Broadway's Wicked Ways

Is it just me or is Broadway having a renaissance lately? It seems like new blood has infiltrated the system and brought it back to life. Guys like Duncan Sheik and P. Diddy have forsaken their pop music roots for the Great White Way; movie stars the likes of Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig can be seen on stage every night; and television actors such as Kristin Chenoweth and Phylicia Rashad have crossed over and back again.

The success of musicals including Wicked, Jersey Boys, and The Lion King are certainly notable. Smashing box office numbers around the world, Wicked continues to reign on Broadway and tour the U.S. while it holds records in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, and London.

One of the original Wicked cast members, Chenoweth, who played Glinda the Good Witch, has bounced between the stage and small screen for years. In addition to Wicked, she has appeared in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Apple Tree, The West Wing, and Pushing Daisies. With a four-octave vocal range, it's no wonder she has both a Tony and an Emmy on her shelf.

Sheik's first Broadway foray, Spring Awakening, earned him two Tony awards for his musical compositions, while P. Diddy (aka Sean Combs) hit the stage in a 2004 revival of A Raisin in the Sun which co-starred Rashad and Audra McDonald (currently seen in ABC's Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice), both of whom won Tony awards for their performances.

Jackman and Craig can currently be found on West 45th Street most nights starring in A Steady Rain. If you attend a performance, be sure to turn off your cell phone so as not to have an encore of this 2009 incident where Jackman interrupted his own monologue to tell an audience member to get his phone.

Lots of other stars can be seen around town, too, from Jane Fonda to Jeremy Irons, from Joan Allen to James Gandolfini... even the newly single Susan Sarandon. Ticket prices can be pretty high sometimes, but the price of admission buys a unique experience – a live, once-in-a-lifetime performance never to happen to same way again. And that, as they say, is priceless.