www.buzzfeed.com: First, the process for painting actors green for Elphaba in Wicked is so streamlined now, it only takes roughly 20–30 minutes. Chromacake in Landscape Green by MAC is what is used for the green base, and it's applied using a paintbrush and a mixture of the Chromacake and water.
10 comments:
This was such a fun article. I enjoyed reading about theatre in a more casual sense, and this article really had me thinking about Wicked, which I haven’t done in years. I have never been a Wicked stan, but I recognize that this is one of the shows that has been super accessible and popular to the general public. Some of my favorite facts were the contrast between Glinda’s light and airy costume inspiration versus Elphaba’s grounded and earthy costume inspiration. I also found it fascinating that the dragon on the set is a manually operated puppet instead of being automated. The green paint has always intrigued me in how they get it to stay and not bleed onto props and costumes when the actor sweats. This article didn’t really clarify that for me, but it did talk about how the makeup alters throughout the show, which was still really cool to hear about.
I loved this article. I have always loved any look behind the scenes, obviously, that’s why I went into tech theater. I used to spend hours watching behind the scenes facts on youtube so I honestly didn’t think that I would learn much from this article but I actually learned a lot. I loved hearing about how much love and care went into the costumes. Glinda’s dress has 68,200 HAND SEWN sequins. That's so impressive and I wonder how long it took. I also love the fact that Elphaba’s dress uses 40 yards of fabric. It’s probably so heavy. I’m also a huge fan of the wizard of Oz books. I’ve read a bunch of them and they’re super super weird, however I never put together the fact that Elphaba is a combination of the FLB sounds in frank L baum. I really like that, I think it’s a fun little detail that really adds to the story.
I am such a huge fan of “Wicked”, so I was very excited to read this article! All of the content in regards to the 20th anniversary of its Broadway opening has made me so insanely happy and I have been listening to the sound track on repeat for the past week. The first behind the scenes fact gave me flashbacks to eighth grade. It was about how the makeup designers and technicians make the leading lady green every night. When I was in eighth grade, I played Elphaba in Wicked Jr. so the original makeup designer taught our director how to do the makeup. We also used the Chromacake in Landscape Green by MAC and it was very interesting to see how he used color theory to do my contour and highlights. I kind of forgot that Lindsey Mendez played Elphaba, but that also made me happy because she is Latina like me! It was really cool to learn how the Elphaba flying moment works. One of the facts talked about how Glinada’s bubble dress was inspired by a Dior gown, which I why I made my prom dress based on the same Dior gown!!
This was such a fun and interesting article, I love reading little tid bits and fun facts about how these big shows work. Wicked is one of my favorite shows, I mean it’s been running this long for a reason. Sometimes I forget how good it is until I listen to the soundtrack again or am sitting in the audience watching it as if for the first time again. I have seen Wicked I think three or four times, as it’s a relatively easy show to win the lottery for (or maybe I’ve just gotten continuously lucky). One of my favorite experiences though is when I saw it for Wicked Day- I believe for the 15th anniversary of the show. I still have the Wicked Day t-shirt in my drawer, and my mom got us a pass to go to an after party and meet the cast. At that time I had ripped out a page of my english class notebook and had the cast sign it, which I have with my playbill collection. I absolutely love the show and hope I see it again soon.
While I enjoyed watching Wicked it is not my all time favorite show. That being said I did sit there watching it thinking about all the aspects of it like I normally do, and was left wondering just exactly how some things were done or operated. I can guess or come up with my own way of doing it, but I do always love getting to see just exactly how they were done so reading this article was fun for me. I am surprised that the dragon is operated by a person, I did not put too much thought into the dragon but had someone asked I probably would have said it was mechanical. I also was interested to learn the wizard head is operated by essentially a bike brake handle. I also enjoyed learning about the different designs and elements to the costumes. I also think it is very interesting, in all shows, to see what songs were written and then changed because they did not fit the actress playing the character, I think it was very interesting that the song “The wizard and Me” came about because of Idena. Overall I thought the article was very fun and enjoyed reading it.
I love reading about the little facts about how different details are done, especially things like how Elphaba flies, or how her makeup progressively gets more dramatic as the show goes on. I watched Wicked only once(maybe twice?) when they came to China, and I remember buying a program and a souvenir jacket, which I still have in my closet. There is so much material and thought put into the two dresses, and I am in awe at how much detail there is. Most of audience can barely see the detail on the dresses from where they are sitting, yet the costuming team still put in so much effort to add all the detail in. I also really appreciate the dragon and the massive OZ head, and how they could be moved, because that really adds to the story, and helps pull the audience into the story even more.
I have never seen “Wicked” on Broadway, but it is definitely on my watch list! My sister on the other hand is the biggest fan of this musical, and she and I will be making a trip to NYC very soon! When I was in high school, I had this friend who was in our high school drama club with me. She and I were very close, and then we graduated high school! But, when we were talking, she had told me that her vocal teacher at the time was auditioning to play Elphaba on the Wicked national tour. And lo and behold, after months of wondering if my friend’s teacher booked the gig, I learned on tiktok that she did as Elphaba Standby! Her name is Emily Kristen Morris, and she is a pretty big name on theater and vocal tiktok! There, she posts her day to day as playing Elphaba as a standby on tour. She explains her process of warming up and her process of getting ready too if she is called. Something I find so interesting is that she always keeps her nails painted green in case she needs to go on stage on a whim.
I feel like for someone in theater, I do not know an embarrassing amount of theatrical shows. Luckily, Wicked is something I do know and have listened to many times! So I was super excited to click on this article. The 21 behind-the-scenes facts about the show was very cool. I thought that it was crazy that Elphaba's green makeup is applied in only 20-30 minutes! I don't know what chrome cake really is, but I sure hope it dries fast. Make up and costumes is probably the area in theater I am most unfamiliar with, and to my understanding I know usually people can be in the chair for hours. Another fact that stuck out to me was the mechanics behind the dragon and Oz head on stage was also really cool to read about. Because these were only short facts, I would love to look more in depth about each of these things.
This is such an amazing article to read as someone who loves design and production of shows. I normally sit in the audience of any show I watch and just try to think how each piece works and fits together. I think Buzzfeed articles are always a fun read because it is short and straight to the point. Each fact was interesting and gave me just enough information that left me satisfied because I understood but if I wanted to research more I had a basic understanding of what I was looking and talking about. I think that it is important that most of the facts are not just about the original characters in the show but the history behind many of the actors and designers of the show. It is important to showcase the different aspects of each part of how a show is built.
I know of “Wicked”, I mean, who doesn’t? But I don’t know the show well enough to have known any of the behind the scenes information. It is a fine musical but I never really got into it. Understanding how much work it takes to create such a successful show isn’t shocking. Of course, the development of "Wicked" took many years. It went through various workshops and revisions before making its Broadway debut. I assumed that the green witch makeup transformation would take a while. It initially took the team about 45 minutes to apply the makeup, but the process was later streamlined down to 20? Come onnnn that’s on a good crew. I can’t imagine having to be turned green every day. And then wash it all out just to do it again tomorrow. Even years after its debut, "Wicked" continues to be relevant and attract new audiences. Its exploration of themes such as friendship, identity, and the consequences of prejudice resonates with a wide audience. The behind the scenes facts demonstrated in this article underline the journey and success of "Wicked" as a groundbreaking and enduring musical.
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