SALT LAKE CITY — Shayla Osborn Beck left the Gershwin Theatre in New York City crying.
It wasn't because the Broadway show she had just seen has a sad or depressing story. Quite the contrary; although the musical has its touching moments, it's largely peppy with doses of humor.
It was because as the then-15-year-old Beck watched actresses Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth play their now-iconic roles as Elphaba and Glinda in "Wicked," an indelible dream was born.
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Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, and the cast of "Wicked" at their opening night curtain call in "Showbusiness: The Road to Broadway."
"I remember leaving the theater and I said to my mom, 'I want to play Elphaba someday. That's my dream,'" Beck said.
Ten years, a degree from Brigham Young University's Music Dance Theatre Department, hours and hours of practicing and plenty of hard work later, Beck's dream came true: She was cast in the ensemble of "Wicked" and as Elphaba's understudy.
"Probably my one of my greatest dreams, next to my children, is being able to play that role in a Broadway show," Beck said. "It's just always been such a big part of my life ever since I saw it when I was 15."
Since premiering on Broadway in October 2003, "Wicked" has won three Tony Awards and six Drama Desk Awards, seen more than 6,300 performances, grossed more than $1 billion in ticket sales (and that's not even counting sales from the thousands of touring performances) and captured the hearts of millions with its memorable characters and themes of friendship and love.
Beck is one of many Utahns and BYU graduates who have been cast in the megahit during the show's 15-year run. As the national Broadway touring company prepares to make its most recent stop in Utah at Salt Lake's Eccles Theater from Jan. 30 to March 3, we caught up with a few — including one local woman who performed in the show for just "one short day in the Emerald City."
Shayla Osborn Beck
Beck was enraptured by "Wicked" after seeing the original Broadway cast — so enraptured that she even got in a car wreck when she was 16 because she was carried away by the music.
"I was singing 'Defying Gravity' and I closed my eyes to belt out the last note and ran into a big Hummer on the road and almost died," Beck said with a laugh. "It's so funny because 'Wicked' continued to play on my totaled car. I couldn't get the music to turn off."
Although she's learned her lesson and keeps her eyes on the road, Beck still hasn't turned off the soundtrack, despite having performed in the show hundreds of times.
"After more than 700 shows, you think I would have been sick of the music, but I wasn't," she said. "I would have kept singing it — I still continue to sing it often to my boys. I love the music."
The St. George native performed with "Wicked" from 2013 to 2015, and, although it had always been her dream to perform as Elphaba, the casting team initially thought she should audition for the part of Glinda.
"I never felt that I was a Glinda — I thought I was more of an Elphaba," she said. "I went in for Glinda, and then I ended up finally getting cast as the understudy for Elphaba as well as the understudy for Nessarose, her sister, and then I had an ensemble role every night."
Beck performed on the first national tour of "Wicked" and on the second national tour for a few months and got the chance to perform as both her understudy roles multiple times during her two years with the show, including as Elphaba once during the show's 2014 stop in Salt Lake City to a crowd that included about 100 of her family and friends.
"Elphaba's such an iconic role that it's pretty terrifying to go on for her because so many people have heard the music and know what it's supposed to sound like," she said. "It was a little nerve-wracking for me always to go on for Elphaba but it was exhilarating and amazing at the same time too. I loved it."
Provided by Shayla Osborn Beck
Utah native Shayla Osborn Beck backstage during a performance of "Wicked." Beck performed in the ensemble and as the understudy for Elphaba and Nessarose in the touring cast from 2013-2015.
Since her time with "Wicked," Beck has settled in Woods Cross with her husband and two sons. Referencing the show's song "For Good," in which Elphaba and Glinda discuss the transformative effect their friendship has had, Beck said she still thinks about the life-changing effect being a part of the phenomenon that is "Wicked" had on her.
"As cheesy as it sounds, it really did change me 'for good' because it was something I always dreamed about doing and I got to do it," she said. "I got to go fulfill my dream and be in my favorite Broadway show that I've ever seen or ever been a part of."
Cathy Brady
Cathy Brady gets a lot of questions about her license plate: WICKDNY.
Wic Kidney? Wickdney? No — it's Wicked, New York.
But Brady's license plate says more than just that she's a big fan of "Wicked" — it's referencing the time in 2005 when she got to live her dream for a day and perform on Broadway.
Brady's "one short day in the Emerald City" came about in May 2005 thanks to the "Live for Today" contest put on by the "Today" show.
"They asked people to email their biggest dream of one thing they would like to do before they die," said Brady, whose last name was Shipley at the time, in a 2005 Deseret News article. "My greatest dream was to sing on Broadway."
