Wicked opened at Broadway’s Gershwin Theatre on October 30, 2003, with Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda. The original company also included Norbert Leo Butz, Joel Grey, Michelle Federer, Christopher Fitzgerald, Carole Shelley and William Youmans in key roles, alongside an ensemble and performers who served as standbys. Their careers after Oz ranged from major Broadway awards and screen hits to directing, returning to the show and continuing work on stage.
The original Broadway company
The Broadway League’s Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) records Wicked’s original Broadway opening at the Gershwin Theatre on October 30, 2003. Its opening-night principals were Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero, Joel Grey as the Wizard, Michelle Federer as Nessarose, Christopher Fitzgerald as Boq, Carole Shelley as Madame Morrible and William Youmans as Doctor Dillamond. That list is not the whole original company: the production also had an opening-night ensemble, and Eden Espinosa and Laura Bell Bundy were original standbys.
The distinction matters when looking back. The principal performers named here originated those roles in the Broadway production; a standby is part of the original company but is not an opening-night principal. Later performers who took over the roles, and actors appearing in the film adaptation, belong to different chapters of Wicked’s history.
Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth: the leads, then and now
Idina Menzel as Elphaba
IBDB records Menzel’s Elphaba engagement from October 8, 2003, through January 8, 2005. She won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for Wicked. The role became a defining association, but her career continued across stage, television and film. Broadway Direct’s October 2025 retrospective traces later work including the West End production of Wicked, Glee, Disney’s Frozen, Broadway’s If/Then and Redwood. IBDB lists Redwood on Broadway in 2025.
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Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda
IBDB records Chenoweth’s original Glinda engagement from October 8, 2003, through July 18, 2004. She received a 2004 Tony nomination for the role. Broadway Direct’s retrospective describes a career spanning further Broadway productions, television, film and solo recordings; it reports seven solo albums and identifies The Queen of Versailles among her 2025 work. Her post-Wicked career therefore extends well beyond the bubbly good witch with whom many audiences still associate her.
The two leads also appeared in the first Wicked film adaptation, in cameos distinct from their original stage performances. TIME discussed those appearances on November 22, 2024: its account of Menzel and Chenoweth’s film cameos provides the context for seeing them return to the story in a different form.
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What the supporting principals did next
Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero
Butz followed Fiyero with a substantial Broadway career. Broadway Direct’s October 2025 retrospective says he appeared in eight additional Broadway shows and won Tony Awards for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005) and Catch Me If You Can (2011). It also highlights later productions including Speed-the-Plow, Big Fish and My Fair Lady, as well as screen work. Those are selected milestones, not a complete credit list.
Joel Grey as the Wizard
Grey continued acting on Broadway and also built a record as a director. Broadway Direct reports that he directed The Normal Heart and, in 2019, Fiddler on the Roof for the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. He published the memoir Master of Ceremonies: A Memoir in 2016 and received a special lifetime achievement honor at the 2023 Tony Awards.
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Michelle Federer as Nessarose
Wicked was Federer’s Broadway debut, according to Broadway Direct. She later worked on stage and screen, then returned to the Broadway production as Nessarose for a limited engagement in 2009. That return connects her later career directly to the role she originated.
Christopher Fitzgerald as Boq
Fitzgerald came to Wicked after making his Broadway debut in Amour. Broadway Direct describes Boq as a breakout role and notes his later Tony nominations for Young Frankenstein, Finian’s Rainbow and Waitress, followed by work in Company and Spamalot.
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Carole Shelley as Madame Morrible
Broadway Direct reports that Shelley stayed with Wicked for about a year and a half, then appeared in Broadway productions including Billy Elliot and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder. The retrospective says she died in August 2018, aged 79, attributing that information to The New York Times.
William Youmans as Doctor Dillamond
Youmans continued in Broadway work after originating Doctor Dillamond. IBDB’s production data records his return to the role beginning March 7, 2023. Broadway Direct’s October 2025 retrospective reported that he was still playing the character at the time it was published; that dated report should not be read as confirmation of his current engagement.
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The original standbys are part of the story
Eden Espinosa
Espinosa was an original standby, not one of the opening-night principal performers. Broadway Direct notes that she later starred in Brooklyn and Lempicka, among other work. Her path shows how a performer can be part of the original company’s history without appearing in the opening-night principal cast list.
Laura Bell Bundy
Bundy was also an original standby. Broadway Direct highlights her later turn as Elle Woods in Broadway’s Legally Blonde, as well as other work. Her career offers another example of an original company member whose best-known later roles came outside Wicked.
Then and now: more than one kind of legacy
The cast’s paths resist a simple ranking. Menzel and Chenoweth carried their leads into broad screen and stage visibility; Butz earned later Tony wins; Grey added directing, writing and a lifetime achievement honor; and the other principals continued in varied Broadway, stage and screen work. Federer and Youmans also returned to their original roles years later. Meanwhile, Espinosa and Bundy remind us that the original company included performers beyond the principal lineup.
For the show’s wider scale, Broadway Direct reported in October 2025 that Wicked had generated more than $6 billion in earnings and been seen by over 70 million people worldwide. Those are figures reported by the retrospective, not independently verified current totals. The same article called it Broadway’s fourth-longest-running show at the time of publication; that is a dated ranking, not a current count.
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Sources and dates
- IBDB’s Wicked production record supplies the opening date, original role assignments, run dates and Tony records.
- Broadway Direct’s original-cast retrospective, published October 28, 2025, surveys later careers and provides dated show-scale figures.
- TIME’s November 22, 2024 account covers Menzel and Chenoweth’s film cameos.
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