MADONNA'S "BORDERLINE" played softly in the background as Victoria Matlock settled into the director's chair in front of her dressing room mirror.
The sky-blue robe slipped off her shoulders, exposing some of the green mesh bodysuit that covered her torso and three-quarters of her arms. It was about 30 minutes before the hit musical "Wicked," in Philadelphia through Sept. 9, would start, and Matlock, who plays Elphaba - formerly known as the Wicked Witch of the West - had to get green.
"I need that full half-hour before the show," Paul Hadobas, the principal makeup artist, said, though Matlock was "greenified" in a record seven minutes a year ago last spring when she was an understudy and had to step up for the second act in Cleveland.
Matlock first applied a basic skin toner herself, so that the green makeup (landscape green chromocake from M.A.C. Pro) would go on more smoothly. Then Hadobas got to work.
Wielding a Chinese fan brush, available in art supply stores, in his left hand, Hadobas spritzed the water-based green cake with water, covered the brush and painted her chest, back, neck and face.
To fill in the "nooks and crannies" of Matlock's face that the big brush couldn't quite reach, Hadobas used a smaller brush dabbed in green, cream-based makeup.
As Hadobas filled in Matlock's ears, she said, "It kind of feels like my dog [Layla, a 1-year-old Irish setter] licking my ear."
The Salt Lake City native has been portraying Elphaba on "Wicked's" national tour since January. She previously was an understudy for Julia Murney, who's playing the part on Broadway.
Once Matlock was totally covered, Hadobas sprinkled the green makeup with waterproof powder. Then Hadobas started to work on Matlock's face the way he would any other, with a simple palette of ivory for highlighting, purple and brown for contour, and black.
"It feels just like regular makeup," Matlock said. "It's the same weight, just different pigment coloring."
Particular care had to be taken with Matlock's eyebrows, filled in with black to provide a stark contrast on her otherwise lawn-green face. Matlock sat ramrod straight, in part because of a back injury she recently suffered, and completely still. Though when asked about married life (she and Stephen Fletcher, a law student in New York, tied the knot last September), Matlock managed to let out, "It's righteous."
For Act 2, Matlock's eyebrows would have to be raised to make peaks, giving her a more dramatic look.
"In college [Act 1], Elphaba is supposed to look fairly natural," Hadobas explained, "But in Act 2, the makeup is quite different in terms of highlighting; she has to look more mature."
Hadobas used the same M.A.C. makeup to green Matlock's hands and wrists, which were sprayed immediately with a fixative, averting the potential disaster of Elphaba getting near the white, white suit Glinda wears for most of Act 1.
A small shower in the corner of her dressing room is where Matlock "de-greens" every night. She has a system to wash off the green makeup: exactly eight squirts of Neutrogena liquid soap, applying two each to her hands and arms, chest, face, and ears and hairline.
"I tend to do a lot of exfoliation," Matlock added. The green coloring seeps into some actors' skin more than others. Matlock said she's one of the lucky ones who doesn't retain a minimal green glow.
But that tan she got during her April vacation in Jamaica?
"I lost it after one wash," Matlock said with a sigh. *
"Wicked," Academy of Music, Broad and Locust streets, Tuesdays-Sundays through Sept. 9, $30-$90. Tickets at 215-731-3333, kimmelcenter.org/broadway, or the Kimmel Center box office, Broad and Spruce streets. A lottery for 20 seats ($25 each) is held 2 1/2 hours before each show.