Maren Morris is one step closer to becoming a Broadway star. On Thursday (Aug. 11), the “Circles Around This Town” singer revealed that she was one of the lucky few chosen to audition in-person for the role of Elphaba Thropp in the long-running Broadway musical Wicked.
“I got a callback for Wicked,” she writes in a tweet. “I am in tears. What the hell. 💚😭”
The exciting news comes almost three months after Morris first shared her intentions to submit an audition tape in response to the musical’s recent casting call.
“Test shot for my self tape audition. The THEATRE dah-ling IS JUMPING OUT. 💚,” she shared on Twitter at the time. ”Honestly, even if I don’t get the part, this was so fun and I bought a freakin’ backdrop off Amazon. 😂🙌🏼,” Morris added.
In the clip, fans can see the 32-year-old talent belting out a segment of “The Wizard and I,” an original song from the musical sang by the character Elphaba.
Wicked is a musical based off book of the same name written by Gregory Maguire, which acts as a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. The production explains the origin stories of Elphaba, better known as the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda the Good Witch, whose birth name is Galinda.
The Broadway musical first opened in 2003 and featured Idina Menzel in the role of Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Galinda. Over the past two decades, Wicked has become one of the most successful musicals in history and currently stands as the fifth-longest running Broadway musical of all time.
Chenoweth was among the many celebrities, musicians and fans who encouraged Morris to take the chance and audition for the part.
“You could play either part,” she tweeted. “Call me and let’s chat. Come on baby. I got you. And you got the chops.”
She was also among the first to congratulate Morris about the news over Twitter. “You go baby!!,” Chenoweth writes. “Told ya you could do it!!! xoxooxo”
Morris has previously spoken about her love for musicals, including Wicked, and isn’t taking this rare opportunity lightly. She even asked her own fans for advice on what tracks would work best for vocal warmups as she perfected her audition submission.
Morris was also open about how challenging it was to sing some of the musical’s most iconic songs.
It’s unclear when exactly the country star will head into the audition room, or how long it will be before the role is officially cast, but she has plenty of exciting events on her calendar in the meantime. Morris is currently out on the road headlining her Humble Quest Tour, in support of her third studio album, which was released on March 25. The lengthy trek will stop at arenas and amphitheaters across the U.S. before wrapping up on Dec. 2 with Morris’ first headlining show at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Buy concert tickets here.
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