Alli Mauzey will perform a number of Christmas favorites with the Maui Pops Orchestra on Dec. 8 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Courtesy photo

A star of “Wicked” on Broadway, Alli Mauzey’s celebrated career has included performing in several Tony Award-winning musicals along with singing with the New York Philharmonic, The Philly Pops and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

On Dec. 8, she will join the Maui Pops Orchestra for a Holiday Pops concert at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center’s Castle Theater. Previously performing a Rodgers and Hammerstein concert with the Pops, Mauzey is excited about returning to Maui.

“I’ve been singing Christmas songs in my house since September,” she says. “I’m really looking forward to a little ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town,’ ‘Jingle Bells’ a la Barbra Streisand, also ‘Merry Christmas Darling,’ which is from one of my favorite albums by the Carpenters. We’re also doing ‘The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,’ ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,’ ‘The Twelve Days After Christmas,’ which is very fun, and we’re going to be ending with ‘Oh Holy Night,’ the Sandi Patty version, which is so gorgeous with the orchestra.”

Mauzey says she especially enjoys singing with orchestras because “arrangements are bigger than Broadway and we have a full orchestra. It’s just a really special, full, rich sound, and you’re also in these amazing halls, these symphony halls that are acoustically just made for this kind of music. The musicians and the maestro, they’re right there on stage with you. On Broadway, I’m looking down below and I might get to see the conductor’s head. When I’m singing with orchestras, we’re all up there together and it’s lovely.”

Mauzey starred on Broadway as Glinda in “Wicked,” a role she also performed to critical acclaim on the First National Tour and in the San Francisco company.

“The last time I did the show was for the 10th anniversary,” she says. “I’ve had in my ‘Wicked’ career at least 10 different Elphabas with me. It never ceases to amaze me after you’ve done the show with an Elphaba, you get to the end of the show, and these characters are saying goodbye. It’s like as if Alli and the other Elphabas are saying goodbye, and you can’t help but cry.

“It’s just a blubbering mess that last time you sing it together, because the show bonds you. ‘Wicked’ brings people together. It brings the fans together, and it brings the fans and the actors together at the stage door. Twenty-one years later the show is still bringing people together. Now it’s generational — you’ve got people bringing their kids.”

Mauzey got to see a sneak peek of the new “Wicked” movie starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

“A special screening in New York, they invited a lot of Glindas and Elphabas that have played the part, the current company, the original company. We all got to sit in a room and watch the movie for the first time together. It felt very like we were kind of in on the same inside stuff that maybe wouldn’t happen if I was sitting in a movie theater or in my living room by myself watching it. I absolutely loved it. People who love ‘Wicked’ the musical are going to love the movie. It’s an ode to the fans. It’s an ode to the original creators and the original cast.”

She most recently starred in “Kimberly Akimbo,” which won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and was hailed as one of the best original Broadway musicals in years.

“It was so well-written,” she says. “There’s nothing like being in such a well-written show. You just feel so taken care of as an actor. The show won many awards, and that’s just like icing on the cake.”

Growing up with a sister who had “a passion for musicals at a very young age,” Mauzey was initially shy about singing in front of people.

“I couldn’t sing in front of people, so it’s kind of amazing,” she says. “My mom would want me to sing for people, and if I did it, I would need to literally stand in the closet and shut the door. Even then, I needed people to turn their back.”

Eventually studying drama and music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, she made her Broadway debut in “Hairspray.”

“I was living in New York and paying my bills by myself for the first time,” she recalls. “And it clicked that I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m making a living doing this.’ Then I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll just keep doing it.'”

Mauzey will perform with the Maui Pops Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Jim Durham at the MACC’s Castle Theater at 3 p.m. Dec. 8. Tickets are $22, $35, $55 or $65, plus applicable fees. Patrons who purchase tickets for all four of the Maui Pops 2024-25 series will receive a 10% discount. Tickets for all four concerts need to be purchased together to qualify for the discount. Offer excludes the $22 tickets. For more, go to mauiarts.org/.