How Being an Understudy Prepared ‘Wicked’ Star Brittney Johnson for Her History-Making Role

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater EditorBrittney Johnson is currently making history as the first Black actor to play Glinda in “Wicked,” but she’s also had a lot of Broadway experience in jobs that are in many ways even more challenging than a starring role: filling the save-the-day shoes of an understudy, a swing or a standby.Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below:“I’m so grateful that my first Broadway show was as a swing,” Johnson said on the new episode of Stagecraft, Variety‘s theater podcast.

The actor made her debut in 2014 in “Motown,” in which she had to be prepared, at a moment’s notice, to play one of nine roles, including Diana Ross.

She said she still benefits from the lessons she learned from that experience. “Something that you just have to accept as a swing is that it’s not going to be perfect, because you are a human being,” she explained. “That’s something that’s really hard for lots of artists, and that’s something’s that’s hard for me, for sure.

But [when you’re a swing], if you go out there, you don’t hurt anyone, you don’t hurt yourself, the show goes up and they clap, it’s a win.”Johnson joined “Wicked” in 2018 as an ensemble member and understudy, and also spent time as a standby for Glinda, going on when the regular lead was absent.