youre putting in a lot of time and a lot of love.
I remember thinking that between Defying Gravity
I.M.
:And For Good, theres your three things.
People always said that there wasnt a show in two women together as leads.
When it was pitched to me it was like, Youre very much the side character.
Youre very much the supporting character.
When Idina got cast, it felt like it wasnt going to be that.
It felt like we were together.
Lets talk about those three moments.
Do you remember first singing For Good together?I.M.
They want it to be right for us and our voices and our emotionality.
:Stephen Schwartz was very wise in letting Elphaba take the higher part in that number because shes flying.
Shes on her way, and Glindas become more grounded.
:And that was all her.
:The notes are written, I think.
:Not when you first got it, girl.
:Thank God she did.
Thats the thrilling part!
:Until the eighth show of the week.
I went to Stephen and said, I feel she should be a soprano.
He goes, You just want to sing your high notes.
I go, Well, kind of, but I also want the character to come alive.
If anybodys a fucking soprano on the show, its her.
But thats a testament to Stephen.
He listened to us both.
In Popular, theres a little dance Glinda does, hopping across the stage going La la … Did you find that in the room?K.C.
:I grew up very terribly wanting to be a ballerina.
It was never that I wanted to be a singer or anything.
But then I had flat feet.
I cant turn, certainly cant jump.
When Glindas singing that, I just imagine her in her room growing up.
She probably loved ballet.
She was a girlie-girl.
So I went with the idea that she probably practiced and she wasnt any good.
Ive worked with coaches on it, after theWickedexperience.
But Kristin can pick up the paper and hear the rhythm immediately.
It was something I always aspired to.
My way of doing its different.
I loved watching her process, especially with Popular.
I always remember her blocking Popular for the first time in the rehearsal room.
She figured out what she wanted to do, what props she wanted, where the lipstick should go.
Her confidence, I think, really puts people at ease.
:Its funny, I listen to you talk, and I never once thought you had that anxiety.
I always thought she was concentrating and mapping out her role.
I remember sitting when you were doing The Wizard and I.
It was a whole new song [replacingMaking Good,which Stephanie J.
Block, who played Elphaba in the early readings, had sung] and you were embodying the character.
I also remember the first time she got her green on.
It was like she was a butterfly she became the part.
Im glad I got to witness that.
Idina, how did you feel in the moment of first becoming green?I.M.
Thats Elphabas whole journey.
For me, it was the same thing.
And there were so many thoughts going through my head.
As women, we want to own something, but fear thats off-putting.
Can we love ourselves?
:Can we accept when people are saying, We love you?
Its hard to go, I receive what youre throwing down.
Idina flew at the end of Defying Gravity and Kristin entered the show flying in her bubble.
Do you remember the first time each of you tried those stage mechanics out?
Then I got up there and they forgot.
They started going on into practicing something else … I.M.
:And they left you up there?
:Yes, and I sang the highest note I could so that somebody would notice.
You stand on it and then you close this metal belt.
Once its connected, it tells the computer youre safe and youre good.
But the funny thing is when it doesnt go up.
When that happens, you unplug it and you walk and just sing Defying Gravity down center stage.
When was the first time it didnt work and you had a no-fly show?I.M.
:I have to say it didnt go wrong for a really long time.
She figured,Everyones watching Idina, Ive got to go to the toilet.
:I had eaten something bad and I needed to leave!
Idinas going Defying Gravity and probably looking around for me.
But lets just say I barely made it.
But I dont like to remind the producers Marc Platt and David Stone.
They feel really bad about it.
Lets just be happy about the 20th anniversary.
:I like to remind them.
:Lets not talk about it.
Its not like I have a chip on my shoulder or anything.
Just ruined my last weekend of the showever.
The show did its out-of-town tryout in the summer of 2003 in San Francisco.
The critical buzz was very skeptical, but the audiences started coming en masse.
How were you both feeling during that tryout?
:I just always heard people going Whats wrong with it?
:Thats what we heard, but then theaudience,though.
:That was a weird thing to reconcile.
All I kept telling myself was,We got Joe Mantello, Stephen Schwartz.
If these guys cant figure this out …Thats where youve got to trust the process.
:So much happens when you get in front of the audience.
My problem is I come up with 360 ideas and then I like to get rid of them.
I can only do that when I get the audience.
Its a lot to rectify.
Then I turned to look at the restaurant and I see myself in the window.
And I was like,Oh my God, I look like a freak out here.
Thats what he is looking at.
:I liked that we were right by a San Francisco Macys and it was a good one.
