More visitors than ever went to West End Live last week

The free theatre festival West End Live attracted a record number of visitors this year, new figures have revealed.

Some 250,000 people flocked to Leicester Square in order to get a taste of some of theatreland’s hottest shows, including Legally Blonde, Wicked, Love Never Dies and Avenue Q.

It is thought that this could tempt people to purchase an extra £2 million worth of theatre tickets in the coming months.

Westminster councillor Robert Davis said: “Without doubt, this has been our biggest and best West End Live. We’ve seen spectacular performances from some of the nation’s favourite shows.”

According to WhatsonStage.com, the festival was so popular that people were queuing at 04:00 BST on Saturday (June 19th 2010) to make sure they managed to catch their top musicals and plays.

Last month, Legally Blonde star Sheridan Smith told the London Evening Standard she thinks West End Live provides a nice taster for people who are unsure which shows they want to see.

Buy Wicked London Tickets Online.

{Via UK Theatre Tickets}

Jackie Burns to Join Wicked Tour as Elphaba July 8 in Houston Texas

The company of the first North American tour of Wicked welcomes Jackie Burns as Elphaba on Thursday, July 8 in Houston, TX.

Burns was most recently seen in the original cast of the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Hair, where she was part of the ‘Black Boys’ trio and understudied and performed the role of Sheila. Off-Broadway she was part of the original company of Rock of Ages and the award-winning Unlock’d for NYMF.

Burns joins a cast that includes Chandra Lee Schwartz as Glinda, Randy Danson as Madame Morrible and Richard Kline as The Wizard.

The company also features Richard H. Blake (Fiyero), Justin Brill (Boq), Tom Flynn (Dr. Dillamond), Brynn O’Malley (Nessarose) and Mariand Torres (Standby for Elphaba) with Terra Lynn Arrington, Antonette Balestreri, Al Blackstone, Aaron De Jesus, Emily Ferranti, Dominic Giudici, Courtney D. Jones, Spencer Jones, Renee Lawless-Orsini, Philip Dean Lightstone, Kourtni Lind, Marissa Lupp, Sterling Masters, Kevin McMahon, Jeremy McQueen, Christopher Russo, Adam Sanford, Carla Stickler, Brandon Tyler, Shanna VanDerwerker, Bud Weber, Betsy Werbel, Lauren Ashley Zakrin and Jared Zirilli.

The Houston engagement of Wicked is currently running through July 25 at the Sarofim Hall Hobby Center. Tickets are available online.

Buy Wicked Sarofim Hall Hobby Center Tickets.

Wicked, running at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts through July 25, boasts incredible production values, some blockbuster songs and two superstar leads in Donna Vivino’s Elphaba and Chandra Lee Schwartz’s Glinda.

The show has now traveled three times to Houston in the seven years since the Broadway debut, and it runs like a well-oiled machine. According to production stage manager Peter Van Dyke, the traveling production regularly earns more than the New York show, which garners more than $1.5 million per week.

From the dragon grumbling menacingly overhead to Glinda’s bubble lift, the wizard’s public face and the chaotic scene in the rain, this is a show with so many moving parts it would be impressive on a purely technical level if the audience wasn’t busy being thoroughly transported inside its world of magic.

Vivino has the jaw-dropping voice and the bone structure to pull off Elphaba’s green, but in pure stage presence she’s surpassed by Schwartz, who plays Glinda with a healthy helping of Elle Woods, practically skipping across the stage and giggling through the first act, most notably pausing to worship her shoe collection during “Popular.”

The only real hiccup in the production on Thursday night was when large portions of the audience seemed unprepared for the beginning of the second act. With Wicked, there are always certain sticking points for critics — the second act doesn’t live up musically to the first, some dance scenes are a bit overwrought, etc.

Whether seeing Wicked for the first or 10th time, this production is a joy to experience. Buy Wicked Sarofim Hall – Hobby Center Tickets.

Wicked will be performing at Sarofim Hall Hobby Center Houston, TX starting Wednesday June 30 till Sunday July 25, 2010. Wicked will be closing at the Music Hall at Fair Park and on the June 30 Wicked will be opening at the Sarofim Hall Hobby Center in Houston, Texas.

Fans of Wicked the musical hate to see it leave thier city, many have seen the musical several times and it will be years before the national tour of Wicked comes back to Dallas, Texas. Tickets for Wicked at the Sarofim Hall Hobby Center have beeen on sale for quite some time.

Most of the the musical Wicked performances at Sarofim Hall are already sold out but you can still buy Wicked tickets on the secondary market where season ticket holders will resell the best seats in the orchestra section and the cheaper upper level balcony seats. Wicked will be performing at the Sarofim Hall through Sunday July 25 and will not be extended so if you have to see Wicked live in a great theatre, buy your Wicked Sarofim Hall tickets today.

Wicked Broadway praised by Entertainment Weekly – “The best musical of the decade.”

Here is the complete cast and creative team details:

Wicked’s resident good witch Glinda, Katie Rose Clarke, is so low maintenance that she had her castmates decorate her dressing room. Take a look at her backstage space at the Gershwin Theatre.

Broadway.com visited the low-maintainence star (seriously…she had her room decorated by castmates simply because she was more concerned with doing the show than going all Martha Stewart!) for a glimpse at a few of the things that make her room special. Check them out!

“I used to have a chair that did not swivel or have wheels. This was one of the Elphaba chairs and they were going to get rid of it. It’s a perfectly good chair! Now I have a chair that swivels—and it’s got Idina [Menzel] green on it, so it’s special.”

“This is a letter from [previous Elphaba] Dee Roscioli. She left the show after we had done it together for a few months. When I got it it was rolled up and just really pretty. It’s her handprint, which is something the Elphabas do—leave their green hand prints in their dressing rooms. So sweet.”

