"Wicked," playing through Sunday at the Fox Theatre, is a spectacle, full of "how'd they do that?" moments. There are flying monkeys, a thunderous wizard, a giant smoke-breathing mechanical dragon.
But one of the biggest mysteries for audiences has to do with the wicked witch's skin.
Namely, how does Elphaba get so green and stay so green through her many costume changes?
"It has been the main question," said Ashley Cameron, the Atlanta public relations representative for the touring production. "How does she keep it on throughout the show?"
It takes about 20 minutes to give Carmen Cusack, who plays Elphaba, her emerald hue.
She is one of three characters whose makeup is applied by a professional, Joe Dulude, a spiky-haired redhead who designed the makeup for the Broadway musical. He travels with this production and trains other makeup artists in the proper technique to "greenify" Elphaba.
In the show, based on Gregory Maguire's feminist prequel to the classic "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," the good witch Glinda and Elphaba meet at boarding school. Glinda is blonde, shallow and popular. Elphaba is ... well, green and an outcast.
For Elphaba's boarding-school look, Dulude starts with makeup from MAC's professional line, "Landscape Green" Chromacake, a surprisingly popular product. "They sell out of it," he said.
It's available at macpro.com or in a few shops catering to professionals. He applies it with water and a flat-handled artists' brush called a hake brush.
"Originally, we looked into airbrushing, but it was too time-consuming and we didn't like the idea of the particles flying about eight times a week," Dulude said.
He then puts on another professional product, Kryolan TV paint stick in a lighter green, No.511.
The cream makeup usually is used for stage or TV to cut down redness in the skin, but Dulude likes the water-resistant finish that works especially well in steamy climates like Atlanta.
Then he applies a sheer Kryolan waterproof powder — lots of powder — to keep the makeup from smearing.
He uses MAC's "purple haze" eye shadow for contours.
Then he puts on a shimmery "golden olive" pigment from MAC that gives her skin a sheen.
For her arms and torso, Cusack wears a sheer, peapod green leotard. But her hands get the green makeup, followed by a spray fixative to keep it from rubbing off.
Cusack said that after weeks of touring, her skin has taken on a pale greenish tinge. (Margaret Hamilton, who played the wicked witch in the 1939 film, "The Wizard of Oz," said the same thing.)
Cusack scrubs off the makeup in the shower, even between matinees, before leaving the theater.
"Everyone knows when the green girl is crossing the street," she said.
The only day she might keep it on is Oct. 31, she said. She could always cross the street with Dulude, who does his own elaborate zombie makeup every Halloween, whether he's working or not.
About the Author
