Wicked is a Tony award-winning American musical produced by Universal Pictures with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and book by Winnie Holzman. It opened on Broadway at the George Gershwin Theatre on October 30, 2003. It is touted as the untold story of the witches of Oz and is loosely based on the best selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. With musical staging by Tony Award winner Wayne Cilento, Wicked is directed by Tony winner Wicked Chicago Tickets Joe Mantello.
The original Broadway cast included Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, Idina Menzel as Elphaba, 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, Wicked Chicago Tickets including Best Musical. It subsequently lost that award 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, and the musical received two additional Tony awards to Eugene Lee for scenic design and Susan Hilferty for costume design. The cast recording received the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2005 and was certified platinum by the RIAA on November 30, 2006.
Wicked earned back its entire initial investment by December 21, 2004. The show had a $14 million capitalization. In its first year it grossed more than $56 million. 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 according to Playbill.com's weekly grosses. In the week ending January 1, 2006, it was announced that Wicked had broken the record for the highest weekly box office gross in Broadway history, with $1,610,934; a record that was previously held by The Producers. Wicked broke its own record in the week ending November 26, 2006, when it grossed a total of $1,715,155. The Broadway Wicked Chicago Tickets company of Wicked celebrated its 1000th performance on March 23, 2006.
The show began its first US national tour in early 2005. In late June of 2005, a permanent production of Wicked, separate from the national tour, opened at Chicago's Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre with an open-ended run, which many consider to be a harbinger of things to come for Chicago theatre. A second sit-down production is now open in Los Angeles at the Pantages Theatre, making a total of four simultaneous productions of Wicked in the United States.
Internationally, Wicked Chicago Tickets another engagement opened in London, England on September 27, 2006 with Idina Menzel reprising her role as Elphaba. In addition, a condensed, 30-minute version of the show opened on July 12, 2006 at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. There will be full productions in Japan (opening June 17, 2007) and Germany Wicked Chicago Tickets (opening November 15, 2007). An Australian production will open in Melbourne in July 2008. |