Green tears were flowing when Lencia Kebede made history on Broadway, becoming the first Black actor to assume the role of Elphaba full time in the Broadway company of “Wicked.”
Kebede, a first-generation Ethiopian American from Los Angeles, spent five years touring with “Hamilton,” most recently in the role of Angelica Schuyler. Stepping into “Wicked” March 4 marked her Broadway debut.
Kebede had already gone through an emotional wringer by the time the curtain finally came down. She sings the Act 1 showstopper “Defying Gravity,” shooting into the air and the power of the moment ripped through her.
“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,” she says.
“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.”
The popularity of the Cynthia Erivo-led movie hasn’t dampened the appetite for the Broadway version, which opened in 2003 with songs by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. Over Christmas, it took in a staggering $5 million over nine performances, marking the highest weekly gross in history for any Broadway show.
Kebede joins a sisterhood of green-clad Black women who have played Elphaba, a list that includes Saycon Sengbloh and Lilli Cooper, both Broadway standbys; Brandi Chavonne Massey, a Broadway understudy; and Alexia Khadime, a full-time West End Elphaba.
