Tony Award-winning Broadway and West End musical Wicked is an excited adaptation of the best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and a parallel novel of L. Frank Baum’s classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz. Wicked the musical is not Wicked the novel. While the novel is its source, the musical presents only pieces of it, in a much simplified form, and often diverging wildly from the novel’s narrative.
One might be tempted to think all this destroys the work; but in the end it improves it, shining a bright light on the story’s numerous ironies and interlaced levels of social commentary. But the score of Wicked musical is heavily thematic, bearing in some senses more resemblance to a film score than a traditional musical score.
The musical debuted on Broadway on October 30, 2003. It was produced by Universal Pictures and directed by Joe Mantello, with musical staging by Wayne Cilento. Choosing from the 38 speaking characters in Wicked the novel, the authors of Wicked the musical show decided to focus their show on eight key characters plus a few others and the ensemble. Current San Francisco Cast principals are:
• Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda
• Tim Talman as Witch’s Father
• Neka Zang as Witch’s Mother
• Fiama Fricano as The Midwife
• Teal Wicks as Elphaba
• Deedee Magno Hall as Nessarose
• Eddy Rioseco as Boq
• Patty Duke as Madame Morrible
• Tom Flynn as Doctor Dillamond
• Nicolas Dromard as Fiyero
• Tim Talman as The Ozian Official
• Lee Wilkof as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Everth Lopez as Chistery
Wicked tells the story of Elphaba born with emerald-green skin, smart, fiery and misunderstood, the future Wicked Witch of the West and her relationship with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Their friendship struggles through their opposing dispositoins and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, their reactions to the Wizard’s corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba’s public fall from grace. Their buddy story is only one of several storylines and subplots in a carefully constructed, surprise-filled musical adventure.
The music and lyrics are birilliantly selected and presented by Stephen Schwartz. Wicked is a truly heartfelt story of friendship and love. As Richard Zoglin of ‘Time Magazine’ put it, “If every musical had a brain, a heart and the courage of Wicked, Broadway really would be a magical place!”
Wicked topped the nominations counts for all Broadway shows with a total of ten nominations and was Tony-award winner in three of them: Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical - Idina Menzel; Best Scene Design - Eugene Lee. The musical garnered the most nominations and Drama Desk awards of any show this season. Wicked’s final awards announced May 16, 2009 was:
• Oustanding Musical - Wicked,
• Outstanding Lyrics - Stephen Schwartz,
• Outstanding Book - Winnie Holzman,
• Oustanding Costume Design - Susan Hilferty,
• Oustanding Set Design of a musical - Eugene Lee
• Oustanding Director of a Musical - Joe Mantello
At the end of January 2009, Wicked began showing in San Francisco. A second Wicked tour of the United States and Canada started on March 7, 2009 at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers, FL. Now the tour continues trough Memphis, TN, Tempe, AZ, Tulsa, OK, San Diego, CA, Austin, TX, Seattle, WA, Nashville, TN, Des Moines, IA, Denver, CO, Wichita, KS, Kansas City, KS, Cleveland, OH, Schenectady, NY, Providence, RI. Others cities will expect Wicked in 2010: Philadelphia, PA, Syracuse, NY, Greenville, SC, Dayton, OH, Miami, FL, Richmond, VA, Durham, NC, Toledo, OH, St. Louis, MO.
There is currently one U.S. touring production. This popular a production makes tickets very hard-to-find, but Ticketloot.com is your source for premium tickets for those sold-out shows. Pick up your tickets today and be a part of the magnificence of the Wicked.
July 3rd, 2009
Some two million theatregoers have already watched the popular musical Wicked at the London
In testament of its popularity, wicked, the hit musical play achieves its two million theatregoers at the London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre.
Since opening on the said venue in September 2006, Wicked London recently celebrated its 1000th performance.
WICKED continues to break Box Office records, most recently during the Easter fortnight where it achieved a combined gross of £1,416,824.50 with almost 36,000 seeing the show. The week commencing 6 April was the production’s wicked bass concert hall highest grossing 8-show week, playing to 99.8% capacity. WICKED has grossed almost £75 million at the Box Office since opening.
In addition to the Wicked Gammage Auditorium, London production, the international hit musical is also currently running in North America (four productions), Japan, Germany and Australia.
The global hit musical is also currently being played at the fabulous Broadway theater shows in New York.
Based on the acclaimed novel by Gregory Maguire that re-imagined the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, WICKED tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as ‘Glinda The Good’ and the ‘Wicked Witch of the West’.
Those theatre fanatics who wish to see world-class performance should make it a point to watch Wicked the musical live.
Theatre fans who had yet to see this popular musical should make it a point to see it live.
May 24th, 2009
Wicked the musical is one of the most popular theatre play around the world.
THEATER loving fans should not miss the chance to watch Wicked the Musical live in Broadway.
Since the globally renowned wicked musical play opened in Broadway in October 2003 it always draws a record crowd in its every performance.
Wicked the musical is about the untold story of the witches of Oz and is loosely based on the best selling novel ‘ by Gregory Maguire. The musical features music and lyrics by Stephen
Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. With musical staging by Tony Award winner Wayne Cilento.
The musical opened on Broadway on October 30, 2003 at the Gershwin Theatre.
The original cast included Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, and Joel Grey as The Wizard.
Business and popularity boomed due to very good word-of-mouth, and the box office was boosted when the show was nominated for ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical. (It subsequently lost that award, however, along with the Tony Awards for best score
and best book, to another new musical of the season, Avenue Q). Menzel was named Best Actress in a Musical. Wicked Austin Tickets are on sale and is going to start from 12 August 2009.
The musical received two additional awards—to Eugene Lee for scenic design and Susan Hilferty for costume design.
The cast recording received a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.
October 30 - 2003 - sms Idina Menzel - Elphaba - Kristin Chenoweth - Glinda - Joel Grey - The Wizard - Tony Awards - Best Musical - Avenue Q - Best Actress in a Musical - Cast recording - Grammy Award
Wicked earned back its entire initial investment by December 21, 2004. In its first year it grossed more than $56 million with Wicked New York Tickets.
The show, which is open-ended, has been playing to capacity crowds for almost every recent performance and grosses more than a million dollars every week. The show had a $14 million capitalization.
If you have not seen Wicked the musical grab the opportunity to watch it live now.
Be thrilled and dazzled by this popular musical by personally buying tickets and watching it live.
May 6th, 2009
Broadway theater pertains to the theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York (plus one theatre in Lincoln Center) in Manhattan, New York City.
Along with London’s West End theatre, Broadway theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.
The Broadway theatre district is a popular tourist attraction in New York City. According to The Broadway League, Broadway shows sold approximately $937 million worth of tickets in the 2007-08 season. Now Wicked San Francisco is the hot show these days.
May 4th, 2009
