Jersey girl Olivia Valli, granddaughter of Frankie, turns green as Elphaba in ‘Wicked’
We chatted with the actor in her green room. Her makeup takes about 40 minutes to apply, but only 5 minutes to remove.
Few roles in theater are as legendary as Elphaba, the green-skinned witch of Wicked. Now celebrating 20 years on Broadway, the musical — running at the Academy of Music through Nov. 26 — remains a beloved crowd-pleaser as the Oz universe continues to expand with a film adaptation next year starring Cynthia Erivo in the pointy hat.
This month in Philadelphia, Olivia Valli dons the witch costume. The proud Jersey girl (granddaughter of famous Jersey boy Frankie Valli) is the one getting greenified night after night. Her first major acting job was as an understudy to Elphaba for Wicked’s second national tour in 2009, and returning as the lead was a dream she didn’t expect to realize. Onstage, she wears the same boots she wore for the previous tour.
Valli wanted to be a pop star before pursuing theater, always encouraged by her grandfather. “He would tell me, ‘Just listen to your favorite artists and emulate them. See how big your range can get, see how low your range can get. … Find your soul in that,’” she said in her dressing room as makeup artist Tishonna Ferguson applied the MAC Chromacake green paint on her. “He was very against me getting a voice teacher [when I was] young. He said, ‘Find your own voice and then the right teacher will come to you.’”
As a senior at Montclair State University, once she decided on a career in musical theater, Valli had one deciding criterion when choosing agencies: If they mentioned her grandfather, she would refuse them. “I understood the sentiment, but we’re here for me,” Valli said. “They weren’t seeing me. They kept talking about him.”
Grandpa did come up in her stage career years later, when Valli landed a role in the off-Broadway production of Jersey Boys, about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in 2021. She played her late grandmother Mary Delgado. It was an unforgettable experience for both of them.
Her grandfather hasn’t seen her perform Elphaba again this year because the 89-year-old is busy on tour himself, a last hurrah with the Four Seasons. It’s the kind of impressive stamina that Olivia Valli also has been developing through a decade on the road.
Joining what she calls “the green sisterhood” of Elphabas is incredibly demanding and taxing on the body. Beyond maintaining the discipline of a professional athlete, Valli also has a strict skincare regimen to handle all that green. It involves triple cleansers, moisturizers, toners, skin barrier rebalancers, an exfoliator, peppermint soap, and even a snail mucus face mask. It takes about 40 minutes to apply everything, but only 5 minutes to remove.
There’s always a risk of green zits, but Ferguson says those aren’t too common. (She also has her own disciplined routine, including physical therapy twice a week to preserve her wrist strength.)
“Most Elphabas will not really have breakouts, because such makeup makes you pay attention to your skin even more,” said Ferguson. “A lot of the time, this is like a point in their life where their skin is actually shining the best.”
For Valli, it’s all worth it. “When I was younger, I was truly an Elphaba. I didn’t really fit in. A lot of the popular girls like to bully me,” she said. “It’s healing to say ‘Yeah, I might be different, I might be misunderstood, … but I’m going to be me regardless because that is powerful in itself. I’m not going to let anybody ever again make me feel like I have to hide who I am.’”
Plus, wearing emerald makeup has one other advantage: She can feel a little closer to her favorite green character, Shrek.
Watch Olivia Valli transform into Elphaba:
“Wicked” runs through Nov. 26 at the Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, 215-893-1999 or kimmelculturalcampus.org.