Wicked, one of the most anticipated musicals currently staged in Australia, brings the “untold story” of the Witches of Oz to Brisbane.

Following critically acclaimed seasons in both Melbourne and Sydney, the Brisbane production also brings a collection of famous faces to the local stage.

Bert Newton stars as The Wizard alongside Lucy Durack (Glinda), Jemma Rix (Elphaba), Tim Campbell (Fiyero) and Maggie Kirkpatrick (Madame Morrible).

Advertisement: Story continues below The award-winning Broadway musical tells the story of how two unlikely friends in the Land of Oz grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

Following it’s limited Brisbane season, Wicked will continue its Australian tour, moving to Adelaide before taking in Perth.

Wicked comes to the Lyric Theatre at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, South Bank, from January 11 to March 6. Tickets from $69.90 available via the website.

{Via Brisbane Times}

Emmerdale actress Suzanne Shaw has revealed she would love to return to the West End at some point in the future, with Wicked high on her list of ideal shows.

The former Hear’Say singer has already appeared in Summer Holiday and Chicago in London since the reality TV pop group split in 2002, but she told the Mirror she would never say no to treading the boards again if the opportunity arose.

“I love trying different things out,” she enthused. “I’d love to do Sweet Charity or be Glinda in Wicked.”

Sweet Charity recently closed in the West End following a successful run at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, but Wicked is still going strong at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.

However, the producers recently announced that Louise Dearman will continue to play the role of Glinda after renewing her contract, so Shaw may have some time to wait if she wants to step into those particular shoes.

{ Via UK Theatre Tickets }

Wicked musical returns to Orlando in February 23, 2011.

After breaking box office records and selling out in record time in 2007, Wicked, the smash-hit musical, will return to Orlando’s Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre February 23, 2011 and playing through March 27, 2011.

Buy Wicked Orlando, FL Tickets Online.

The performance schedule is as follows:
The first week, February 23 – 27, 2011, Wicked will play evening performances at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, a Thursday and Saturday matinee at 2:00 p.m., a Sunday matinee at 1:00 p.m., and a Sunday evening performance at 6:30 p.m.

Following that, Wicked will play the remainder of its engagement, Tuesday February 28, through Sunday, March 27, 2011 with evening performances at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, a Saturday matinee at 2:00 p.m., a Sunday matinee at 1:00 p.m., and a Sunday evening performance.

Hurry up for best seats. Buy Wicked Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre Tickets Online before they go on sale.

“Wicked’s” triumphant Chicago return is via one of two national touring companies of the 2003 Broadway blockbuster, and it still proves itself to be a well-oiled machine that delivers a heady dose of theatrical spectacle and touching storytelling.

Aside from minor physical changes, “Wicked” retains director Joe Mantello’s staging magic in depicting a revisionist take on “The Wizard of Oz.” And it’s all lushly illustrated throughout by Susan Hilferty’s whimsically plush costumes and Kenneth Posner’s color-saturated lighting design.

This “Wicked” cast is also uniformly strong, with some members finding small ways to break out of the vivid templates of the show’s many memorable predecessors.

Read complete review by Scott C. Morgan at Chicago Daily Herald.

Location: Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St., Chicago,

Showtimes: Schedule varies through Jan. 23, but most performances 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. No shows Dec. 25 or Jan. 1.

Running time: Two hours and 45 minutes with 15-minute intermission

Buy Wicked Chicago IL Tickets Online.

Wicked Musical opens at Miller Wednesday December 01, 2010 and runs through Sunday, December 12, 2010.

Crews assemble the set for “Wicked” on the stage of Miller Auditorium on Tuesday

Assistant sound engineer Anthony Jones, of Brooklyn, N.Y., assembles sound equipment for the Broadway musical Wicked at Miller Auditorium. Some 90 local electricians, carpenters, laborers and others were hired to work with the 18 professionals who travel with the show.

Buy your Wicked Miller Auditorium Tickets now!

The Toronto Star’s Richard Ouzounian reports that the show, which just finished its third Toronto run, set the record for highest-earning week in Canadian theatre, grossing $1,986,319 for the week of November 28.

During the week that ended Nov. 28, the show grossed $1,986,319, making it the highest-earning week for a show in Canadian theatre history.

Over the course of the six weeks that Wicked played Toronto this time around, it took in a total of $11,459,475, breaking its own house record at the Canon Theatre five times.

Since opening in 2003, the show written by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman from the novel by Gregory Maguire has grossed $2 billion and played to 25 million people around the world.

