Ariana Grande is looking to return to her first love: musical theater.
The Grammy-winning singer, who plays Glinda in Jon M. Chu‘s adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical Wicked, recently said on the Las Culturistas podcast that the movie was a “healing” experience that has led her to consider “reconnecting” with the theater world.
“I’m gonna say something so scary. It’s gonna scare the absolute shit out of my fans and everyone, but I love them and they’ll deal, and we’ll always be here,” she told co-hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. “I’m always gonna make music. I’m always gonna go onstage, I’m always gonna do pop stuff, I pinky promise. But I don’t think doing it at the rate I’ve been doing it for the past 10 years is where I see the next 10 years.”
The “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” artist made her Broadway debut in 2008 at age 15 in the musical 13. She later starred in Nickelodeon’s Victorious and its spin-off Sam & Cat before releasing her debut album Yours Truly in 2013.
“I think I love acting. I love musical theater,” Grande admitted. “I think reconnecting with this part of myself who started in musical theater and who loves comedy, and it heals me to do that, finding roles to use these parts of myself, and put them in little homes and characters.”
She added that musical theater feeds her “in a different way than songwriting and writing about my own pain because it’s just kind of like constantly reliving that one thing that you wrote the song about.”
The “yes, and?” singer has been vocal about the impact the Broadway musical Wicked has had on her life since she first saw it at 10 years old. So when she learned she got the role of Glinda in the upcoming movie, she previously called it “the best day of [her] life.”
The first installment of Wicked, which sees Grande star opposite Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba), hits theaters on Nov. 22, 2024. Part two will be released on Nov. 21, 2025.
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