Kendra Kassebaum, Jayne Houdyshell Headed Back to Wicked

Kendra Kassebaum and Jayne Houdyshell are headed back to the Broadway company of Wicked this spring. Kassebaum will return to the role of Glinda the Good Witch on May 14, and Houdyshell will be back as Madame Morrible on June 17. The roles are currently being played by Annaleigh Ashford who will shift to the Chicago company of Wicked this summer and British actress Miriam Margolyes, a veteran of the London production of the show.

Kassebaum and Houdyshell appeared onstage together last fall in Manhattan Theatre Club's off-Broadway production of Adam Bock's The Receptionist. In addition to Wicked, Kassebaum's Broadway credits include Assassins and Rent. She has toured in Wicked, A Chorus Line and Grease.

Houdyshell is currently co-starring in the Paul Rudnick comedy The New Century at Lincoln Center Theatre and received a 2006 Tony nomination for Well. Off-Broadway credits include The Pain and the Itch, Much Ado About Nothing, True Love and Attempts on Her Life.

Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the Land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman, tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.