Producer David Stone has previously gone on record as saying, “Toronto is one of our favourite cities to play.” There is no indication when, or if, a fourth edition of Wicked will be seen in Toronto.

Wicked is currently playing in Cadillac Palace Theatre, Chicago IL and Miller Auditorium – Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI.

Stephen Schwartz said he doesn’t know for certain why “Wicked,” for which he’s both composer and lyricist, has become such a long-running phenomenon. The musical, which opened on Broadway in 2003, will perform its magic Dec. 1-12 at Miller Auditorium.

Schwartz spoke about “Wicked” and his career while in Kalamazoo in August, when he also gave a talk at the Kalamazoo Civic Auditorium, ahead of its September performance of “Godspell,” and sneaked in a few matches at the U.S. Tennis Association Boys’ National Championship.

“I get these wonderful e-mails, especially from women going through difficult stages of their lives,” Schwartz said. The messages are from people who saw “Wicked,” often more than once, and found the musical “seems to speak to them.”

The song “Defying Gravity,” in particular, inspired them to confront their challenges and take action.

“Wicked,” a tale of two witches in Oz before Dorothy of Kansas showed up, is about the “difference between our perception of people and the reality,” Schwartz said. “So much today is blogs and things taken out of context, us versus them. Life is really not that simple.”

But basically “Wicked” is “the story of these two people.”

“It’s about the relationship between two friends, how another person can change your life,” he explained. “That’s a story not very often told in musical theater, and not so much with women.”

“As our leading producer, David Stone, says, ‘All of us has that green girl inside of us,’” Schwartz said.

What first attracted Schwartz, who studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School of Music and graduated in 1968 from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.F.A. in drama, to this story?

Choosing his projects, he admitted with a grin, often “is like falling in love” — a lot of it is chance. In the case of “Wicked,” he recalled he was on a snorkeling vacation in Hawaii when a friend mentioned she was reading Gregory Maguire’s novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.”

The coming year will be “very busy” for the composer. Fresh after being honored this summer by the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project for his mentorship of young tunesmiths, Schwartz has turned his attention to a Chicago revival of “Working” (1978), which will boast two new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda of the Tony Award-winning show “In the Heights,” and an opera.

Of his career thus far, he noted, “Even shows that I had trouble with at first” — “The Baker’s Wife,” “Children of Eden,” “Working,” for example — “they haven’t just gone away. People remained interested in them” and they continue to be produced.
“I’ve been very, very lucky.”

Wicked in Kalamazoo, MI
Miller Auditorium presents musical about the complicated and doomed friendship between the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

When: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1-2, 7-9; 8 p.m. Dec. 3-4, 10-11; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Dec. 5 and 12; 2 p.m. Dec. 2, 4 and 11

Where: Miller Auditorium, Western Michigan University

Buy Wicked Kalamazoo MI Tickets Online

Wicked is coming to the Cadillac Palace Theatre, not the Oriental, its former Chicago home. Wicked has a large and loyal contingent of Chicago fans.

Wicked played in Chicago for 3 and 1/2 years before, is now returning to Chicago Cadillac Palace for an almost two-month run during the holidays.

Actress Jackie Burns (left) plays a young Wicked Witch of the West opposite Chandra Lee Schwartz as a novice Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, in the national Broadway tour of Wicked playing a Chicago holiday run Dec. 1 to Jan. 23, 2011.

This return Broadway in Chicago engagement of “Wicked” also includes the return of two Chicagoan stars, Barbara Robertson, joining the cast as treacherous teacher Madame Morrible, and Gene Weygandt as the Wizard of Oz.

Wicked holds the magical distinction of being the longest-running show in Chicago history. For this season’s return, it’s playing at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph, for eight weeks, opening Dec. 1 and running through Jan. 23, 2011.

Buy Wicked Tickets Chicago Online.

Wicked will be performing at Miller Auditorium Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI Wedneasday, Dec 01 through Sunday, Dec 12, 2010.

The show has been selling well, with some of the weekend shows nearly sold out and the best seats still available for weeknight performances, said Bethany Gauthier, assistant director of marketing for Miller.

Purchase Wicked Miller Auditorium – Western Michigan University Tickets online.

“Wicked,” a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” performing 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, through Nov. 28, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, 110 E. 2nd St.

Wicked will be closing this sunday night, Only last two days in Tulsa, OK. Will will then be moving to Miller Auditorium – Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI.

Hurry up for Wicked Tulsa OK Tickets.