The Best Performers I’ve Seen Play Glinda and Elphaba

by Chris Peterson

I’ve reached a point where Wicked feels less like a musical I love and more like something that’s quietly grown up alongside me. I never go expecting anyone to outdo the last cast I saw, because theatre doesn’t really work like competition. It’s resonance. It’s memory. It’s whatever hangs around long after the curtain falls. And even after all those witches and all those nights in Oz, two performances remain the versions my mind returns to first:

Jessica Vosk as Elphaba and Megan Hilty as Glinda.

Jessica Vosk didn’t just belt, she claimed space. Her voice had this thing I can’t really explain — powerful, but still kinda aching around the edges. Defying Gravity didn’t land like a big “look what I can do” moment; it felt personal. And the emotional stuff later? Way more gut-punchy because of it.

Megan Hilty made me understand Glinda in a new way. She was funny, sure, but she also felt like someone who was learning as she went, wanting to do right even when she stumbled. It made the relationship between the two of them feel like actual friendship — complicated, tender, imperfect. So when she sang For Good(with Shoshana Bean when I saw it), it didn’t land like a big musical theatre moment. It felt like two people choosing to forgive each other quietly.

And there’s this entire lineage of women who I saw shape these roles like clay. Now we have the movie, which introduced Oz to a whole new generation who may never sit in the Gershwin. Cynthia Erivo brought a storm with her — powerful, rooted, emotional weather in every note. Ariana Grande surprised me in the best way.

Which brings everything back to Vosk and Hilty. Not because they’re universally the “best,” but because they’re the ones who stayed. They’re the voices I hear when I think about friendship that fractures and mends. They’re the faces I see in that final tableau. After four productions and one film, they remain my default, my reference point, my personal canon.

Maybe that’s why Wicked still calls to me. I like returning to something I know and still finding something I didn’t expect. With every visit, the show shifts slightly, revealing some new tenderness or bruise or truth. But no matter how many versions I see, some performances root themselves inside you and refuse to leave. For me, that’s Jessica Vosk in green and Megan Hilty in pink. I think they always will be.

Who would be your picks?