INTERVIEW: Daniel Quadrino is back as Boq in Broadway’s ‘Wicked’
Photo: Daniel Quadrino returns to Wicked as the full-time Boq. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by Polk & Co. with permission.
Daniel Quadrino has had quite the journey with the beloved character of Boq in Broadway’s Wicked, which continues its record-smashing run at the Gershwin Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. He was in the ensemble of the hit musical a decade ago, and at the same time he covered the role of Boq, a friend to Glinda and Elphaba at Shiz University. He did that assignment for two-and-a-half years, and then he returned to the Broadway company to fill in for an actor who was out on injury. Now he’s back and owning the Boq role, performing alongside new cast members like Lencia Kebede as Elphaba, Allie Trimm as Glinda, Brad Oscar as The Wizard and Natasha Yvette Williams as Madame Morrible.
“It’s a dream,” Quadrino said in a recent phone interview. “I had the privilege of being in the show 10 years ago in the ensemble of the show and covering Boq, so to come back and be Boq full time is an absolute dream come true. It’s something that I’ve wanted ever since I first set foot in the building in 2015, so it’s a full-circle moment for sure.”
Quadrino, who also appeared on Broadway in The Who’s Tommy, Newsies and Bye Bye Birdie, said that the creative team behind Wicked remembered him when the role became available. It’s fairly obvious why the actor stayed in the memory of the Wicked team: He keeps racking up impressive roles in high-profile shows. This past fall, for example, he appeared in Jersey Boys as Frankie Valli at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey.
“So I think my name is just out there, and then they reached out and asked me to come in,” he said. “I went back in, went to my audition. That was in October, and then I found out in December that I was going to take over for the role. … It was an odd feeling because it’s a role that I’ve done before, but in a way, it felt like the first time because it was the first time that I could fully claim it as my own because I get to do it every night now. But the butterflies were there, but the house last Tuesday [at my first performance] was electric. There’s so much history being made with our cast, so it’s just an honor to be on stage with them. There’s five of us that joined together, so it was really awesome to have everybody on the same vibe, hushed excitement and a little bit of butterflies, but mostly just excited and feeling ready to go.”
The actor said he appreciated that the role of Boq is the underdog of the story. He is constantly yearning for approval, and Quadrino can identify with those sentiments. He said in high school and middle school he was always after people to like him, and he can understand what it feels like for Boq to be turned down by Glinda.
“Of course it’s such an iconic, iconic story,” Quadrino said. “I saw the show for the first time when I was in middle school, and I turned to my mom at intermission, and I was like, ‘I have to do this one day. I just have to do it.’ So getting to do it, every night I pinch myself to make sure it’s not a dream.”
In many ways, Wicked is the show to see in New York City right now. The heightened excitement for a musical that has been in Midtown Manhattan for more than two decades is mostly because of the hugely successful film version starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Part I of the story hit movie theaters in fall 2024, and Part II is expected later this year.
“It is crazy,” Quadrino said of Wicked fever. “There are so many people coming to see it for the first time now, or they’re coming to see it for the 55th time. And there’s such an amazing, amazing wide range of people, and the beautiful thing about Wicked — we always talk about this — it’s always going to be someone’s first Broadway show. That excitement for me is always there. … This is someone’s introduction to theater and to Wicked. Yes, they may have seen the movie, but they get to see the whole show and not just Part I. So it’s really amazing to tell that story, and there’s been a really big uptick in everything. It was never not sold out, but now I feel like it’s hard to get a ticket.”
When Quadrino returned to the musical a few weeks ago, he was fairly used to the dialogue, songs and blocking. He said such a strong show leaves a lasting impression.
“There’s something about the muscle memory that I remembered a lot of it, but there were also new discoveries because as the understudy, I didn’t get a lot of time with the associate director, who is rehearsing us the entire time,” he said. “So there was some knowledge that I got to learn that I didn’t last time, so it was awesome to start Boq all over, forget what I knew about him from last time and just make it fresh and make it new. That’s what they were so excited about. They really wanted us to make it new and forget everything that we knew about before.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Wicked, featuring Daniel Quadrino, continues at the Gershwin Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
