Wicked

This musical is automated by STS in the Circus Theater in Scheveningen. (the Netherlands)

Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartzand a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995), a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum‘s classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz(1900). The musical is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz: Elphaba, the misunderstood girl with emerald-green skin, and Galinda, later Glinda, the beautiful, ambitious and popular blonde. Wicked tells the story in which these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and theGood Witch of the North while struggling through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard‘s corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba’s public fall from grace. The plot begins before and continues after Dorothy‘s arrival from Kansas and includes references to locations, events, characters and situations from both the 1939 film and Baum’s novel.

Produced by Universal Pictures in coalition with Marc Platt and David Stone, the Joe Mantello-directed and Wayne Cilento-choreographed original production of Wicked premiered onBroadway at the Gershwin Theatre in October 2003, after completing pre-Broadway SHN tryouts at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre in May 2003. Its original stars included Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, and Joel Grey as the Wizard.^[1] Despite drawing heavy criticism from The New York Times and mixed critical reception elsewhere, the musical has proved to be a favorite among patrons. The success of the Broadway production has provoked the opening of five other North American productions, including two national tours, as well as a four-year strong West End production and several international productions in the likes of Japan, Germany and Australia.

While the original production won three out of its ten Tony Awardnominations, garnered six Drama Desk Awards and received oneGrammy Award, Wicked has since accrued one Laurence Olivier Award and six Helpmann Awards internationally. Since its 2003 debut, Wicked has broken box office records around the world, holding weekly-gross-takings records in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, and London. Attaining £100,000 in the first hour on sale, Wicked also set the record for the biggest West End opening.^[2] In the week ending January 2, 2011, the London, Broadway, and both North American touring productions simultaneously broke the record for the highest weekly gross.^[3][4]Both the West End production and the North American tour have been seen by over two million patrons each^[5] while the original production, having played 3,242 performances,^[1] celebrates its eighth anniversary on October 30, 2011, making Wicked the 14thlongest-running Broadway show in history.^[6]