Young rising star makes her mark as Glinda in “Wicked”

In a review by the Los Angeles Times, theater writer Charles McNutty calls actress Megan Hilty’s performance as Glinda the Good Witch “splendiferous” in the Broadway hit musical “Wicked,” which has been touring nationally through August 2008. Hilty, 24, a Bellevue, Washington, native, said she always wanted to be an opera singer growing up and pursued her dream through attending a performing arts high school and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The young and upcoming performer, who auditioned for the part of Glinda a week before her college graduation, said she saw the show for the first time the night before she tried out in front of the cast of “Wicked.”

“I just thought after seeing, ‘Wow – no one is going to be able to take over for Kristin [Chenoweth], least of all me,’” she said in an interview with Broadway.com. “ So, going into the audition, that must have been some sort of confidence builder. I never thought it would be me, so I had no nerves.”Hilty, who immediately moved to New York after she graduated, received a call from her agent letting her know she had scored the part of standby Glinda. She was on a bus back to Pittsburgh to sell her car when she heard the news and began yelling about to everyone else inside. Now, as she goes into the second year playing the part, Hilty has gained the exposure that she needed to score a part in the national tour is playing the part of Glinda in the LA series. And her reviews say it all. For tickets to “Wicked,” visit www.StubHub.com.

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