Wicked changed the Broadway landscape ‘For Good’ when it burst onto the New York City stage in a sea of emerald green and has captivated audiences in record numbers ever since.
Loosely adapted from L Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the musical explores the unlikely friendship between two witches, Elphaba and Glinda, during a period of great upheaval in the land of Oz.
Since premiering in 2003, Wicked has become the fourth longest-running show on Broadway with over 8,400 performances. In 2010, it became the first to gross over $2 million in a single week, and in 2024, after the release of part one of the blockbuster movie adaptation, it shattered its own box office record by grossing over $5 million in just one week. Wicked has been seen by more than 65 million people around the world, grossed over $5 billion, and has won more than 100 international awards, including major wins at the Tony and Grammy Awards.
The musical’s success is in no small part due to its supremely talented original cast at the Gershwin Theatre, which included Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth, Joel Grey and Norbert Leo Butz. Their renditions of iconic songs like Defying Gravity, Popular and Dancing Through Life have become the definitive versions and helped the cast album sell more than four million copies in the USA alone and spend more than 1,000 weeks on Billboard's Cast Albums chart.
Have you been wondering what the original cast of Wicked on Broadway is doing now, since leaving the Emerald City by broom, bubble, balloon or other method of Ozmopolitan transport? Let’s not waste another clock tick, and find out!
Idina Menzel (Elphaba)
Idina Menzel – or the ‘wickedly talented… Adele Dazeem’, as she was mistakenly introduced by John Travolta in a hilariously viral moment at the Oscars – is one of musical theater’s most pre-eminent talents. Idina left the Broadway company of Wicked in 2005 to recreate her Tony Award-winning performance for the musical’s West End premiere a year later. After Wicked, Idina moved into the world of TV and film, with major roles in Enchanted, Glee, Uncut Gems and, of course, Disney’s Frozen. The role of Queen Elsa brought Idina global recognition, and her performance of the movie’s iconic song ‘Let It Go’ became a chart-topping hit around the world. The success continued with the movie’s sequel Frozen 2, which became the highest-grossing animated feature of all time and spawned a new hit for Idina: Into the Unknown. She will return for Frozen 3, which has been slated for release in November 2027.
Despite often being referred to as the ‘Queen of Broadway’, Idina has only returned to the Great White Way twice in the two decades following Wicked – first in 2014 for If/Then at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, and more recently in 2025 for Redwood at the Nederlander Theatre. Both If/Then and Redwood were entirely original projects, something which Idina is passionate about pursuing.
Outside of stage and screen, she is also a prolific songwriter and has released several studio albums and regularly performs sold-out concert tours around the world. Idina is also passionate about philanthropic work. She co-founded A BroaderWay Foundation in 2010 to help young girls from underserved communities realize their potential through the Arts.
Kristin Chenoweth (Glinda)
It’s always good to see her, isn’t it! Kristin Chenoweth is one of those stars who can do it all, whether it’s opera or country, musical comedy or political drama, hosting the Tony Awards or belting the national anthem at the NBA Finals. Since leaving Oz in 2005, Kristin has shared her time between the stage, screen and her recording career. She’s enjoyed critical acclaim for her supporting roles on TV shows including The West Wing, Glee and Pushing Daisies, even winning a Primetime Emmy Award in 2009 for the latter. More recently, she delivered a star turn in Apple TV’s hilarious musical parody series Schmigadoon! and played Velma Von Tussle in NBC’s Hairspray Live!
On Broadway, she appeared in a revival of The Apple Tree alongside Brian d’Arcy James in 2005. In 2010, she starred opposite Sean Hayes in a revival of Promises, Promises at the Broadway Theatre. Five years later, she returned to Broadway in a revival of On the Twentieth Century. Her performance garnered widespread acclaim and resulted in a Tony nomination. Kristin will make her long-awaited return to the Broadway stage in The Queen of Versailles at the St. James Theatre later this year. The new musical reunites Kristin with Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz in what is sure to be one of the highlights of the new Broadway season.
In 2009, Kristin published her memoir A Little Bit Wicked, in which she reflected on her career to date alongside her personal life story. She regularly performs concert engagements at some of the world’s most iconic venues including Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, and Sydney Opera House.
