No Good Voice Goes Unpunished

Wicked needs to give its leading ladies a break, and make their Elphaba standbys into alternates.

In 2008, Caissie Levy had to end her contract early in LA due to vocal problems. Teal Wicks took over as lead, but fell sick in the last few days of her run. This sickness carried over to the San Francisco production, which she opened early this year (though the standby Vicki Noon actually performed the first preview), and Teal had to take over a full month off to recover.

Kerry Ellis, who is arguably one of the strongest Elphabas vocally when she's on her game, had various vocal problems and sickness throughout her three years in the role as well. Most notably near the end of her first London run she missed many shows, and that unfortunately carried over to Broadway as well in mid 2008.

In summer of 2009, Amanda Harrison, Melbourne's Elphaba, had to take a full two months off, and returned only just in time to close the production before moving to Sydney.

And more recently Alexia Khadime in London (pictured above) has been off more often than she's been on. At the moment Alexia and Ashleigh Gray (s/b) are switching off, and Shona White (Elphaba s/b from 2008) has been brought back in case she's needed.

These are just the more recent, and severe, examples. Nearly all the women who played Elphaba for an extended period of time have finished with varying degrees of vocal damage.

There are, of course, exceptions. Nicole Parker recently finished a 6 month run on Broadway with excellent attendance. She also often noted how Wicked is a "24-hour-a-day job," and all of her days were spent preparing for that evening's performance.

But Teal had excellent attendance as well through the majority of her time in LA, as did Alexia during her first run in London. Who's to say Nicole wouldn't suffer if she were to return?

The German production of Wicked has an Elphaba alternate, and I believe the remaining productions should follow their example. Elphaba is demanding not only vocally, but also physically due to the amount of time the character is on stage, and the weight of her costume (especially her Act 2 dress!).

Let an Elphaba alternate go one just once or twice a week. The lead will stay healthier. The standby-turned-alternate now gets guaranteed scheduled shows. Fans will know with greater confidence when their prefered Elphaba will be on, and most of the general public who sees the show won't know any different. Not to mention the powers that be won't have to do as much scrambling to find temporary covers for Elphaba when the lead is gone for extended periods of time. (Before setting up Shona's return, the producers were ready to have Stephanie J Block take over for two weeks in London!)

Seems like everyone wins.