Character Study: See Jackie Burns Become Wicked’s Beautiful Witch Elphaba

Eight years ago, Jackie Burns sat in the second row of the Gershwin Theatre and watched Idina Menzel play Elphaba in Wicked, and now she’s living her dream playing the green girl herself. “She’s helped me be strong in my own convictions,” Burns said of her iron-willed character. “She’s been an outcast her whole life and she’s dealt with it, and come out to be this beautiful person who isn’t jaded.” The physical transformation, it turns out, takes a little more getting used to. “At first it’s not very beautiful, I won’t lie to you,” Burns laughs. “When your whole face is green and your features aren’t drawn on yet you look like a turtle, really. But then once the make up is on it’s beautiful.” Click on below to witness Burns’ transformation into this Broadway force of nature.