MEET BROADWAY'S FIRST BLACK 'GLINDA' - BRITTANY JOHNSON! (4519 hits)
For Immediate Release!
In Act 1 one of the Broadway musical "Wicked," the character Glinda makes a dramatic entrance, floating onstage in a magic bubble. Wearing a sky-blue ball gown and a glittery tiara, she smiles and remarks: “It’s good to see me, isn’t it?”
For Brittney Johnson, the latest Good Witch on the Great White Way, it’s good to be seen. Back in 2019, the actress made history as the first woman of color to play Glinda in the hit production, going on as the understudy. Now, she’s poised to break barriers again, taking over full-time as the show’s first Black leading lady beginning Feb. 14.
“I’m really excited for people to be able to see someone who looks like them onstage, wearing the crown,” said Johnson, who has used her platform to address representation and equity issues on Broadway. “As soon as I put that crown on — and there’s something about wearing a crown — it’s very special. It’s fun.”
“Wicked” has been a blockbuster since its 2003 opening at the Gershwin Theatre. It’s based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and a book by Winnie Holzman. It draws inspiration from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the classic novel authored by L. Frank Baum more than a century ago.
The show doesn’t follow Baum’s main character, Dorothy, but instead focuses on the unlikely friendship between the fiery, misunderstood witch Elphaba and her bubbly, popular classmate Glinda. All is well, until the world decides to dub one as good, and the other as wicked.
"Wicked" is among Broadway’s longest-running shows, with upward of $5 billion in box-office sales. It’s been seen by domestic and global audiences, and translated into at least six languages. Along the way, there’ve been a slew of accolades, among them, several Tony awards and a Grammy.
Johnson, a millennial, brings her own talents and accomplished résumé to the acclaimed production. Growing up in Maryland, she initially “didn’t really know Broadway was a thing,” although her family recognized her budding talent early on.
“My mom says I was singing before I was talking,” she said. “I started taking private voice lessons at age8.”
In high school, her classical vocal training came in handy when she performed in musical theater, although she quips, “I wanted to be the next Mariah Carey.”
After heading to the Big Apple for college, Johnson graduated with a bachelor of fine arts from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2012.
“I remember during the pre-college program at NYU, I saw about 30 Broadway shows,” she said. Seeing the ornate sets, costumes and thespians was life-changing, and foreshadowed her future.
Sister Agnes Levine, after reading this post of this up-and-coming Queen of Broadway, Sister Brittney Johnson. I believe she is going to have a great future because she is already breaking barriers of being The First of color to play Glinda.
Thank you for this blog post, I had a lot of fun with this read.
