LITTLE ROCK — Good things definitely come to those who stand by and wait.
Natalie Daradich and Vicki Noon worked their way up from the ensemble to achieve starring roles in the Second National Tour of the musical Wicked, which arrives Wednesday for a two-week run at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall.
Good friends, Daradich, who plays Glinda, and Noon, who plays Elphaba, had risen to standby status for their respective roles in the West Coast company, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, before joining the tour a month apart this past spring - Daradich on March 10 and Noon on April 6.
A “standby” literally stands by in case she has to step in for the star performer. It’s different from being an understudy, who in most cases nowadays is onstage as a member of the supporting ensemble. The standby is present in the theater but doesn’t go on unless the star is unable to perform or, given that the company performs eight shows a week, which can be a strain for any performer, just wants a day off.
That said, both women got to perform in their starring roles fairly frequently during their standby terms.
Noon, who came out of the Chicago company before moving west, played Elphaba during the spring of 2009 while the lead performer, Teal Wicks, took an extended leave.
Daradich, too, got several occasions to ride Glinda’s bubble from the “skies” to the stage during the show’s run in San Francisco.
“I was always backstage and waiting to go on if they need you,” Daradich says. “I performed a lot, especially in San Francisco, because in the L.A. run I was in the ensemble as well; I only started being the standby near the end of the L.A. contract.”
She joined the Los Angeles production in 2007. “I started my Wicked time as a ‘swing’ [who takes on various ensemble parts as needed], and I ended up on the ensemble track eventually; then I was a standby, and now I’m doing it,” she says. She also served as an understudy and eventually a replacement in the role of Nessarose, Elphaba’s sister.
DREAM COME TRUE
Getting to do Wicked was the fulfillment of a dream for Daradich.
“It’s such a blessing to do this show; it’s a show I had always wanted to do,” she says. “I start up in the ceiling in my bubble, and they bring me down when it’s time to start. It’s probably the best entrance I’ve ever had in a show - just bubbles and excitement.”
A friend called her after the show opened in New York - “I was living in England at the time” - and insisted that she listen to the cast album.
“‘I’m buying it for you, you have to be one of these two girls, it’s perfect for you,’ [he said]. So I got the CD and fell in love with the show.
“When I got the call that I was going to be in the show, I cried. This show has been so amazing and I feel so lucky to be doing it. It’s a lot of work. This is the hardest and most fun I’ve ever had doing work. It’s a lot of upkeep, doing it eight shows a week, and you want to be vocally perfect as you can for the audience every night.”
Noon says it was a dream come true for her as well.
“I can’t say life-long, because it hasn’t been around that long, but when I [first] saw the show, I actually said I would mop floors at Wicked; I would do anything to be involved in this show.
“On the way home from seeing it I would try to belt out ‘Defying Gravity.’ Vocally I never thought [Elphaba] was something I could sing, even though I knew I was a strong belter - when you hear it, it sounds so spectacular, I thought there’s no way I could ever play the role, and it made me kind of sad.”
That sadness turned into excitement when she got into the Chicago cast.
In many ways, this touring cast consists mostly of former members of the Chicago company with stars from the West Coast production. “I was sort of coming home to some of my closest friends out here, not including Natalie,” she says.
While the First National Company plays big cities, the Second National production has been slightly scaled down so the show can play smaller theaters.
COMPANION, NOT PREQUEL
Daradich says it’s best not to view the show as a prequel to The Wizard of Oz: “It’s more like if the camera were turned the other way, so you could see what’s going onthe other side of the lens,” she says, although it does eventually tie in to the familiar story of the 1939 film.
“The first scene is sort of the ‘present day,’ and then it’s a flashback - it shows how Elphaba and, at the time it’s Galinda, ended up together,” she says. “They couldn’t be more different, they pretty much hate each other, and they do become best friends.
“It’s [about] learning to get to know somebody, don’t judge by appearances. And then, of course, the decisions they make take them on different paths.” One of them ends up “good” and the other ends up “also good,” Daradich says.
“It all depends on how you look at it, and I think that’s the whole point of the show: She’s just not as wicked as everybody thinks she is. It’s all preconceived notions.
“It has such a great message about friendship; that’s one of my favorite things about the show: It’s not the traditional love story that you tend to see in musicals. It’s about two girls who make each other better.”
It was late February in San Francisco, and Daradich had just gotten the call to assume her starring role on tour. The two were onstage together as standbys, a very rare occasion.
“We ended up being on together in San Francisco and crying during ‘For Good’ [the penultimate musical number that the two women sing together],” Daradich says. “Nobody knew that I was leaving except for her, and we felt like jerks - everybody was wondering why we were crying onstage, and we were thinking this was going to be the last time we were going to do the show together.”
“We were both sobbing messes, and I’m sure everybody else around was thinking, ‘What is going on with those two?,’” Noon echoes.
A month later, Noon got her own call. “And we end up here onstage together every night, which I couldn’t be happier about,” Daradich says. “Vicki was my best friend before, so it’s sort of this amazing thing to actually be best friends onstage with your best friend.”Wicked’s cast holds ‘Sway’ to fight AIDS
The cast of Wicked has been appealing to audiences on tour to contribute to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, an actors’ charity. “Every Broadway theater and show on tour does it,” says Vicki Noon, who plays Elphaba on the Wicked tour that opens Wednesday at Robinson Center Music Hall.
Members of the cast are dedicating their only night off during the Little Rock run to put on a cabaret show and live auction for “Wickedly GenerouSways, A Witches Night Off,” Nov. 8, to benefit the Arkansas AIDS Foundation, at Sway, 412 Louisiana St., Little Rock. The event features a cocktail reception at 6 p.m. and a “party with the cast” at 9. Grand prize at the auction is a two-scene walk-on role in the show. Tickets are $40. Call (501) 376-6299 or visit the website, ara idsfoundation.org.
Style, Pages 57 on 10/31/2010