Taye Diggs had crazy onstage blunder while starring in “Wicked ”with ex-wife Idina Menzel: 'I will never forget that'
Taye Diggs had crazy onstage blunder while starring in “Wicked ”with ex-wife Idina Menzel: 'I will never forget that'
Staff AuthorSun, May 3, 2026 at 8:25 PM UTC
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Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel on opening night of 'Wicked' on Broadway in 2003Credit: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagicKey Points -
Taye Diggs is looking back on a potentially disastrous on-stage blunder from his time as Fiyero in the Broadway cast of Wicked.
Diggs recalled overshooting a stage cue and forcefully throwing a broomstick to then-wife Idina Menzel that "almost went offstage" in a recent interview with PEOPLE.
Diggs and Menzel were married from 2003 to 2014, and starred together in Wicked for two months at the beginning of their marriage.
"Dancing through life, throwing a broomstick!" Or however the song goes.
Taye Diggs looked back on a hilarious, potentially disastrous onstage blunder from his brief time as Fiyero in the Broadway cast of Wicked.
Diggs stepped into the role of the Winkie nobleman–turned–scheming Scarecrow Fiyero in December 2003, less than a year after his marriage to Idina Menzel, who originated the musical's co-starring role of Elphaba Thropp.
"I was doing Wicked with my then-wife Idina, and I was playing the Scarecrow and there was this moment when I'm supposed to swing out on stage and I'm supposed to throw the broomstick to Idina," Diggs told PEOPLE at the opening night of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at New York City's Barrymore Theatre on April 25. "I threw the broomstick, and it almost went offstage."
Idina Menzel as Elphaba in 'Wicked' on BroadwayCredit: Frank Micelotta/Getty
Though Diggs recalled that the enthusiastic over-throw shocked Menzel and the audience alike, eventually, "everybody laughed. I will never forget that."
Diggs explained, "I was so excited to be in the show with my then-wife and be the cool guy that comes swinging out. I threw the broom."
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The role of Fiyero was originated by decorated Broadway vet Norbert Leo Butz, but Diggs had his own long string of stage accomplishments before stepping into Fiyero's hay-filled shoes.
Diggs is best known for originating the role of the landlord Benny in Rent, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical that also featured Menzel in the original cast. Both actors would reprise their roles in Rent's 2005 film adaptation, but only Menzel would go on to appear in the long-anticipated film adaptation of Wicked.
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The 2024 adaptation, Wicked — which was followed by 2025's Wicked: For Good — starred Ariana Grande in the role of Glinda (originally played by Kristin Chenoweth) and Cynthia Erivo as Menzel's Wicked Witch. Though Menzel and Chenoweth played significant supporting roles in the first film's extensive press tour, their cameo roles in the film still surprised audiences.
Menzel and Chenoweth appear toward the film's end in the "One Short Day" sequence, when Elphaba and Glinda travel to the Emerald City to meet the infamous Wizard. Menzel described their roles to Entertainment Weekly ahead of the film's premiere as "beautiful fairy goddesses," who take Elphaba and Glinda on a magical history tour of Oz. Menzel joked that she immediately accepted the offer to appear in the film, on one condition: "I said, 'Just make us look pretty.'"
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
