The Witching Hour

Tanger Center’s first Broadway show, Wicked, is here

By m a r i a Johnson

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOAN MARCUS

Parents, be caref ul about the music you play in your car.

Eig hte en ye ars ago, when A l l ison Ba i ley wa s 11, she wa s r id ing around w it h her mom in Pensac ola, F lor ida, l isten ing to t he c a st re c ord ing of a br a nd-new Broadway music a l c a l le d Wi ck e d, t he back stor y of t he w itches in T h e Wizard of O z.

“T his is what I want to do,” young A llison announced over the songs.

“Maybe the show w ill still be around when I’m old enough to do it.” ( Wave wand, spr ink le glit ter, cue swooshing music.)

T his month, Bailey w ill play Glinda, the good w itch, when a tour ing production of Wicked becomes the first Broadway show to take the stage at the Steven Tanger Center for the Per for ming A r ts in Greensboro.

T he much-loved stor y, which is the second highest-g rossing Broadway show behind only T he Lion King, is scheduled to open October 6.

“I’m so excited to be a par t of this specia l day for the cit y,” Bailey says f rom Da llas, where the road-tested show resumed in Aug ust af ter a 16 -month hiat us brought on by COV ID.

A f ter a stop in Charlot te, the production w ill land in the Gate Cit y and stay until October 24.

“I k now it’ll be mag ica l,” says Bailey, tr ue to the spir it of her character. “It’s wonder f ul to see an audience again. It feels like home.”

Coming back f rom an extended break, Bailey admits that her cost umes felt a lit tle heav ier and her heels lif ted her a lit tle higher than she remembered (her pr incess-like gow n weighs about 25 pounds), but a pandemic fitness routine helped her stay stage-ready while she weathered the shutdow n w ith her family in Pensacola.

She bought a Peloton bic ycle and wa lked the family’s poodle t w ice a day.

She continued voice lessons, v ia FaceTime, w ith her teacher in New York Cit y. She a lso hopped on Zoom w ith her ow n pr ivate st udents to help them polish audition mater ia l. She star ted online coaching dur ing COV ID; before, she taught in-person, in cities where the production took her. Of ten, mor nings found her in dance st udios, communit y theaters and high schools.

“It was g reat to be able to meet the loca l people,” she says.

Not t hat long ago, Ba i ley wa s one of t hose lo c a l youngsters, dre a m ing of big st ages.

T here was no histor y of theater in her family. Her mom was a nurse for a major

insurance company; her dad was a w ine-and-spir its distr ibutor; her brother g rew up to be a phar macist.

Bailey wanted a higher profile. She was not long out of first g rade when she landed her first role: an or phan in Oliver.

“I had absolutely no lines,” she reca lls. “I was just happy to be on stage and have an audience and lights.” She did musica l theater throughout high school, supplementing it w ith other activ ities that required an audience: “I did debate. I was a huge mock tr ia l nerd. We won state.”

Dur ing her years at the Boston Conser vator y, she appeared mostly as an ensemble player, sing ing and dancing in the backg round of var ious shows.

“I t h in k t hat prepare d me,” she says. “It’s ab out b eing a te a m player.”

She joine d t he Wi ck e d tour ing ensemble in 2015 a nd b e c a me a n underst udy to t he go o d w itch. Her big bre a k c a me unex p e c te d ly in 2019. Her f a m i ly wa s vac at ion ing in Zion Nat iona l Park when her agent c a l le d. C ou ld she send a n aud it ion t ap e for t he c o - st ar r ing role in Wi ck e d if he sent pre -re c orde d music ? “I sa id, ‘L et’s do it ,’” Ba i ley re c a l ls.

She sang in a hotel room while her mother recorded the numbers w ith a cell phone.

T hey’d just got ten back to Pensacola when her agent ca lled again, this time w ith w icked good news: Bailey would hit the road as Glinda, a role she ow ned for si x months until COV ID ar r ived.

Now, she’s back in the bubble — the mechanical bubble that lowers Glinda to the stage in her grand entrance, beginning a long flashback that sheds light on how the witches came to be who they are.

Young Glinda is blithely clueless as a st udent at Shiz Universit y where she first meets Elphaba, the book ish and idea listic g reen g irl whom the world w ill later k now as T he Wicked Witch of the West. T hey come to loathe each other in comica l and hear t-rending ways.

“I think ever yone can sor t of see themselves bet ween both of the fema le characters,” says Bailey. “I think that ever yone has felt like Elphaba at some point, lonely and isolated. Some have exper ienced bully ing. For Glinda, she’s so sha llow and self- centered, and ever ything is on a sur face level. She lear ns so many hard lessons a long the way, and I think we’ve a ll done that.”

Bailey — who w ill t ur n 30 on October 21, while she’s in Greensboro — was quick to confir m that she’s good f r iends w ith Ta lia Susk auer, who plays Elphaba in the traveling show.

“We hit it of f in the beg inning,” Bailey says. “I probably text her 20 times a day. No joke.” OH

For more infor mation and to snag tickets, v isit tangercenter.com.