EVEN if you haven't seen the hit musical Wicked, you've likely seen footage of its star Jemma Rix.

The performer famously portrayed the green-skinned Elphaba (before she became the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz) in the Australian tours of the award-winning show, belting out the spine-tingling ballad Defying Gravity.

She reprises the role soon in the upcoming GFO London Palladium production of The Wizard of Oz, premiering at QPAC in November. Stepping away, albeit temporarily, from the pointy black hat and broomstick, the musical theatre star has released her debut solo album.

"It came to a point where I was either going to do it or not do it and I didn't want to regret it," she said.

"In live theatre, once you've done it, it's gone. It's in your memory but I wanted to have something recorded that I'll have forever. When I'm older I want to go: 'When I was younger, I used to be able to sing. See? This is me'."

After clocking up 1200 performances as Elphaba, the aptly named album is a compilation of Rix's favourite musical theatre songs and features two duets with Rob Mills and Kane Alexander.

"The songs that I have chosen come from a variety of musicals that I have either performed in or have a deep connection with," she said.

"My first love was pop music, so this album features the songs you would expect to hear me sing but with pop undertones you weren't. I think people are going to really like it."

Gravity is available at jemmarix.com and on iTunes.