Kristin Chenoweth wasn't the only one in her family to spend a fleeting day in the mesmerizing Emerald City. The Wicked veteran, who was adopted as a babe by Junie and Jerry Chenoweth, discovered that she and her biological father, Billy Ethridge, shared more than just a mutual love for music. On the February 24th episode of Finding Your Roots, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed to her that Billy had starred in a youth production of The Wizard of Oz – years before Kristin originated the role of Glinda the Good Witch on Broadway.
"The Junior Players Guild production of The Wizard of Oz, opening at 8 p.m. Friday at the Great Hall of St. Matthew's Cathedral," Kristin read aloud. "The cast of the Wizard is as follows: Oz, Billy Eugene Ethridge." She exclaimed, "Are you kidding me? Oh my gosh, is that not freaky? That's nuts. The Wizard of Oz. Well, we were a lot alike."
And it wasn't just their shared connection to The Wizard of Oz and Wicked. Kristin learned that Billy had also starred in other musicals, including productions of The King and I and A Connecticut Yankee, as well as being a member of a dance revue, a music club, and his school choir.
"You know, I think of Billy as a rockabilly," Kristin explained. "He was an incredible guitarist and pianist, but I don't think of him as this music theater kid. But he was."
Upon learning about their ties, the 57-year-old expressed her regret that her biological father had since passed away, saying, "I wish he was alive so I could just be like, 'Look at this.'"
Kristin had previously talked about Billy's musical talent, acknowledging that he's likely the one she inherited her own abilities from. "My birth father—major musician," she told Larry King in 2019. "Guitarist. Pianist. Perfect pitch."
But it wasn't all from her father; the Tony winner connected with her birth mother Lynn in 2012, sharing that she too was an artist and lover of music. And while Lynn died in 2023, she left a huge impression on Kristin.
"The 10-plus years I knew her were magic," she wrote in an Instagram tribute after Lynn's death. "So many things became clear to me about myself when I met her and came to really know her. Those of us who knew her loved her light. Her love of music and all things artistic. An artist herself!"
"In her belly, I became fans of Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan, Doyle Bramhall, Jimi Hendrix, and, of course, Billy Ethridge, my bio dad," Kristin added. "The two of them gave me the innate artistic ability I have today."
Throughout her career, Kristin has been candid about her adoption and the gratitude she feels toward her adoptive parents. "My dad always says, 'Man, did we win the lottery,'" she said on Today in 2022, "and I always say, 'No, I won the lottery.'" And as she explained, the fact that she was adopted was "never a surprise" for her, sharing that her parents told her, "'The lady that had you in her belly could not take care of you the way she wanted to, and she loved you so much.'"
