The Broadway musical Wicked has extended its booking period through to 3rd July 2011. The musical opened at the Gershwin Theatre on 30 Oct 2003, following previews from 8 Oct 2003.

Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

Wicked currently features Mandy Gonzalez (Elphaba), Katie Rose Clarke (Glinda), P.J. Benjamin (The Wizard), Kathy Fitzgerald (Madame Morrible), Andy Karl (Fiyero), Jenny Fellner (Nessarose), Timothy Britten Parker (Doctor Dillamond) and Alex Brightman (Boq).

Wicked has music & lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Winnie Holzman, based on the novel by Gregory Maguire.

Wicked Gershwin Theatre is a layered piece of drama that uses its musicality as a way to convey some of the deeper issues it sets forth. Buy Wicked Gershwin Theatre Tickets online.

Australian cricketing legend Glenn McGrath and his family visited Wicked AU recently. After the show they went backstage to meet Tim & Jemma.

Hit musical Wicked will finish its mammoth run at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney towards the end of next month. Buy before the Tickets go on sale.

{Via Wicked The Broadway Musical Australia}

Wicked landed confidently at Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theatre on Thursday for a six-week run in its third Twin Cities go-round.

From the moment that Glinda, ruler of Oz, arrives by delicate bubble carriage to the finale when she leaves by same, “Wicked” sparkles like, well, fairy dust.

It’s gratifying that Joe Mantello’s flawless and lyrical production, with its seamless transitions, is still in such tiptop shape. It allows the show to reveal more of its depth and meaning, even if Stephen Schwartz’s score hasn’t gotten any more hummable from repeated exposure.

The power of “Wicked” — created by Schwartz and librettist Winnie Holzman from Gregory Maguire’s fanciful 1995 novel — rests on its portrait of two young women figuring out their relationship to each other and to men. Loyalty, friendship and love grow out of shallowness and seemingly unbridgeable differences.

“Wicked” also includes a secret connection between Elphaba and the Wizard, played with avuncular ease by former Guthrie and Chanhassen character actor Don Amendolia, who does a charming “Wonderful.”

Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel originated the roles of Glinda and Elphaba on Broadway, imprinting their respective characters with flighty cuteness and self-possessed intelligence. In this production, Daradich has the ditz down pat, inhabiting Glinda with a hair-tossing silliness but also with tremendous vocal agility and a wonderful sense of play.

Wicked is performing at Historic Orpheum Theatre mn in Minneapolis, MN till 9/19/2010. Buy your Wicked The Musical Minneapolis Tickets now!

The Apollo Victoria theatre will celebrate its 80th birthday later this year with a gala performance featuring West End stars past and present.

The special anniversary event will take place on 10 October, with all profit from the evening being donated to Cancer Research UK.

The Apollo Victoria’s gala performance will feature stars from its current show, the hit musical Wicked, alongside cast members from previous shows staged at the venue including Saturday Night Fever, Bombay Dreams and Billy Joel danc-ical Movin’ Out. The evening will also include a reunion of performers from the venue’s longest running show, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s roller-skating extravaganza Starlight Express.

The Apollo Victoria theatre originally opened in 1930, when it was known as the New Victoria theatre and was used as both a theatre and a cinema. The 1950s saw the venue remodelled to host ballet and music performances, while in the 1980s it was once again reinvented as musical house, hosting a Petula Clark-led production of The Sound Of Music and Fiddler On The Roof, starring Topol. Starlight Express opened at the venue in March 1984, playing for eight years before closing in January 2002.

The Oz-set story, which tells of how two magical girls grew into Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West, won the 2010 Laurence Olivier Audience Award for Most Popular Show as voted for by the users of Official London Theatre earlier this year.

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The national touring company of Wicked will host “Our Wicked, Wicked Ways,” an evening of cabaret performances on August 23, 2010. Held at Axis Nightclub, the event will feature performances from the company’s cast and crew with the net proceeds benefitting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids.

Produced by company members, the evening is an opportunity for them to step out of their Wicked roles and perform in other forms of music, dance, and comedy. Co-hosted by Columbus’ own Nina West, the evening will feature Chandra Lee Schwartz (Glinda), Richard Kline (The Wizard), Richard H. Blake (Fiyero), and Mariand Torres (Elphaba standby), as well as members of the ensemble and touring staff. In addition, there will be a silent auction of several items including Wicked memorabilia, and a live auction with opportunities to bid on backstage tours and a walk-on role in Wicked. The musical is now playing the Uihlein Hall Marcus Center For The Performing Arts through August 08 and Ohio Theatre through August 29. Tickets to performances of Wicked are available.