About three months after sending in her biggest dream, Brady found out she was finalist. "Today" sent a crew out to Utah to film Brady with her family, and a few weeks later, the show flew her to New York, where she was thrown into research and rehearsals.
Provided by Cathy Brady
Cathy Brady, left, with Katie Couric in 2005 as she performed with the Broadway cast of "Wicked" as part of the Today Show's "Live for Today" contest.
"While I was there, I would see it sometimes twice a day to kind of familiarize myself with where I was going to be and all the other kind of stuff," she said.
Brady had grown up singing and was part of the Utah Symphony Chorus at the time, so when the "Wicked" crew discovered her performance background, they decided to expand her part beyond a simple walk across the stage. Her big moment came as part of the number "One Short Day," in which Elphaba and Glinda visit the Emerald City.
"Since I actually had a little bit of talent, they let me be in that whole number," Brady said. "They fitted me for that costume and I had vocal rehearsals and I had dance rehearsals."
She performed in the number during a Tuesday evening performance and even got to join the cast onstage for the final bow, then a few days later she performed the number with the cast on "Today."
Since 2005, Brady's life has changed a bit. She's seen her three children grow up, go to college and start their own families. She got remarried a few years ago — to her childhood sweetheart — adding four more children to her family, and she is now a grandma of four. Brady said although memories with her family certainly take the top spots in her list of life events, her daylong stint with "Wicked" still ranks shortly after.
"'Wicked' is in the top five of big, epic events of my life," Brady said. "It had enough of an impact on me where I've dragged around this license plate for 13 years."
Summer Naomi Interior
By 2007, "Wicked" mania was in full swing. As a musical theater performer, Summer Naomi Interior was well aware of the megahit, but it wasn't until she was auditioning for the show that she saw it for the first time.
Provided by Summer Naomi Interior
Summer Naomi Interior performed as Nessrose in the first national sit-down of "Wicked" in Chicago in 2007.
"It obviously had exploded and was huge, but as a working actor a lot of times, you end up not getting to see other shows as much (because of your own performance schedule)," Interior said.
Interior had recently moved to the Midwest and was trying to break into the acting scene there when she secured an audition for "Wicked's" first national sit-down production in Chicago. As part of callbacks, the casting team got her a ticket to the show so she could experience what it was she was auditioning for.
"(I was) looking at it very technically," she said of her first time seeing "Wicked." "It's a different way of looking at it than you would going just as an audience member sitting back and relaxing and taking in the show, but even then, I still found that I got lost in it, which says a lot about the story. … I think that's pretty magical."
"It all kind of happened at once — getting to know the story and then being part of the story were all kind of one and the same," she continued. "I just got hit with the 'Wicked' broomstick all at once."
Interior performed as Nessarose, Elphaba's sister, for a year in the middle of "Wicked's" three-year stay in Chicago. Interior — who performed under the name Summer Naomi Smart — is a Utah native and BYU graduate, recognized by local audiences for her work with local theater companies and in films such as "Beauty and the Beast: A Latter-Day Tale" and "Passage to Zarahemla," but thanks to "Wicked," she had a successful performing career in Chicago.
Provided by Cathy Brady
Cathy Brady has a shadow box in her home with photos and mementoes from 2005 when she was in "Wicked" for a day.
"Getting this audition and then actually getting the part, it definitely it got me involved in that community, for one, which ended up being such an amazing theater community that I stayed for 10 years and just loved it," she said.
Although playing Nessarose wasn't the most difficult role Interior has taken on, she said it's one she remembers fondly for the fun times she had, the friendships she made and the opportunities it brought.
"Just having that one word, that 'Wicked' word on your resume, it really opens a lot of doors, and so that provided a lot more opportunities and I think (got) the ball rolling for my career in Chicago for the time that I was there," said Interior, who landed roles in Chicago productions including "Mary Poppins" and "Sweet Charity," the latter garnering her a Joseph Jefferson Award.
In Chicago, Interior met her husband, who was a professional dancer. The couple has since moved to Utah, where they are raising their 8-month-old son.
Although Interior has put a pause on her performing for a while to focus on her son, she recognizes the role "Wicked" has played in her life — both for its performing opportunities and its themes.
"('Wicked' is) a story with layers, and it's a story about seeing the other side of something that you just took at face value, seeing the backstory of all of these characters that you thought were one thing and actually turns out, there's a lot of reasons for the way they are — just like all of us," she said. "I think that's why it … continues to go strong … because it's this wonderful, layered, real and very relevant story."
If you go …
What: National tour of "Wicked"
When: Jan. 30-March 3, times vary
Where: The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater, 131 Main St.
How much: $99-$229
Phone: 801-355-5502
Web: www.broadway-at-the-eccles.com
from Deseret News http://bit.ly/2Sf0o0U
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