I had read the book, loved it, and now I was designing what ends up being one of the biggest hits on Broadway, which who would have ever known that was going to happen?

My name is Joe Dulude II, and I am the makeup designer for "Wicked."

You can room with Miss Galenda.

So in most Broadway shows, the actors do their own makeup.

So what I do is I go in and I usually teach them.

And then I also allow them to have fun because they're wearing it, I'm not.

And they have to be comfortable wearing it and they have to know why they're wearing it.

And I think when you empower the artists like that, then the work is better.

When we were coming up with the concepts for each of the makeup designs, we were creating our own world.

And with Elphaba, the concept in the book, she's not the most attractive.

But in our world, we wanted to make sure that she was attractive and that the reason that people disliked her was because of her skin.

So that was really important in it.

On the reopening in the audience, you could feel the energy of everybody, you could feel how excited the entire audience was to be seeing live theater again.

And when the show started, there was that eruption of applause.

But at the same time, for me, there was a...

I got very emotional.

It's good to see me, isn't it?

To be in this spe with these people who didn't have access to this for so long and were so excited to be back.

Like, just feeling that energy like made me start to tear up.

It was like this moment of where it's just so emotional.

And for me, you know, this is my work.

And to see that, you know, I'm part of something that is having this kind of effect on people means everything to me.

I think Broadway is essential because it brings people into the city.

I mean, it's not just Broadway and the employees of Broadway that are relying upon these shows, but it's the restaurants, it's the bars, it's the stores.

When you don't have this part of it, some of that can still function, but you're not getting this influx of tourists who are coming just for that.

And I think that's part of what Broadway does for this city and then all the tourists as well.

The wickedest wih there ever was The enemy of all of us here in Oz is dead Like, it, it brings in people and puts them in a space that sometimes they don't normally have access to.

And to be in that space and the joy that it brings them and the delight that it brings them and the emotion that it brings them is just really unique.

You don't get that.

Like, you may get that at a concert, but a concert is there and gone.

With Broadway, it's there.

We are Broadway.