Brittney Johnson Is Wicked As Broadway’s First Black Glinda

glamour.com:

Wicked, Brittney Johnson will float in a giant bubble, 30 feet above the stage. She will wear a dress that weighs 16 pounds, made of 68,200 sequins of 25 varieties.

And on Valentine’s Day, Johnson became the 18th actor to star as Glinda on Broadway. In almost two decades since the musical opened, she will be the first Black woman—the first woman of color, period—to play the role full-time.“I am thrilled that it’s me, that I get to be the person that swings open that door, like, ‘I’m here!’” Johnson says, giggling, and you can hear how good she’ll be at delivering Glinda’s classic opening line. (“It’s good to see me, isn’t it?”) But unlike her character, Johnson does not simply float into each opportunity. “I am no stranger to being the first,” she says, of her historic casting. “It requires a lot of strength and a lot of knowing who you are.

The thing about breaking through a —if you’re the first one through you’re going to get cut up.”This content can also be viewed on the site it from.Johnson is a natural Glinda—her voice is as light as ripples on a lake, her smile sparkles.

Her laughter has the cadence of bubbles pouring over the lip of a champagne bottle, and she looks good in a crown. Johnson worked her way up from ensemble member and Glinda understudy, to Glinda standby, to Glinda eight nights a week. “I feel like I have a unique grasp on her because of the different ways that I’ve had to step in and play her,” she says. “And also because, you know, I’m the first person that looks like me that’s getting to play her.”For 18 years it has been Wicked, more than any other Broadway , that makes little girls say, “I wanna be on stage.” Wicked is a towering icon, a huge moneymaker, a work of art.