Maren Morris Sets Her Sights on Broadway Role — See Her Audition Tape [Watch]
Maren Morris is looking to take a trip to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard. That is, if she can land the role of Elphaba Thropp in Broadway's long-running musical Wicked.
The "Circles Around This Town" singer shared a video of her self-taped audition. She admits that her setup was an Amazon purchase. "Test shot for my self tape audition. The THEATRE dah-ling IS JUMPING OUT. 💚," she writes on Twitter.
"Honestly, even if I don’t get the part, this was so fun and I bought a freakin’ backdrop off Amazon. 😂🙌🏼," she adds.
The clip is of Morris singing "The Wizard and I," which is sung by the character Elphaba. The Broadway role was made famous by actress Idina Menzel.
In several follow-up tweets, the Grammy-winning singer notes how difficult it is to sing some of the musical numbers, like "I'm Not That Girl" and "No Good Deed."
At one point she even asks some of her fellow vocal nerds for advice and wisdom.
Morris is not only studying the role itself, but also how to protect her voice in the process. Eight shows in one week is a tad different that a routine touring schedules, with a few days of rest in between performances.
Wicked the musical — based off of the book of the same name written by Gregory Maguire — is the prequel to The Wizard of Oz. It tells the origin stories of the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba) and Glinda the Good Witch, whose birth name is Galinda. The role of Galinda was originally played by Kristin Chenoweth, opposite of Menzel, when the show opened in 2003. Wicked is the fifth-longest running Broadway musical of all time.
Morris is currently prepping for her Humble Quest Tour. The trek will begin on June 9 in Raleigh, N.C., and make stops at arenas and amphitheaters nationwide before wrapping on Dec. 2 back home in Nashville. Several artists are scheduled to join Morris on various dates, including Ruston Kelly, Brent Cobb, Joy Oladokun, Brittney Spencer and fellow Highwomen member Natalie Hemby.