FLASH FRIDAY: The WICKED Good Pairing of Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel

When the Broadway-bound musical WICKED, based on Gregory Maguire's novel that imagined a prequel to the events of L. Frank Baum's classic "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," premiered at San Francisco's Curran Theatre in 2003, its two leading ladies both seemed just one great vehicle away from achieving major Broadway stardom.

Kristin Chenoweth, cast as the confident and quirky social butterfly Glinda, had won a Tony for her supporting performance as Sally in YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN, but her Broadway follow-up, EPIC PROPORTIONS, a play about filming a 1930s biblical drama, closed in less than three months.

Idina Menzel, cast as the sensitive outsider Elphaba, scored a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut in RENT, and was quickly gaining fans with her Off-Broadway performance in Andrew Lippa's THE WILD PARTY and a replacement stint on Broadway as Amneris in AIDA.

Broadway's history has seen relatively few musicals with two leading roles of equal size for women (ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, BAJOUR and SIDE SHOW come to mind), and while success is rarely achieved overnight, the talents of Chenoweth and Menzel, combined with the astronomic appeal WICKED's story, score and production, solidified both their statuses as above-the-title stars.

Thirteen years later, the two remain extraordinarily popular and, by coincidence, both of them both of them have new albums about to be released at the same time.

As reported yesterday by BroadwayWorld, Idina Menzel took to social media to announce a new self-titled album being released September 23rd. Her announcement came shortly after Kristin Chenoweth also announced a new album "The Art of Elegance," to be digitally released on the same day. The physical release of Chenoweth's album will be on September 30th.

To celebrate these twin achievements, here's a video flashback to that career-changing show.

In 2004, Julie Andrews Hosted a Six-Part PBS Documentary "Broadway: The American Musical," which, in one segment, detailed WICKED's rehearsal and tryout process. (click screenshot for video)

The pair talk about the experience after their opening night performance.

The big Tony Award telecast performance. Later that evening, Idina Menzel won the prize for Best Actress in a Musical.

An outdoor performance of "Popular" on NBC's Today Show.

The pair sing "For Good" to celebrate the Macy's WICKED window display.

Finally, rehearsal and performance footage of "For Good," followed by a reunion video of the duet for the recent Out of Oz WICKED Studio Sessions series.

The Broadway sensation, Wicked, looks at what happened in the Land of Oz...but from a different angle. Long before Dorothy arrives, there is another young woman, born with emerald-green skin, who is smart, fiery, misunderstood, and possessing an extraordinary talent. When she meets a bubbly blonde who is exceptionally popular, their initial rivalry turns into the unlikeliest of friendships...until the world decides to call one "good," and the other one "wicked."

With a thrilling score that includes the hits "Defying Gravity," "Popular" and "For Good,"Wicked has been hailed by The New York Times as "the defining musical of the decade," and by Time Magazine as "a magical Broadway musical with brains, heart, and courage."

Winner of over 100 international awards including the Grammy Award and three Tony Awards,Wicked has been performed in over 100 cities in 14 countries around the world (U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan, Germany, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, The Philippines, Mexico, and Brazil) and has thus far been translated into six languages: Japanese, German, Dutch, Spanish, Korean, and Portuguese.

Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, Wicked has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and a book by Winnie Holzman. The production is directed by Joe Mantello with musical staging byWayne Cilento. Wicked is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Stage Productions, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone.