After 'Wicked' starring run on Broadway, OKC alumna returns on Disney Princess tour

From flying off the stage after more than a decade as an allegedly wicked witch to making her long-awaited reentrance as an ice queen, Alyssa Fox is quickly rounding out her list of full-circle moments this year.

The Dallas native finished earlier this month a yearlong stint starring as the green-skinned sorceress Elphaba in the Broadway production of "Wicked," the culmination of the 14 years — give or take a pandemic and a few other gigs — she's worked on the iconic musical.

She just started her new job on the "Disney Princess – The Concert" tour, giving her a chance to not only relive her childhood Disney dreams but also to reclaim an opportunity cut short by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Plus, the tour is giving her a chance to perform in OKC for the first time since 2008, when she was a student at Oklahoma City University.

"I am fulfilling so many dreams this year, and I'm really hoping that that can continue," Fox said by phone from the road. "We cover pretty much every princess in the Disney canon. I'm so excited to get my feet under me on this tour and really get to enjoy being all those princesses on stage, getting to wear sparkles and getting to wear real, non-green makeup and have my real hair and wear sparkly jewelry. That feels really good, to be able to live my princess dreams after playing my witch dreams."

When is the 'Disney Princess — The Concert' tour coming to OKC?

The "Disney Princess — The Concert" tour will stop in Oklahoma City at 2 p.m. March 17 for a show at Civic Center Music Hall.

Along with Fox, the concert tour cast includes Syndee Winters, who played Nala in Broadway production of "The Lion King" and also appeared on Broadway in "Hamilton," "Motown the Musical" and "Pippin," and West End star Hiba Elchikhe, who portrayed Princess Jasmine in Disney’s "Aladdin" in Australia and was most recently seen as Charisse in the world-premiere musical "The Time Travellers Wife."

They will be joined by Music Director Benjamin Rauhala ("Fiddler on the Roof," "The Secret Life of Bees") and onstage prince Bradley Gibson ("The Lion King," "Hercules"). The performers will appear as themselves rather than as costumed Disney characters.

The entertainers will sing Disney animated film odes like “How Far I’ll Go,” “A Whole New World,” “Just Around the Riverbend,” “Part of Your World,” “Almost There" and more during the concerts, which last about one hour and 45 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission.

"The first CD I ever bought was 'The Lion King,' that soundtrack, and I wore that thing into the ground," Fox said with a laugh. "I'm singing some really great songs: some Pocahontas and Mulan, some Ariel. And then we have a lot of really wonderful group numbers."

She also is performing Queen Elsa's famed "Frozen" anthem "Let It Go" in one of her full-circle moments: She was working as the Elsa standby for Disney's Broadway production of "Frozen" in 2020 when the pandemic shut down Broadway. The producers announced two months later that they were permanently closing the Broadway show.

"As far (back) as I can remember ... I was like, 'This is what I want to do. My dream is to be a Disney princess.' So, being able to play Elsa on Broadway was so huge for me, because it really was this culmination of all these years of hard work, but also having that original dream when I was very, very young" Fox said.

How did the 'Wicked' star's OKC experiences prepare her for Broadway?

Fox joined the new leg of the "Disney Princess — The Concert" tour on March 10, less than a week after finishing her yearlong run starring as Elphaba in the Broadway production of the smash show "Wicked."

"It was the 20th anniversary of 'Wicked,' which was really incredible, and I don't know how that you could ever top an experience like that. It was a huge year, and it took a lot out of me. I called it my year in the monastery, because I didn't go out," Fox said.

"I really had to keep my voice in shape. I had to get as much sleep as possible and do maintenance things like massage and physical therapy. ... This past year has really taken so much sacrifice, and so I really look forward to reclaiming myself apart from 'Wicked.' I think going on this 'Princess' tour was a big step in that direction."

Starring in "Wicked" on Broadway was the culmination of a 14-year on-again-off-again journey on the Yellow Brick Road with the iconic retelling of "The Wizard of Oz." In 2008, Fox was a junior at OCU working at Teavana in Penn Square Mall and struggling with her growing student debt when she heard about an open casting call in New York City for "Wicked."

"I had a wonderful voice teacher, Vicky Kelly, who was so important to my voice and getting it into the right place and honing my skills as a performer and learning how to work with other people. ... OCU really got me excited about jumping into my career and into doing shows all the time," Fox said.

"But I was really struggling financially. ... So it was this moment of, 'Oh, am I ready to go and try to change my present situation?' And I felt led to go that direction. So, I took all my money in my bank account, not on a whim, but on a dream. ... I'd never been to New York before, so this was a very brave thing for young Alyssa to do."

She tried out at the open call with an a cappella performance of a snippet of "Astonishing" from "Little Women," since she had just done it at OCU. After a year and a half of flying back and forth for callbacks, she finally got the call to join the San Francisco cast as the Elphaba understudy.

She spent a year in the Bay Area, then moved to NYC and spent two years looking for work. In 2012, she joined the "Wicked" national tour, again as the Elphaba standby, for two and half years. She spent another year playing the lead Elphaba for a year across the U.S. and Canada.

"I was so happy that I took the step, even though it was this brave, blissfully young and optimistic choice that I had made. ... After 'Frozen' had closed during the pandemic, when 'Wicked' reopened, they would call me in if someone got sick, or if someone got injured, and I would come in to cover as standby," Fox said

"After going from understudy to standby to lead on the tour to standby on Broadway, I really felt guided to go for the lead on Broadway."

Not only did Fox become the first Asian American to play the role of Elphaba full time on Broadway, but she also got to spend time with fellow OCU alumnus Kristin Chenoweth as part of the "Wicked" 20th anniversary festivities. Chenoweth played the original Glinda to Idina Menzel's original Elphaba on Broadway.

"She's an OCU icon. At the 20th anniversary, Kristin and Idina came up on stage, they gave us hugs, they gave us compliments, they were so kind and so gracious. And it was absolutely unreal to have them in the audience — especially knowing an OCU girl was in the audience," Fox recalled. "At one point, (fellow OCU alumnus) Kelli O'Hara had come to the show and came backstage, and we talked and gave hugs."

Since she didn't step in to play Elphaba when the "Wicked" national tour stopped in OKC in 2013, Fox said the last time she performed around her old college stomping grounds was that 2008 OCU staging of "Little Women." Many of her family members, friends and mentors from Oklahoma and Texas are coming to her "Disney Princess — The Concert" performance at the Civic Center.

"There's definitely this thread of Oklahoma City still coming into my life, so I'm really excited to return and get to perform on stage," she said.

'Disney Princess — The Concert'

• When: 2 p.m. March 17.

• Where: Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N Walker.

• Tickets and information: https://www.okcciviccenter.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 'Disney Princess - The Concert' tour brings OKC alum back after 'Wicked'