As “Wicked” last winter, the conversations about the appearances of the film understandably concentrated on Cynthia Erivo’s show show, which showed the screen presence as Elphaba and the finely coordinated setting of Ariana Grande against Glinda. The two deserve to be the focus of attention, but now that “bad” fever has cooled so easily (and Grande and Erivo were both nominated for Oscars), It is only fair to obsess a bit about some of the many other great casting decisions of the film. Among the best? The actor Jonathan Bailey, which was awarded the Olivier, as a popular, originally flat object of both witches, Fiyero.
The role of the Fiyero has long been an important one in the productions of “Wicked”, whereby everyone from Taye Diggs to Aaron Tveit to Adam Lambert took over a crack at one time or another (Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz 2003). Bailey, who has countless stage experiences and several star TV roles with star stages, brings a lot of flair and charisma into the role. But according to Casting director Bernard Telsey, the spoke with variety In order to put together the ensemble for John M. Chus epic, a planning problem almost led to another Fiyero actor.
Bailey was eyed for Wicked in 2018, but the timing was not right
Telsey told Variety that he first met Bailey when he played in a queer, gender -specific “company” at the West End Londoner, a role that the actor took over in 2018. The casting expert was apparently impressed by Bailey’s view of the Stephen Sondheim Classic, but he was not available to join “Wicked” when the casting process began. With their first and employed election, the Casting team held forward for months, but they could never find a Fiyero that is perfect for the part as a Bailey. According to CapitalfMSeveral actors admitted that they were ignored for the role, including Nick and Joe Jonas, musician and “I know what they did last summer”, Spencer Sutherland, as well as the actor and singer Ryan McCartan, who once played Fiyero on Broadway .
Then the Covid 19 pandemic met and shows that Bailey had decided to push her schedules back. In the crazy dashboard in order to have productions planned as the pandemic, Baileys were transferred to other projects to data that did not overlap with the “evil” shoot. Although Telsey has not mentioned, which shows that Bailey in particular has had several fantastic leading parts in recent years and played anthony bridger tone in the second season of the romantic heroes Netflix ‘over-populated bodice ripper “Bridgerton”, “ And to earn enthusiastic reviews of Matt Bomer in the sexy, heartbreaking historical drama “travelers”. He also led a revival of Mike Bartlet’s piece “C ** K” and is supposed to play the title character in a London production of Shakespeare’s “Richard II”.
Bailey was not officially announced as Fiyero until 2022And Telsey says he “could have been one of the last headmaster.” Nevertheless, the casting director saw the whole thing as accidental. “Everything worked,” he concluded. Bailey is, he says, “so charming, (so) talented, and he is so Fiyero.”
“Wicked” is Now available to have rents or digitally And on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD. Bailey will return as Fiyero in “Wicked: For Gay”, due to November 21, 2025 in the cinemas.
