WICKED cast prepare to paint Perth green with city’s hot spots to adopt magic emerald hue

As WICKED’s tour of Oz prepares to officially kick up its heels in Perth on Thursday night, it’s not just audiences at Crown Theatre who will be seeing green.

With Optus Stadium, The Bell Tower, Elizabeth Quay, and King’s Park’s Botanical Gardens adopting an emerald hue on Opening Night to celebrate its launch, the Broadway-inspired musical is set to cast a spell over our city.

Leading lady Sheridan Adams, who plays Elphaba, suggested it’s not so easy being green as she explained her physically demanding Wicked Witch of the West preparation.

“My whole life has definitely revolved around the role,” she told The West Australian.

“Water, food, vocal rest, my nebuliser that I’ve bought, it’s quite a strict routine. Then when I get in here (the makeup room), it takes around about an hour to get green.”

With her partner hailing from Perth, the Melbournian was afforded a chance to explore our city while “stuck here” visiting family as her hometown was plunged into a months-long COVID lockdown.

And she’ll be encouraging cast mates to visit some of her favourite beach-side cafes in Cottesloe and Scarborough should a day off appear.

“I’m still yet to explore them all, so I’m glad that I’m back,” she added.

After more than 400 shows, Courtney Monsma — who plays Glinda — revealed how she maintains the energy required to belt out timeless tunes night after night.

“There’s never a day that you don’t feel like being part of it,“ she insisted.

“With the film coming out, it’s kind of reignited that passion for everyone, and there’s new people enjoying it, and so it’s really cool to be part of it.”

While the blockbuster cinematic release of WICKED only tells half of the narrative, Monsma said there were other elements the screen adaptation could never replicate.

“There’s something so beautiful about hearing that orchestra live and seeing the set live. And there’s something beautiful about this original Broadway production, which is the grounds of what the film was made on,” she said.

Following her origins as “Glinda the Good”, the talented performer enjoys becoming the “most girly girl you can ever be” and dancing in her dressing room to get into character.

But she hopes to teach audiences that good and evil — or green and gold — are not always as simple as black and white.

“People can come to the show and have a perception of someone, and then it changes,” she said.

“It just shows the biases we have for certain people and the prejudices we have in real life, and how we can kind of check ourselves to go, ‘Hey, maybe I’m judging a book too much by its cover, kind of thing’.”

With its official opening night on Thursday, WICKED is set to run at Crown Theatre Perth until February 2.