New York – Green tears flowed when Lencia Kebede made history this week in Broadway, Becoming the first black actor to assume the role of ELPHABA full time in the Broadway company of “WICKED”.
“It is difficult to even identify a single emotion because I feel it changes like every five minutes,” he told The Associated Press, still buzzing one day after his debut. “I woke up and still felt in the world of Oz.”
Kebede, an American first -generation Ethiopian from Los Angeles, spent five years of tour with “Hamilton” More recently in the role of Angelica Schuyler. Entering “Wicked” on Tuesday marked his debut at Broadway.
Kebede had already gone through an emotional drainer when the curtain finally fell. She sings the act 1 showstopper “challenge gravity”, shooting in the air and the power of the moment crossed it.
“When the lights went out at the end of the song, I started sobbing. It’s not just a soft tear. Viscerally, I had to launch, ”she says.
“I really felt that I was flying, it is the simplest way to say it. I felt that I was doing myself, although my own power: my vocal power, my emotional power, the power of all my African ancestors.”
“If I am flying alone/at least I am flying freely/to those who ask me, it returns a message/Tell them how I am challenging gravity,” he sang.
“Everyone deserves the opportunity to fly,” says Kebede. “I am projecting this message that it does not matter who you are, how you look, where you come from, deserve liberation and deserve the empowerment of the way the character feels at that time. It simply feels as if I were taking the entire audience in my arms. “
Thank God was an intermediate. “I needed to regroup,” she says, laughing. “My makeup artist said: ‘Just leave it out, just cry, and then we can clean it.'”
At the audience there were about 60 family and friends: mom and her aunts and uncles, her many cousins, her boyfriend, friends of other shows, her agent and casting directors, including its director of the University Choir.
“My whole family was at the audience, only to everyone I have loved, with all those who have loved me and supported me through my life, it’s like under me, getting up and holding me,” she says.
“It was very important for me to have people there with whom I could share this moment, to be able to tell their faces:” I could not be here without a part of your heart that you gave me. “
The popularity of Film directed by Cynthia Erico He has not cushioned the appetite of the Broadway version, which opened in 2003 with songs by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. At Christmas, he received an amazing amount of $ 5 million in nine performances, marking the highest weekly gross in history for any Broadway show.
Kebede joins a brotherhood of black women dressed in green that have played Elphaba, a list that includes Saycon Sengbloh and Lilli Cooper, Both Broadway separators; Brandi Chavonne Massey, a Broadway substitute; and Alexia Khadime, a full -time west end Elphaba.
Others who have played the role over the years include Shoshana Bean, Stephanie J. Block, Jessica Vosk, Eden Espinosa, Ana Gasteyer and, of course, Idina Menzel, who won a Tony Award on paper in 2004.
Kebede graduated from Western College in 2016 with a double specialization of diplomacy AND World matters and policies, with the intention of a career in law or public policy. In his last year, he had itching that he needed to scratch.
“I just had this creative whim in terms of storytelling in the theatrical way I was missing,” she says. “So I sat my mother and thought, ‘Look, I think I need only a couple of years to explore this creative effort.”
His first professional work was a production of “Memphis” in Musical Theater West and then a season in Tokyo Disney and touring “Rent”. In addition to the road with “Hamilton,” Kebede also sang a support for Beyoncé during his Coachella essays.
“The rigorous nature of the tours, I think, prepared me immensely for this,” she says. “I feel very equipped, physical, vocal, emotionally. I feel that I know how to take care of my body and my mind, how I need to refresh myself emotionally after such an intense experience for three hours. “
On the night of debut, Kebede tried to maintain a set of mental screenshots, a reel of faces and feelings. When he turned to get to the backstage, he felt love.
“My grandmother and my father died when I was in high school and took a moment to connect with my angels,” she says. “It was, oh God, it was electric.”
The family returned to the stage after the show for photos and a tour, was roasted in a nearby bar by friends, finally ate something and then came home to try to sleep.
“My battery was dead. I mean, I couldn’t even move. I couldn’t move my face. I was drinking my tea, touching soothing jazz. I had to turn it off, ”she says.
And then he had to do it again the next night.
