Stephanie J. Block felt "protected by rejection" early on in her career

Speaking on the Musicals Magazine podcast, she said: "All I was meant to do was go to the Universal lot with [composer] Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman who wrote the libretto. I would sing three songs and that was going to be my entire connection to 'Wicked'. Then that evolved into reading Act I, then Act II, then a two-week workshop with Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, essentially selling the show to Universal ex ecutives.

"So the call came and I auditioned for [director] Joe Mantello and I believe the three of us auditioning were Julia Murney, myself, and Idina Menzel. The call from Stephen, there shortly after was 'We think you're amazing, but you have no Broadway credits, you've never originated a role and it's too risky.

"I had to put my ego aside and I cried a great deal, and I just thought that I had to get to New York so no one could ever say to me that I'd never be part of an original company.

"So I agreed to be an understudy, then essentially becoming Idina's standby when we got to Broadway with the possibility of being the matinee girl. They didn't understand at that time how heavy the score would be, how difficult.

"I had the hope of that but Idina kept a real close grip on that role. But sometimes rejection is projection, and in a way it was. In saying yes, I could do the role out-of-town in San Fransico one time with all those that needed to be there."

The former 'Orange Is the New Black' actress eventually took on the leading role of the misunderstood green girl in the first national tour 'Wicked' and joked that while Idina got a Tony Award for starring in 'The Wizard of Oz', she ended up with a husband after she met and married her co-star Sebastian Arcelus on the road.

Stephanie - who has nine-year-old Vivienne with Sebastian - added: "It wasn't a difficult choice, I wanted to go on tour. I wanted to get back into the rehearsal room, create my own Elphie with a Glinda that we could connect with, and in saying yes to that, I got to meet my husband, I got to marry him, and have a baby.

"Idina got the Tony, I got the Sebastian and I may have come out on top with this one!"