The show “Wicked” has had many wonderful nights over the years, whether it’s been the numerous stage performances on Broadway and in theaters worldwide or the blockbuster screenings the movie version had in cinemas upon release last year. On Thursday, Nov. 6, it will work its magic on the small screen when NBC debuts “Wicked: One Wonderful Night.” Outside of the United States, the show is slated to run in 15 countries.
The television special will celebrate the release of “Wicked: For Good,” the second and final film in the two-part adaptation of the 2003 stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. The two-hour concert event features performances by Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and other members of the film’s cast.
Chelsie Hill
One name that has also been attached to the production is choreographer Chelsie Hill, a professional dancer and the founder of the Rollettes, a Los Angeles-based wheelchair dance team. At 17, Hill was involved in a drunk driving accident that resulted in a spinal cord injury and rendered her paralyzed from the waist down. Her dream had always been to become a professional dancer, and years later, her success and determination has resulted in prime gigs like “Wicked: One Wonderful Night.”
Over the Rainbow With Pride and Excitement
Officially listed as a specialty choreographer alongside main choreographer Christopher Scott, Hill says being part of this show’s crew has truly been a dream come to true: “Watching ‘Wicked’ in theaters and seeing an actual person with a disability as one of the main characters [Nessarose Thropp, Elphaba’s younger sister] is truly an incredible opportunity for the disabled community to be advocated for, to show that there's real talent in the disabled community. Watching it, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can see myself up there!’”
She continues, “Professionally, I'm so excited for all the doors it’s opening up for the disabled community to show that there is real talent here — that you don't have to hire an able body to sit in a wheelchair to act. There are real, authentic people who can play roles.”
Hill’s primary assignment was to assist actress Marissa Bode in creating the choreography around the character of Nessarose. “I got to work one-on-one with Marissa, who is truly incredible,” she states. “I got to be her stand-in, her sit-in for when she wasn't there, and then also to learn everything beforehand. So when she got there, it was just seamless. I was her person that she could lean on if she had any questions or if she wanted to try something out… it was truly an honor.”
“Wicked” is very much about challenging perceptions of good and bad and of identity and belonging. With everything she’s been through in her own life, Hill really connected with the story on that level. “I feel like so many people look at me, and they think, ‘Wow, there's so many things that she cannot do,’” she says. “With ‘Wicked’ showing the good and the ‘bad,’ I feel like, for me, I relate to that because so many people in the corporate world and the business world look at me and they're like, ‘Oh, it's so cute that you have a wheelchair dance team, and it's so cute what you're doing.’ I've really had to fight the narrative that what I do isn't just cute. ‘Wicked’ challenges the perception of what disability really is and changes the perception that disability is a bad thing. So, I really relate to that in the way of challenging the perception of what good and bad looks like.”
Dedicated to the Young and the Young at Heart
There is no doubt that a whole host of younger dancers will be watching this special. Hill hopes the children nearing or having performed in their first recitals will take away only positives from the production in general and, more specifically, seeing her work and the work of Marissa Bode represented.
Over the years, Hill says she has seen the disabled community dance more and more. She has seen an increase in the number of social media videos of people undeterred from their dreams. Hill says, “Being able to have Marissa not only be in ‘Wicked,’ but also have a live performance, is going to show our community what is possible. … For me in so many cases, I have had to build the door, I've had to put on the knob, I've had to put on all of the things so people can roll through it. But now, being able to show that we can do a live performance, that it's not just Ali Stroker, [the first actor who used a wheelchair live on Broadway], I think it just shows people that we can be out there, and we can be performing even more.”
The NBC show was filmed at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. It will include songs from both the first film and the second. Hill is most excited about audiences seeing the amazing tunes sung and danced to live without movie editing or any sort of digital effects.
It was a challenging production, and Hill challenged herself. She says, “Being a specialty choreographer, I'm always trying to figure out what is going to look the best on someone that is smaller than everyone else size-wise. We are sitting down, so we can't be as tall and as big as everybody else. But what motions and what movement can we do as wheelchair users to look like we are [as tall or] taller than everybody else? That's always a challenge.”
She is also, of course, excited about millions of TV viewers discovering Marissa Bode and all that she will make possible. Hill had never met her before getting to work on “Wicked,” and she found Bode to be very driven. “She is very precise about what she does,” Hill reveals, “and she's also very ‘go with the flow,’ which is really great to be able to work with. And I love being able to work with other people who want to learn how to dance. She's truly incredible, and her voice is amazing.”
Finally, Hill suspects that her one big personal takeaway from her involvement with this show is not the song and dance sequences, or meeting celebrities like Erivo, Grande, Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh. It’s the extra level of detail NBC and the producers took to make sure all who performed on that stage felt welcome and safe.
Hill concludes, “There's always been an accessibility problem on every set that I have ever worked on. But, with this, there was not one moment where I felt like my disability would make me late, would inhibit me from going anywhere on stage, behind the stage or in the audience. I've never, in the 15 years of being paralyzed and in the 13, almost 14 years of doing what I do, I've never experienced a set that was so accessible. I truly want to applaud that side of it, but I also want to applaud the family that they have created amongst the ‘Wicked’ team behind the scenes. They were so welcoming, and that, too, is very rare!”
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