bdn223 said: "As most have mentioned the show was originally built as a vehicle for Chenoweth, but as they realized in the SF tryout, the show's plot revolves around Elphaba and not Galinda.
When adapting an epic/novel to the stage a problem many shows have in their creation is finding who to base the show around. Initially Schwartz and Holzman chose Galinda, by having her tell Elphaba's story through her eyes, as is still seen in the opening number, with Galinda initially narrating the story, which is completely dropped after that scene. They realized that you can't tell Elphaba's story through Galinda, because it either gets in the way of the story telling or is just forgotten about midshow. Very few shows that have narrators are effective in that style. The only one that I can think of that it somewhat worked, was Bert in Mary Poppins.
So when they realized this they began to refocus the show on Elphaba, and in doing show it greatly lessened the significance of Elphaba. In my honest opinion if Chenoweth was not the first person to play Galinda, and it was some no name, the role would not have been considered for leading actress, and instead would of just been a heavily featured role alla Louise in Gypsy, or Josie de Guzman as Maria in the 1980 revival of West Side Story.
Think about it Elphaba has, The Wizard and I, Defying Gravity, As Long As You're Mine, No Good Deed, I'm not that Girl, Something Bad, and For Good, where she is either singing solo or duet, and Galinda has Popular, I'm not The Girl (Reprise), and For Good. Yes she is heavily featured in No One Mourns the Wicked and Thank Goodness but they are truly ensemble numbers that are just focused by having Galinda being center stage. The One Short Day and What is this feeling? are a similar situation to the No One Mourns the Wicked and Thank Goodness, except she is singing along side Elphaba. Galinda is all but forgotten in the second act outside of her 30 second reprise of I'm Not that Girl, and her accidentally setting Morrible in the Wizard's plan in motion to destroy Elphaba through Nessarose. And then she reappears for For Good and the Finale. To quote Spamalot, when Wicked transfered to Broadway, Chenoweth most certainly thought "Whatever Happened to My Part?""
Chenoweth has stated in her book that Glinda was originally meant to be a supporting role, but when she and Stephanie J. Block were doing table reads of the show, it became clear that the show was really about these two characters. Still, it's easy to see why she could have still been somewhat upset- she was the one in it from the beginning and even though Glinda's role was expanded, it really was not the story of these two women's relationship on an equal basis. Sure, their friendship is the heart of the show, but as you mentioned, Elphaba gets all the meaty material in the show and the MAIN focus of it is her arc with Glinda's arc arguably taking somewhat of a backseat. So, she may have been slightly put off by the fact that the roles were supposed to be more or less equal from her perspective, but in the end, she ended up not getting enough to do compared with Menzel. But she has stated in her book that the role really was incredible due to the growth of the character, the different vocal styles she had to sing throughout the show, ect, so I don't know if the above perspective is likely to be accurate.
As for the Tony stuff, I personally feel that she knew she had no chance and was gracious about it: Again, when you read her book, you'll know that she recognized Idina's achievement and that it was her time to shine, not hers. She also states that the role being pushed to supporting in order to have them both win would be an insult to Glinda's character who is definitely too big of a character to be put in Supporting.
