Cynthia Erivo

I think this lends itself to show how phenomenal both stage acting and movie acting are, but also how different they are at the same time. If stage Elphaba were to be so subtle in emotions, then it wouldn’t be able to read from the back of the house, meanwhile in the movie, all the close up shots and zoom-ins help convey all of Erivo’s emotion and nuances because we can see her expressions close up and her face can convey more than just the words allow. I also think being a black actress in this role made her want to take a different approach, not saying there have not been black actresses to portray Elphaba on stage because there have been and all were fantastic, but bringing the show to a worldwide audience, I would think Cynthia would want to show strength in resign, rather than an “angry black woman” caricature (again, not saying that’s what stage Elphaba is, but on a large-scale world wide movie level, I could see people trying to generalize her as one if that’s the direction the movie would’ve chosen). Just my lowlify personal thoughts of course 😂 More on reddit.com

Yup! I’m blessed to be a born and raised New Yorker and I saw a lot of theater growing up. I saw the OBC of Wicked 7 times 😅. Absolutely loved them. One time technically wasn’t the OBC because it’s when Taye Diggs came in for a limited run as Fiyero while Norbert was on a medical leave. So, six times with the OBC and one time with almost the whole OBC. And not ONLY did I see the OBC, but actually got introduced to the show because I went to Broadway on Broadway, and there, Idina Menzel previewed “The Wizard and I” before they even started performances. And as a musical theater kid, immediately I was like, Stephen Schwartz??? Idina Menzel!?!? Count me in! And it was around my bday so my parents got me tix for the first week of previews for my bday. And then after the OBC left I never saw it again because I had such incredible memories of the OBC that I didn’t want to supplant them with a new cast… UNTIL, a friend of a friend was playing Elphaba (Jackie Burns) and she asked if I wanted to come with her a plus one to see Jackie in the role. So I went then, and I remember sitting in the audience just thinking… damn this musical really does still hold up. And of course Jackie and the rest of the cast were fantastic. More on reddit.com