Video: Jenna Bainbridge Looks Back on the SUFFS Cast Seeing Her WICKED Debut

Wicked on Broadway has debuted a new installment of its Citizens of Oz video series, this time featuring Jenna Bainbridge. The Suffs alum curently stars as Nessarose in the long-running hit.

In the video, Bainbridge looks back on her first performance at the Gershwin Theatre, which was filled with family, friends, and the cast of Suffs.

“I had just finished doing Suffs the Musical on Broadway, so the entire company of Suffs organized group tickets to come for my opening night. So I had my family there and all of my closest friends, and then like 50 people from Suffs. Every time I like did anything, I literally like entered the stage and I’d hear like one of my friends whooping. It was it was a really magical experience.”

She also discussed how she relates to Nessarose as a disabled woman, along with the research she did before taking on the role.

“I try to bring a lot of my own personal history, especially as a disabled woman, to Nessa. That’s a really important part of her identity too, is that she has a disability and she is a disabled person in a position of power. So I’ve taken inspiration from like FDR or from like Judy Heumann or some of these disabled icons that we’ve had, but also just my own feelings of this poor girl has been through so much and she maybe doesn’t handle things the best, but I love her still.”

Wicked looks at the Land of Oz before Dorothy arrives, following a young woman born with emerald-green skin who is smart, fiery, and misunderstood. When she meets a bubbly blonde who is exceptionally popular, their initial rivalry turns into an unlikely friendship, until the world decides to call one good and the other Wicked. The score includes the songs ‘Defying Gravity,’ ‘Popular,’ and ‘For Good.’

The musical plays at the Gershwin Theatre on 50th Street and Broadway. The production has also been spotlighting its company through other recent video features, including the behind-the-scenes series Wicked In Action. One installment of that series focused on Production Stage Manager Peyton Taylor Becker, and another took viewers inside the orchestra pit with conductor Ben Cohn.