Norbert Leo Butz (Fiyero)
Norbert left Wicked in 2004 and has gone on to enjoy a varied career across Broadway, television and film. He went from being the ‘Winkie Prince’ of Oz to a Dirty Rotten Scoundrel in 2005 – a role for which he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He won another Tony in 2011 for Catch Me If You Can, and secured a further nomination for his performance as Alfred P. Doolittle in the Lincoln Center revival of My Fair Lady in 2018. Norbert’s other credits include Enron, Big Fish and, most recently, Vladimir at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2024.
On screen, he played Alan Lomax in the blockbuster Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. He has also had main roles in Bloodline, Mercy Street, Debris and The Girl from Plainville. And it has just been announced that Norbert will play the leading role in an upcoming eco-noir thriller, Alfalfa, that begins shooting later this year.
Joel Grey (The Wizard)
Joel Grey was a legend of the stage long before he became the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He is best known for originating the role of the Emcee in John Kander & Fred Ebb’s Cabaret on both stage and screen. His superlative performance won him Academy, Tony, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Awards, and is widely considered one of the greatest portrayals of all time.
After Wicked, he returned to Broadway in 2011 to star as Moonface Martin in a revival of Anything Goes opposite Sutton Foster. In the same year, he also co-directed a production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. He last performed on Broadway in 2016 when he starred in The Cherry Orchard alongside Diane Lane. Grey also directed an Off-Broadway Yiddish-language production of Fiddler on the Roof in 2018, which became a surprise hit and is still being performed today, with its West Coast premier slated for later this year. In 2023, he was deservedly presented with the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre.
On screen, Grey was most recently seen in FX’s The Old Man in 2022, and also made a cameo appearance in the film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick… BOOM!
Michelle Federer (Nessarose)
Michelle was the longest-serving member of the original Broadway cast of Wicked, staying with the production until early 2006. But she couldn’t resist the allure of the jewelled slippers for long and returned for a limited engagement in 2009. Her only other Broadway credit was understudying Julia Roberts in Three Days of Rain. On screen, Michelle was most recently seen in Disney’s Better Nate Than Ever in 2022, and had recurring roles in NBC’s dramas New Amsterdam and Smash. And ‘Congratulotions’ are in order as Michelle married her Wicked co-star Norbert Leo Butz in 2007 and welcomed their first child in 2011!
Christopher Fitzgerald (Boq)
Christopher Fitzgerald is not just a mere Munchkin when it comes to Broadway. He has become a three-time Tony nominee and one of the most distinguished musical comedy actors in New York City. In 2007, he wowed audiences as Igor in Young Frankenstein, for which he was nominated for his first Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. He secured his second nomination in 2009 for Finian’s Rainbow, and his third in 2018 for Waitress. More recently, he starred in the acclaimed revivals of Stephen Sondheim’s Company in 2021, and Spamalot in 2023. On TV, he was seen in CBS’s Elsbeth and Netflix’s Godless.
Carole Shelley (Madame Morrible)
Wicked’s Head Shizstress Carole Shelley has made a number of return engagements to the musical on Broadway, in the First National Tour, and in the sit-down Chicago production, between 2005 and 2008. She went on to originate the role of Grandma in Billy Elliot on Broadway and starred in the award-winning musical comedy, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, in 2014. She had enjoyed a long career on Broadway prior to joining Wicked, including a Tony win for her performance in The Elephant Man in 1979, and a further nomination in 1987 for Stepping Out.
The Wicked Movie
Wicked fans rejoicified when the much-talked about movie adaptation of the musical was finally released more than 20 years after its Broadway premiere. But boy was it worth the wait! Split into two parts and released over two years, Universal Pictures and director Jon M Chu assembled an all-star cast and even managed to convince several members of the original Broadway cast to make some unforgettable cameo appearances.
Tony-winner and three-time Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba, and global pop superstar Ariana Grande stars as Glinda. The cast is completed by Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero), Jeff Goldblum (The Wizard), Marissa Bode (Nessarose), Ethan Slater (Boq), and Michelle Yeoh (Madame Morrible). Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth make a playful cameo during ‘One Short Day’, with Idina even recreating her iconic ‘Defying Gravity’ battle cry. Eagle-eyed viewers also spotted appearances by composer Stephen Schwartz and book writer Winnie Holzman.
Legacy
So, there we have it! The original Broadway cast really were the most swankified bunch on Broadway. Wicked owes so much of its colossal success to the passion and heart that these actors poured into their characters. Their inimitable performances on the cast recording continue to introduce new generations to the thrills of musical theater, cementing their legacy in Broadway’s history books ‘For Good’.