“Oh, the picture of the duck. What can I say about this? My boyfriend colored this for me. It’s a blue duck! It just makes me smile.”

“This picture is of Wicked’s John Riggins and Jason Daunter. They decorated my dressing room for me. I didn’t have anything in here for the longest time!”

“These Olba’s Pastilles/lozenges are something I use every show. I’m kind of addicted to them. They’re strong! It’s a lozenge with vapor action I can keep in my cheek. Hey, it’s the little things!”

Buy Wicked Tickets Online.

Playbill.com has learned that Kendra Kassebaum — who is currently playing the curly locked Glinda in the San Francisco production of Wicked, a role the actress has also played on Broadway — has been cast in the world premiere of the new musical Leap of Faith, which begins performances at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre in September.

As previously announced, four-time Tony nominee Raúl Esparza and Golden Globe Award nominee Brooke Shields will star in Leap of Faith, which will be directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford. Previews will begin Sept. 11 with an official opening scheduled for Oct. 3; performances will continue through Oct. 24.

Esparza will play Reverend Jonas Nightengale, the consummate flim-flam man, and Shields will be Marva, the small-town woman and single mother who challenges everything he believes in. Kassebaum will play the role of Sam, the Reverend’s sister and sidekick.

Get your Wicked Tickets to See Kendra Kassebaum in San Francisco CA.

Queensland’s most anticipated musical theatre extravaganza, Wicked, is officially set to fly north of the border to open in all its emerald glory in the Lyric Theatre, QPAC in January 2011.

Wicked Australia Co-Producer John Frost said, “Right from the start this show has been an overwhelming hit so we are absolutely thrilled to be able to bring her, in all her emerald beauty, to Brisbane.

“Wicked is a phenomenon, the most successful musical in the world today, and appeals to everyone from 8 to 80. People love it for so many different reasons – some people come to see Wicked for the engrossing story, some for the astonishing sets and costumes, some for the soaring ballads, some for the deeper messages, and some to see the life-affirming friendship between the two girls who grow up to be Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West. Melbourne and Sydney audiences have been blown away by Wicked and now it’s Brisbane’s turn.

“Wicked is the winner of 35 major awards including the Grammy Award, three Tony Awards and six Helpmann Awards. It’s a musical that enchants audiences around the world and right across the spectrum,”  he said.

When the Australian production of Wicked arrives in Brisbane it will have played over 866 shows and will have been seen by well over 1 million people. Wicked’s record-breaking Australian run began in June, 2008 at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre, where it broke the city’s box office record and ran through August, 2009. The production transferred to Sydney’s Capitol Theatre on September 5, 2009 and will conclude its record-breaking run on September 12, 2010.

Check for the Wicked Sydney Australia Tickets.

Wicked the musical perofrming at the Fabulous Fox Theatre currently through July 11, 2010.

The blockbuster musical, a prequel to the Wizard of Oz, tells the story of the Wicked Witch and the Good Witch of Oz before Dorothy arrived. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire.

The musical has had enormous success in its seven years on Broadway. It has grossed nearly $1.8 billion worldwide and won 35 prominent awards, including a Grammy Award, three Tony Awards, and six Drama Desk Awards.

This marks Wicked’s third engagement at the Fox. The show’s previous runs in St. Louis broke box office records in both 2005 and 2007.

             

The month long run at the Fox expects to be just as successful. With a phenomenal cast including Vicki Noon and Natalie Darardich as the Elphaba and Glinda, and the direction of the show’s Tony Award winning director, Joe Mantello, the show once again promises to deliver.

Behind the scenes, the crew arrived Monday to set up for the show. The two-and-a-half day process of unloading the 14 trucks carrying the set, costumes, and props involves the work of a 120 person team.

The show runs from June 16-July 11. Buy Wicked Fabulous Fox Theatre-St. Louis MO Tickets. Save $10 on Ticket Orders Over $350! Code AFF$10

Under the lights, they danced. They twirled and snapped and stomped until beads of sweat slid off their chins.

“Five, six, seven, eight! Left, two, three, four!” shouted Jeremy McQueen, a featured dancer in Wicked, currently at Fair Park Music Hall through June 27.

McQueen and Sterling Masters, who plays the mother of the Green Witch, taught about 80 people some wicked dance moves Saturday at the Majestic Theatre. For nearly two hours, the pair glided across the stage and entranced onlookers.

The contemporary music blasting onstage was a sharp contrast to the ruby-colored velvet seats and towering chandeliers of the historic theater. The likes of John Wayne, Mae West and Bing Crosby have performed at the Majestic, and some of the workshop participants were inspired by the history there, convinced that music and dancing connects people.

Alex Sutherland, a 15-year-old from Carrollton with curly red hair and amber eyes, wants to be a cast member of Wicked one day. When she first stepped onto the old stage, she thought it was kind of “creepy.”

“But it’s an honor to dance where famous people have stepped,” she said.

McQueen warned the group that in performing arts, nothing is fresh.

“Everything we consider new today isn’t new at all,” he said, snapping his fingers for effect.

One young Dallas woman has dreamed for several years of taking pointers from professionals. When she lived in Mexico City, Ana Larranaga danced in a theater company and fell in love with Wicked.

Yesterday, the 17-year-old twirled and tapped next to her heroes.

“When I’m on the stage, I feel openness,” she said of dancing. “Throughout the years, theater can change, but it always will connect us.”

Two hours after she entered the “creepy” halls of the Majestic, Sutherland was even more inspired to continue her career in dance.

“I love moving my body in different ways and expressing emotion and telling stories,” she said. “And this just makes me want to be in the show even more.”
{ Via Dallas News}