Gershwin Theatre

The tryout production closed on the 29th of June with the show going into a three-month break to put final tweaks into the show before starting their Broadway run.

And eventually, Wicked opened at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City on the 8th of October, 2003, and officially opened on the 30th of October.

Many of the cast remained from the San Francisco tryout, with some cast changes, including Joel Grey as the Wizard, William Youmans as Dr. Dillamond, and Christopher Fitzgerald as Boq.

Joel Grey.

Kick in the teeth, I would say.

[laughs]

In fact, off the back of that, the production still remains at the Gershwin Theatre today, 23 years on, having only been suspended, obviously, during, uh, COVID, from the 12th of March, 2020 to the 14th of September, 2021.

The first tour for Wicked was the North American tour, dubbed the Emerald City Tour by producers.

It's so great.

I mean, there's only so many times you can open at the Gershwin.

You know what I mean? And so it's nice to sort of make it small downtown.

It feels like a show for show people.

of tight white pants.

Having first joined the show as an understudy and ensemble member on tour, he's danced his way through life to leading the show on the road in the US on Broadway, including during its 20th anniversary at the Gershwin Theatre, and now direct into its 20th here in London as the West End steps into celebrating 20 years at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.

So direct from his home here in London, we reflect on a history-making time as the Winky Prince, including how his time as an understudy under great leaders helped teach him about the power of teamwork, why there's more to Fiera than just his looks, and how he's worked to ensure his portrayal allows the acting to lead first.

We also dive deep on introducing an American portrayal to UK audiences in this rather signature role and why mixing in his accent with the English accents in the West End production made for a hilarious encounter when he first joined the London cast.

Stateside, she starred in Guys and Dolls as Sarah Brown, Beautiful as Cynthia Weil, and Legally Blonde as Elle Woods.

Since settling in at the Gershwin, our guest has used her platform for good to raise awareness for the True North Pet Rescue Mission as a dog foster mom and advocate.

She's a proud graduate of the Hart School of Music, knows her way around a trending TikTok sound, and it's damn good to see her, isn't it? Please, welcome to Drama, Emma

Flynn! Hey! Hi, guys! Hi.

It was in the 1970s.

It was the first show to play at the Gershwin Theater, where Wicked plays.

It's the biggest theater on Broadway, the Gershwin.

And it takes place in space.

So if you hire enough of them, you can you can fill a space.

I mean, I think one of the things that I admire about the production of Wicked and it was first created for the Gershwin Theater, where we play in New York, which is also a big theater and people tended to be frightened of the size, but therefore our set designer, Eugene Lee, working with Joe Montello, our director, created a set that reached out and kind of enveloped the audience.

And we were able to reproduce that because of the, um, the structure of the Apollo Victoria.

So you're not just sitting there and just looking up at a proscenium.

I know you know what's coming, but let everybody else experience it for the first time.

Isn't that so ironic that it's so funny because you don't think about it that way that most of the time the national tour houses that you're going to are significantly bigger than the Gershwin Theater, which is pretty big.

Yeah,

I think the Gershwin might be that.

I'm not sure.

Definitely.