“Our Wicked, Wicked Ways” is part of an ongoing series of performances by the national touring company to support charitable causes. In its five years on the road, the company has raised well over $1 million in donations for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and local Aids service organizations all over the country.

The musical Wicked has been wowing audiences with what some call the best musical of the decade. The story is about what happened before Dorothy dropped into Munchkinland in The Wizard of Oz. Wicked is about two girls who meet in the land of Oz.

The New York Times called Wicked “Broadway’s biggest blockbuster.”

The musical has won 35 major awards, including a Grammy and three Tony Awards.

NBC 4‘s Monica Day sat down with two of the stars from the show to find out why everyone loves the musical.

“Anytime you have a story with these familiar characters that a lot of people are very familiar with but with different aspect of that story is very appealing,” said Justin Brill who stars as the character Boq.

“To use a very good quote, ‘It’s a cultural phenomenon.’ It has such a wide spread appeal that everyone that sees it loves it,” said Brynn O’Malley who stars as the character Nessarose.

The show runs until Sunday, Aug. 29, at the Ohio Theater. Buy now and save $20 on your next order over $250.

For the fourth week in a row, the hit musical Wicked was once again the top event in TicketNews’ exclusive top events rankings.

The top selling shows in the theater and Broadway rankings continue to be “Wicked“, Jersey Boys, and Lion King. The theater rankings show Billy Elliot and Phantom of the Opera to be popular tickets still, while the Broadway rankings give precedence to Mamma Mia! and Chicago – The Musical. Radio City Christmas Spectacular tickets make their appearance on both rankings lists, at number ten.

In March, an extensive cast change in the West End production at the Apollo Victoria Theatre found Belfast-born Rachel Tucker taking on the vocally and physically demanding role of Elphaba, the green witch who turns out to be less wicked than she is simply misunderstood. For Tucker, 29, the part fulfils a dream she has nursed for years, well before appearing on the West End in We Will Rock You or making it to the semifinals of I’d Do Anything, the BBC reality TV program to find a new Nancy for Oliver! The chatty, likable Tucker, who is contracted to Wicked through February 2011, took time to speak to Broadway.com one recent evening before preparing herself, once more, to defy gravity. She is been London’s Elphaba for four months since March, Matt Wolf Interviewed Rachel Tuckeron about Her Role in Wicked. Here you Go:

You’ve been London’s Elphaba for four months now. How is everything going?
I’ve settled in really nicely. The magic has not gone away; every night when I fly, it feels like the first time. I’d had a passion in me for this role from when I first saw it on Broadway fairly early in the run. Kristin Chenoweth was still in it [as Glinda] but we actually saw Idina Menzel’s understudy. I was 20 or so, and I had bribed my sister and my mom to go on a girlie shopping holiday to New York—but it was actually to see Wicked, and our tickets were dearer than our flight.

That’s not surprising for Wicked!
It was so amazing to be in a city with all these musicals. I grew up in Northern Ireland on musicals. Instead of cartoons, my family would watch Singin’ in the Rain and anything with Gene Kelly. My dad’s a singer and my sister’s a singer. They have day jobs, but they also have their own family band.

How much flexibility and freedom do you feel you have with this role, given the many Elphabas that have come before?
My feeling about Elphaba is that the performance will only come truthfully if I believe what I sing, so for me, it was important to go back to the base, which is Gregory Maguire’s novel, and to research the role as much as I could. I read the book inside out, back to front, and knew the script before I came to rehearsals. It was all about wanting to bring it back to what I felt was the most fundamental part of Elphaba –—that she is an extremely intricate, intelligent young lady who knows herself well enough but is nonetheless forced to learn about herself. I love the beauty of being able to stand on stage and tell this story.

So it’s about more than just hitting those money notes.
My husband [Guy Retallack] is a theater director, and he’s been very helpful about reminding me that if you get the meaning right, the sound will happen: The lyrics behind the music are the first port of call, and the reason why we sing in a musical is because we can no longer speak. On “So, if you care to find me” [an excerpt from the lyrics to “Defying Gravity”], I could listen to myself hitting those belty notes, but then I would know I have not delivered because the words mean more than just the sounds. It’s about being truthful enough with myself.

Did you meet your husband while doing a musical?
Yes, it was Tommy on tour, which was his first musical, and I auditioned literally the day before I went to New York [to see Wicked]. I was the first cover Acid Queen—they couldn’t give me the role because I wasn’t black—and played Sally Simpson. Lee [Mead, Tucker’s Fiyero in Wicked] was the first cover for Tommy.

