Emma Kingston has always felt like an outsider. At her Jewish schools – Rosh Pinah Primary in Edgware, followed by Immanuel College in Hertfordshire – she was the weird kid who liked singing (she still has her signed primary school shirt on which fellow pupils had written “stop singing” on their last day). When she was at Mountview drama school, then in Wood Green, she was the Jewish girl who, when she asked to take a day off for Yom Kippur and to finish early so she could attend a Seder, was told, “You’ll never work in this industry if you want to take those days off.”
She first saw Wicked, the Wizard of Oz prequel written by fellow Jews Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, when she was 15 and “absolutely lost my mind”. And she fell in love with the story of fellow outsider Elphaba.
The show tells the story of how the green-skinned Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West and since it first opened on Broadway, in 2003 it has been a huge hit around the world.
“I’d never seen a show which encapsulates not only so much vocal agility but also so much heart,” she says. “I loved The Wizard of Oz and thought it was genius how the story was interwoven. And I really felt like I understood Elphaba’s story. I wasn’t bullied at school but I was that strange kid who liked theatre, and I was quite happy on a lunch break to sit in the music room by myself playing piano.
“I take joy in my own company, I’m unfazed by outside noise and I can retreat, all of which helps me relate to the character of Elphaba, who has a very strong sense of self – and has had so her entire life having felt misunderstood because of her green skin. As a result she’s stoic and hugely empathetic. She fights for justice, regardless of how she is perceived. I would like to think that I sort of always try to do the same.”
She has auditioned for – and came tantalisingly close to winning – the role of Elphaba in the West End twice before and has now seen the show nearly a dozen times. Now, after taking leading roles in the musicals In the Heights and Evita, her dream has come true and at a time when the show is bigger than ever thanks to the award-winning film starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba.
"Ever since drama school, I have taken Kol Nidre and Seder night off, and if someone doesn’t hire me because I won’t work on them, that’s their problem
“I went to see the film about a month after finding out I had the part and I absolutely cried my eyes out. The filmic exploration of the story was just lovely,” she says. “Wicked has been on in the West End for nearly 20 years and has been part of the cultural zeitgeist for those two decades, but it feels so cool to be in the show now that it’s been given this new lease of life.
“It’s just a brilliant show with wonderful characters who are so hugely relatable and I think that’s why people come time and time again. And now you have little kids who, having seen the film, want to be able to enjoy it on the stage. When they come, they can’t believe that it’s this theatrical live thing right in front of them.”
The official opening night of the new cast change with Zizi Strallen taking the role of Glinda was this week but Kingston says since she first started appearing, the audience has been packed out with Jews.
“The amazing thing about the Jewish community for me is that we really pull out all the stops at happy events and funerals,” she says. “On my first night, busloads of Jews came from Elstree and Borehamwood. My uncle flew over from America, and my dad’s siblings travelled down from the North. Everyone who has ever had a conversation with me has called my parents to say they are going to come. It is mental in the best way.”
Emma says Wicked is filled with Jewish themes. “There is definitely that part of Elphaba being othered that I get as a Jewish person in the UK theatre industry. There are very few of us and I know what it is like to be different – to have people throwing snowballs at you when you are a kid walking to shul. I definitely bring that experience to the role.
“One of my favourite lines in the show is from Glinda: ‘Are people born wicked or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?’ And the wizard also says something fascinating: ‘What brings people together is a good common enemy.’”
With being “pro-Palestine” arguably an article of faith in the arts, being a Jewish thespian is not straightforward at the moment. Emma says that while she is a proud Jew who writes comedy in her time off with Jewish TikTok comic Zach Margs, she tries to avoid political discussions at work.
“I feel that I am entitled to my opinion, and other people are entitled to theirs – and let’s leave it at the door,” she says. “Work is work and I don’t believe in complicating my personal space when I’m there.”
Emma has a year’s contract that stipulates – as all her contracts always have done – she takes Seder night and Kol Nidre off. “Even when I was told at drama school that it would stop me working in the industry, I brushed it off as ignorance,” she says.
“Call it arrogance, if you like, but I just thought that if someone doesn’t hire me for two days in a year then that’s their problem. I’ve taken those days off work every single year and it’s never been an issue.”
In the meantime, her biggest problem right now is green paint. It takes about an hour to get fully greened up as Elphaba each night and every time she comes off stage “someone is following me around, touching up the green”. Taking it off is a little easier: “I’ve got it down to about 15 minutes although my inner ear can often remain green for three days: I think that is going to be my life for the next year but I’ll take it!’
Wicked is on at the Apollo Victoria Theatre
