Growing up Wicked was one of the first musicals that resonated with me on a deeper level.I’d loved The Lion King and marvelled at Billy Elliot, but for me Wicked trumped them all.
It was about someone who didn’t just feel different but also looked different, so much so that they were made an outcast and shunned from a community that was supposed to accept them. It had an amazing soundtrack and a love story which wasn’t straight down the line. I was hooked!
Life sometimes can surprise you in the best way. In his early years, whilst Ryan was still training, his singing teacher heard about this amazing new production on Broadway and they performed some of its songs. Later once the show transferred to the UK the class saw Idina Menzel open as Elphaba in 2006. The show was, of course, Wicked.
In 2021, Ryan Reid was announced as the cast’s new Fiyero, the love interest of two witches Glinda and Elphaba. Fiyero’s character is complex, as are all the characters in Wicked, he goes through a massive transformation throughout the play’s entirety and comes out the other side changed.
Ryan Reid is my fourth West End Fiyero and he’s dazzling on the stage (prior to this interview I had the massive privilege of seeing Wicked again with my mum). I sit with him in the Apollo Victoria ahead of an evening performance of the show. He's relaxed and ready to chat about all things Wicked.
“It's amazing to have that support system with the other actors, but it's been a long time coming, but it's amazing to be part of it.” he opens with when I ask about sharing a stage with Alexia Khadime and Lucy St. Louis who play, Elphaba and Glinda respectively. All three are exceptionally accomplished performers and also visibly Black.
“I think one thing that we always all talk about or recognise is the diverse audience members who see us, and the messages we get that make people feel that they can do it as well. It is amazing. That's what makes it feel so incredible.”
Last month in celebration of Wicked Day, which is celebrated yearly on 30th October, Wicked UK supported the black-owned ballet company Pointe Black. It was a beautiful celebration of an understanding that ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’.
At the heart of Ryan’s message is visibility, he recalls a memory at stage door where a young fan mentions that they wanted hair like his, Ryan wears his hair in large dreadlocks which are piled atop of his head. It’s important to note that Ryan doesn’t wear a wig whilst on stage as Fiyero. He is a visibly black Fiyero.
“I would have really loved that growing up and it's something I think about. To actually have someone directly say that to you at Stage Door when you're just, you know, running to catch the train home, it really is affirming, and it kind of shapes you.”
Stage Doors, before social media made us all exceptionally parasocial, have been a long standing feature of theatre fandom. The chance to get to see your favourite actor off stage is a much loved pastime for theatre fans, it also gives fans chances to tell actors how much they’re appreciated.
But it’s what happens beyond the Stage Door that really matters.
Fans want to know about the magic of Wicked, and whilst Ryan can’t give too much away he can speak to how he personally prepares to sing Fiyero’s ‘Dancing Through Life’ and ‘As Long As You’re Mine’ up to eight times a week.
“What voice do you have today?” is the question put to Wicked’s cast by their vocal coach. Ryan, Alexia and Lucy all share the same vocal coach, an important part of their work on stage is understanding how to best inject emotion into their performances. From the high of ‘Dancing Through Life’ to the heart-wrenching ‘As Long As You’re Mine’, striking balance helps to keep the story alive on the stage for Fiyero.
“I think that's really important to be kind to yourself and to look after your gift. Because you know, if you've got a call out, you've got to call out… There's incredible other actors who can step in and do it, but it's just mentally looking after yourself and making sure that you actually don't put too much pressure on yourself. Go in and tell the story…I remember a teacher saying, “if you tell the story, your voice will go there.” Sometimes we think so mechanically but actually, just tell the story, because if the emotions there, it will take you there to wherever your voice needs to be.”
And Ryan does that. It’s clear from his performance as Fiyero that the music carries him forward, elevating each scene he’s in. He tells me that his favourite scene is getting to enter the Shiz University courtyard as Fiyero, the ladies man and self-proclaimed ‘dancer through life’. The number is fun and joyous and no two performances are ever the due to the interactions with his fellow cast members.
Ryan also had to grapple with the dynamics of playing someone who has a deep attachment to two women, “Six months in I was like, ‘oh’, there’s that bit and that’s interesting…” Ryan gestures into the air as if drawing lines between an invisible map. “That's what's so exciting, there is such a world that you can kind of play, and there's so many parameters that you can play with.”
And Wicked is so playful. Not just with the songs and choreo but also with the costumes. Some of the favourite West End costumes can be found in Wicked. From the Thom Browne-esque prep of the Shiz University uniforms through to the exaggerated couture of Emerald City, Wicked makes you want to source your own costume on, and get on the stage too.
“It became really real … They've been going for 18 years, and there's a warehouse, and you walk in and it's like Aladdin's treasure chest. It's incredible to go and see, you’re just like, “can I try everything on, even if that's not my character, can I just try that on?”
We’re talking over each other in excitement, costuming is one of my favourite parts of any production, the layering helps to drive character development and arcs in such an intimate, unspoken way.
“It just puts you in that exact [headspace] and you feel swaggy. I'm not gonna lie, you feel great. I'm in green and gold, I am captain of the guards. I really don’t have to act [in] this [moment]”.
Ryan explains how similarly to most productions that are staged across multiple countries there’s a lead costume designer to ensure continuity, for WIcked it’s Susan Hilferty. She comes in once a year to look over costumes and has been working across the production since 2003 when it first appeared on Broadway. Her sketches have clearly remained a steadfast bible for Wicked productions across the globe.
“It’s really important that people remember they’re storytellers as well,” Ryan states on speaking about the creatives beyond the curtain of the Victoria Apollo.
“Oh, they're beyond talented. It's incredible what they can do and their ideas and the storyboarding behind it. Why the hair looks like that? Why that set is like that, the colors that are picked, the tones … when you go into it and go down the rabbit hole, you're never coming out. Don't do that at two o'clock in the morning.”
It would be hard not to talk about Wicked and not reflect on representation and feeling seen.
Ryan remembers the first time he felt represented on stage, Delroy Atkinson (a performance at the Young Vic) and I’d imagine most people can also recall the first time they felt represented in a similar creative field. And later on Delroy came to see him in his performance in Dreamgirls. He hopes that he can pay that sentiment forward, I assure him that he already is.
Tickets for Wicked at Apollo Victoria Theatre, London are available to book now.