So, when you were competing for the role of Nancy in Oliver! on TV, you could trade notes with Lee about his experience landing the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
It was because of Lee that I decided to do the TV program. I was playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz just as Lee was winning the part of Joseph on TV, and I thought to myself, “If Lee can do it, I can do it.” Because I knew someone who had gone through that whole experience, it didn’t seem impossible. I called him up and said, “What’s that whole thing like?” and he was like, “Tucker, just do it.”

Obviously the reality show was a good move for you.
The whole reason for me to do the TV show was to get a bit more of a profile. I had been pipped to the post so many times at auditions by people who had a higher profile than me, which is just the way of the world; it’s about putting bums on seats, So I was like, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” Nothing had been coming up for me, so I thought, “Why am I turning my nose up at this opportunity? And if this gives me a little bit of a profile, why not?”

You must have a double set of stage-door fans: the Elphaba/Wicked devotees and those who were rooting for you to win the part of Nancy, which went to Jodie Prenger.
There are people who come to the show because they voted for me and then they fall in love with Wicked and then there are others at the stage door who say, “I was devastated to hear you were doing the role, but now I can’t picture anyone else.” There were a few, “Oh no, not Rachel Tucker!” comments [laughs].

I’m sure it’s not long into your performance before you win them over.
Again, it’s the show. I get letters from people saying, “I’m a lesbian, and by watching Elphaba grow, I realize it’s OK to be me.” I’ve found that this show works for everyone. That’s great for me, because it means I am doing my job properly. I’m delivering, and that comes back to Elphaba being truthful.

And, I would assume, to the fact that you have no fear of flying.
None at all, no. I love it.

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After breaking box office records and selling out in record time when the show last played Boston, Wicked, the smash-hit musical, will return to the Boston Opera House for a limited engagement September 1 – October 17. Based on the best-selling 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, Wicked, winner of 35 major awards, including a Grammy® and three Tony® Awards, is the untold story of the witches of Oz. It is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone.

Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the Land of Oz. One – born with emerald-green skin – is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular.

Wicked tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, and how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Academy Award-winner for Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt) and book by Winnie Holzman (“My So Called Life,” “Once And Again” and “thirtysomething”), Wicked is directed by two-time Tony® Award winner Joe Mantello (Take Me Out, Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Vagina Monologues) and features musical staging by Tony® Award winner Wayne Cilento (Aida, The Who’s Tommy, How To Succeed…). Wicked is part of the Lexus Boston Area Dealers Broadway Across America – Boston Series.

PERFORMANCES ARE: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm
(Please note: additional matinee on Thursday 9/2 at 1pm)
Friday at 8pm
Saturday at 2pm and 8pm
Sunday at 2pm and 7:30pm
Ticket Prices: $38.00 – $103.00

Buy Wicked Boston MA Tickets.

{Via BroadwayWorld.com}

Some actors will do anything for their art. In the case of the smash hit Broadway musical ‘Wicked,’ that means being painted green.

Onstage, actress Vicki Noon casts a spell on the audience as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. It’s not just fancy stage lighting giving her a unique hue–she’s actually painted green!

Makeup supervisor Joyce McGilberry talks to us as she applies the paint. She explains, “I want to get the green on as quickly as possible, so I’m using a sea sponge to apply it on her hands.”

The makeup magic happens backstage, about an hour before the show. The process requires Joyce to re-apply paint and powder several times. It’s not as easy as it looks. Vicki jokes about the time she tried to do it herself, “You know, the first time I ever tried to do it by myself, for fun, it turned out horrible!!”

For the Seattle native, the chance to be a lead in ‘Wicked’ is like a real-life fairy-tale. “I feel really lucky, I’m extremely grateful to be given this opportunity,” Vicki says.

The 25-year-old admits she misses home though, and it helps to have a confidante. She says, “Sometimes I’ll talk to Joyce about that, how I’m missing home, feeling homesick.”

The final touches include eye makeup, hair, and costuming. Then the wicked witch comes to life! “It doesn’t get old… I get to go out and have fun with my friends for 3 hours, so it’s pretty cool,” Vicki exclaims.

‘Wicked’ runs through August 8 at the Marcus Center For The Performing Arts. You can still get tickets, but you better buy them soon. Click here to Buy Wicked Milwaukee WI Tickets. Buy now and save $20 on your next order over $250.

{Via Today’s TMJ4}