BALTIMORE — Production trucks arrived Tuesday morning and crews worked throughout the day, transforming the historic Hippodrome Theater into the Land of Oz for the upcoming run of "Wicked." In the cast is an East Baltimore woman who is living her Broadway dreams.
The hit musical "Wicked" is rolling into town for a stop at the Hippodrome Theater. This theater holds special memories for one of the cast members — East Baltimore native Melissa Victor.
"I wish I could put into words what it means. I used to come and see shows, sit right up there, um, in the mezzanine. My mom loves the upper mezzanine seats but now my seat is gonna be up here on stage and that's crazy," Victor said.
Hear Melissa Victor talk about her journey East Baltimore to broadway
Victor plays Shen Shen, Glinda's best friend. Now living in New York City, she joined the cast in February. Her journey, though, began in an East Baltimore church.
"I grew up singing in church. I go to Historic Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church and the minister of music at the time and youth choir director, she was the music director at Cahill Performing Arts Center, so she brought me up and that was my first introduction into musical theater," Victor said.
Her first role was in a production of Cinderella, with an urban spin.
"All of the songs in the show were of like the Motown era and so Mommy Dearest sang 'Respect'. So I'm this 8-year-old girl. Cinderella's taller than me. The wicked stepsisters are taller than me, and I'm singing R-E-S-P-E-C-T," Victor said.
She sang in the choir at Baltimore City High School and got her first professional gig at Toby's Dinner Theater in Columbia while in college at Catholic University in DC. She worked in regional theater until landing her first role in the Big Apple four years ago.
Her faith kept her going through the rejections.
"If I would've just listened to the no's and not listened to what God told me to do. Like, 'You were supposed to do this, just show up.' Um, I would have quit 10 years ago," Victor said.
"Wicked" opens Thursday and runs through January 11. Victor expects to see plenty of familiar faces in the audience.
"My church family. My school family. My swim team family. My neighbors. Like, they've seen me sing every bad note in church. They've seen me try and fail and now I'm like look y'all, we did it," Victor said.
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