I would go there when I needed peaceeven if I didnt spend money, I would just shop around.
:Well, it makes sense shopping would relax you.
:Thank you, Dee.
What were those conversations like?I.M.
:I think a lot of Elphabas stuff was super-expositional.
A lot of people were doing stuff around her, and she was going, Oh, a lion.
Oh, the scarecrow, just commenting.
She didnt have enough action.
It sounds silly because she defies gravity.
But within the scene, things were happening around her instead of her having an action.
Thats the stuff that they worked on.
She was a little flat, and so they worked on that.
I also got more confident too.
So I think its a combination of everyone evolving.
On October 30, 2003, how did the opening-night show on Broadway go?K.C.
:I dont remember.
I was so nervous and excited.
I remember the party.
I dont know how you felt, Idina, but I just needed the opening night thing to happen.
I tend to have more fun.
Were you anxious about the reviews?
Who doesnt want good reviews?
It aint gonna matter, baby.
:We had the word-of-mouth and the kids, and that built through the whole year.
:It was so sweet, and so precious.
I remember the stage door was like a Madonna concert.
One night there was this burly guy standing there waiting for me.
He was like, Miss Chenoweth, Im not ashamed to admit it, I like the piece.
I said, what do you do?
He goes, Im a truck driver.
:It had a slow burn.
That doesnt happen, like, boom.
Its incremental, every week somebody says something and you start to go, Wow.
Then you start to feel a real responsibility, I think, to the bigger picture.
For me, I became less self-absorbed.
Were putting something out, but were also being given a gift.
I learned so much about myself and about other people.
When you play an empathic character, it teaches you so much more about humanity.
How did it feel to be in the middle of that?K.C.
:I mustve been a little slow on this.
I remember thinking,Im not going to show up at everything,and I didnt.
I believed our work spoke for itself.
I mean, I was very surprised.
We were the big show, so I thought were probably going to win.
I am a big fan ofAvenue Q.They had their show and their journey.
But our show is still running.
:We had the big show with all the money and the budget, so they demonized it.
She said, You better be writing a speech because youre going to win this.
I hadnt been writing a speech.
I thought that was so
K.C.
:I wanted her to know what I thought.
:We were both not in touch with the politics of everything.
Donna Murphy had won the Drama Desk forWonderful Town.
:And itwas a beautiful speech too.
There was such emotion for me that she won.
I was like,Fuck, yeah.I felt like we did it.
Our show did it.
We didnt win the big prize, but we had that.
:Id like to speak on this.
After a certain amount of time after we opened, my mom was dealing with cancer.
I was emotional and I was thinking about some other things.
To me, there was no way that I would win a Tony.
Yes, its the two girls as leads.
But its Elphabas story.
I needed to deal with that part of me.
I was very emotional.
I tried to push it out, I mean, if only people knew.
:Unfortunately people like to do that to women.
They cant be supportive of one another.
You have to put all this conflict in there.
:We were so tired.
:We were tired and extremely supportive of one another.
Wed been doing it for, before San Francisco, three years of workshops.
:It becomes a family.
Im sure, as a sister, I got on her nerves sometimes.
Im positive I did.
I get on my own nerves most of the time.
But you also know what the other ones going through.
Nobody else can know that but us.
:I think that song For Good was … K.C.
We would always look at each other and say, I got you.
Were making this thing together.
We love each other.
:When that was all starting to happen, some people enjoyed the rumors too.
If I could go back in time, Id be like, I know what yall are doing.
I wanted it to look like we were beating up on each other.
:Just take the piss out of it all.
Because then its so outlandish.
How did you decide when you each wanted to move on?
And yet it was bittersweet when I left.
I couldnt even say good-bye.
I remember Marc Platt saying, Do you want a party or something?
I said, No.
I dont do good-byes.
I think that I enjoyed staying longer because I could breathe.
I had more fun.
When youve gone back to seeWicked,how does it feel to see other actors play these roles?
:Ive only seen it once.
I went in London.
I was over there doing a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
:Were they all doing the British accents?
Thats a little weird, right?
And I went and then she was out that night!
I didnt want to tell people I was there until after I saw the show.
I wouldnt want anyone to feel self-conscious.
How do I say this?
Im always so proud of what Idina and I laid down.
So many women have done so well in those roles.
That means that we did our jobs.
I brought my son and his basketball team recently toWicked.
I came up with that.
Kristin, who originated Glinda, shes the one that came up with that ballet move there.
:But what was their reaction?
He tells me later how proud he is of me.
Production Credits
Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism.
