Broadway Casts First Black Elphaba For Iconic ‘Wicked’ Production

Lenicia Kebede, a first-generation Ethiopian-American, made history this week by becoming the first Black actor to play Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway.

Wicked isn’t her first time on Broadway. The performer spent five years on tour during Hamilton, playing the role of Angelica Schuyler. On Tuesday, she finally made her debut on Broadway. Afterward, Kebede spoke with the Associated Press, recalling her performance.

“Its hard to even pinpoint a single emotion because I feel that it changes like every five minutes,” Kebede said. “I woke up and I still sort of felt in the world of Oz.”

In Act 1, Kebede starts singing Defying Gravity while shooting into the air.

“I really felt like I was flying, is the simplest way to put it; I felt like I’m doing it myself, through my own power — my vocal power, my emotional power, the power of all of my African ancestors,” Kebede said.

This song is one of the more notable ones. At this year’s Oscars, both Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo sang the song live.

Emotions quickly overwhelmed Kebede, and as soon as the song ended and the lights went out, she had to release.

“When the lights went off at the end of the song, I started sobbing. Not like just a gentle tear. Viscerally, I had to release,” Kebede recalled.

While singing, she wanted to convey her main message, “Im projecting this message that no matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you deserve liberation and you deserve empowerment in the way that the character feels in that moment. It just feels like I’m taking the entire audience in my arms.”

During the intermission, Kebede recalled how she needed to group.

“I needed to regroup,” she says, laughing. “My makeup artist was like, ‘Just let it out, just cry, and then we can clean it up.”

While Kebede was in high school, her grandmother and father passed away during the performance, and she felt connected to them.

“I just took a moment to connect with my angels,” she said. “It was, oh God, it was electric,” she recalled.

Family, friends, her agent, casting directors, and her boyfriend sat in the audience.

“My whole family was in the audience —just everyone who I’ve ever loved, with everyone who has loved me and supported me through my life, is just like under me, lifting me and holding me,” Kebede said. “It was just so important to me to have people there that I could share this moment with, so I could say to their faces, ‘I couldn’t be here without a piece of your heart that you gave me.’”

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