The Inexperienced Ladies are making good.
Three ladies who’ve starred on Broadway as Elphaba in “Depraved” picked up Tony nominations on Tuesday.
Shoshana Bean, who inhabited the position for a 12 months beginning in 2005, was nominated as finest featured actress for “Hell’s Kitchen,” during which she performs a tough-minded single mom attempting to guard her adolescent daughter from the temptations of the road. (That is her second Tony nomination — she was additionally nominated in 2022 for “Mr. Saturday Night time.”)
Eden Espinosa, who succeeded Bean as Elphaba in 2006, was nominated as finest main actress for taking part in an artistically and sexually adventurous painter in “Lempicka.”
And Lindsay Mendez, who turned Elphaba in 2013, scored a nomination as finest featured actress for portraying a hard-drinking novelist on this season’s hit revival of “Merrily We Roll Alongside.” (Mendez already has one Tony, for her portrayal of Carrie Pipperidge in a 2018 revival of “Carousel.”)
Who’s Elphaba? Nicely, “Depraved,” a musical based mostly on a novel by Gregory Maguire, is an imagined again story for the Depraved Witch of the West, and Elphaba is that character. (Reconsidering her precise wickedness is the topic of the musical.) Her identify is derived from the phonetic initials of L. Frank Baum, who wrote “The Fantastic Wizard of Oz”; her pores and skin is inexperienced as a nod to the inexperienced make-up worn by Margaret Hamilton in “The Wizard of Oz,” the much-loved movie adaptation of Baum’s novel.
“Depraved” has been operating efficiently for therefore lengthy, with so many firms, and with juicy main roles for 2 younger ladies, that it now seems on the résumés of many musical theater performers.
The actress enjoying Elphaba wants an enormous belt; her iconic track is “Defying Gravity.” The position was originated on Broadway in 2003 by Idina Menzel, who received a Tony for her work, and who is anticipated to return to Broadway someday within the not-too-distant future with “Redwood,” a brand new musical a few lady and, effectively, timber. (The musical had a manufacturing earlier this 12 months at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.)
The opposite primary character in “Depraved” is Glinda (historically described as an excellent witch, though once more, your mileage might range); that position requires a excessive soprano and was originated by Kristin Chenoweth, who can be hoping to return quickly to Broadway — she is starring in a brand new musical known as “The Queen of Versailles,” tailored from the movie, that may have an preliminary manufacturing on the Emerson Colonial in Boston this summer season. (A 2023 Glinda, McKenzie Kurtz, is presently starring in one other new Broadway musical, “The Coronary heart of Rock and Roll,” whereas Katie Rose Clarke, who had three separate tenures as Glinda on Broadway, is featured on this season’s revival of “Merrily We Roll Alongside.”)
In the meantime, “Depraved” is heading for the massive display, with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda. The primary of the movie’s two components is scheduled to be launched in November, as a Thanksgiving weekend film.
