While the cinematic version of “Wicked” is currently streaming on Peacock, the theatrical version of the musical made history during the week of March 7 when Lencia Kebede, an Ethiopian actress, made history as the first full-time Black actress to portray Elphaba, the green-skinned witch portrayed by Cynthia Ervio in the Hollywood version of “Wicked.”
According to The Associated Press, Kebede said her Broadway debut left her feeling as though she belongs in the world of Oz. “It’s hard to even pinpoint a single emotion because I feel that it changes like every five minutes. I woke up and I still sort of felt in the world of Oz,” Kebede said.
She continued, describing how she felt after she finished singing “Defying Gravity,” the song that punctuates Act 1 of the play.
“When the lights went off at the end of the song, I started sobbing. Not like just a gentle tear. Viscerally, I had to release. I really felt like I was flying, is the simplest way to put it. I felt like I’m doing it myself, though my own power — my vocal power, my emotional power, the power of all of my African ancestors,” Kebede told the AP.
Kebede also took the time to encourage the values of liberation and empowerment, telling the AP that the song made her feel like she’s able to hold the audience in her arms.
“Everyone deserves a chance to fly. I’m projecting this message that no matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you deserve liberation and you deserve empowerment in the way that the character feels in that moment. It just feels like I’m taking the entire audience in my arms,” Kebede said.
She continued, “I needed to regroup,” she said as she laughed aloud. “My makeup artist was like, ‘Just let it out, just cry, and then we can clean it up.’”
Although Kebede is the first full-time Black actress to take on the role of Elphaba, there have been other Black women to don the green makeup and tattered Black dress like Broadway standbys Saycon Sengbloh, Lili Cooper, Broadway understudy Brandi Chavonne Massey, and Alexia Khadime, a full-time West End Elphaba.
Kebede, who also sang backup for Beyoncé during rehearsals for her Coachella performance, pivoted to the world of theatre after graduating from Occidental College in 2016 with a double major in diplomacy & world affairs and politics, which she intended to use for a career in law or public policy; however, the theatre was calling her and she answered.
“I just had this creative craving in terms of storytelling in the theatrical way that I was missing,” she says. “So I sat my mother down and I was like, ‘Look, I think I need just a couple years to explore this creative endeavor,’” Kebede recalled to the AP.
Kebede also credited her training through touring, which included time at Tokyo Disney, and multi-year tours as part of the casts for “Rent” and “Hamilton” for preparing her for her turn as Elphaba on Broadway.
“The rigorous nature of touring, I think, prepared me immensely for this,” Kebede said. “I do feel very equipped — physically, vocally, emotionally. I feel like I know how to take care of my body and my mind, how I need to cool down emotionally after such an intense experience for three hours.”
Kebede’s family, including her mother, her aunts and uncles, and cousins were all in attendance as well as her boyfriend and agent and casting directors, among others, which gave Kebede an immense feeling of pride.
“My whole family was in the audience — just everyone who I’ve ever loved, with everyone who has loved me and supported me through my life is just like under me, lifting me and holding me,” Kebede told the AP.
She continued, “It was just so important to me to have people there that I could share this moment with, so I could say to their faces, ’I couldn’t be here without a piece of your heart that you gave me.’”
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