Wicked, the smash hit musical, celebrated a new West End Box Office milestone last week (w/c 27 December 2010) grossing an incredible £1,002,885, the highest single-week gross in London theatre history. Over 20,000 theatregoers attended 9 performances of the “hugely popular musical” (The Times).

In 2010, Wicked continued to sustain year-on-year growth at the Box Office, grossing in excess of £30 million (up over £3 million on 2009). Over 800,000 people attended performances across the year.

Now in its 5th year, Wicked has played almost 1800 performances, been seen by over 3 million theatregoers and taken in excess of £121 million at the UK Box Office since its West End premiere at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in 2006.

Executive Producer Michael McCabe said in a statement: “2010 proved to be an extraordinary year for Wicked. As well as enjoying our highest grossing year to date and achieving the amazing milestone of a £1million grossing week, we also won several prestigious awards, raised funds for The Woodland Trust and the St John Ambulance ‘Teach the Difference’ project and we were enormously proud to launch the Wicked Young Writers’ Award with the support of Michael Morpurgo and our Patron, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. Our grateful thanks go to everyone who continues to support both the show and our many charitable projects”.

In 2010, theatregoers named Wicked London’s ‘Most Popular Show’ (Laurence Olivier Awards), ‘Best West End Show’ (Whatsonstage.com Awards) and ‘Best Long-Running West End Show’ (Broadwayworld.com UK Awards). The musical has won over 35 major awards around the world.

Apollo Victoria Theatre, Wilton Road, London, SW1V 1LG

{Via Broadwayworld.com}

Wicked Musical was the top-earning show during the week leading up to the New Year’s holiday, the Broadway League announced Monday.

Wicked, at the Gershwin Theatre, grossed $2,153,110, surpassing the record it had set for the week of November 28, 2010, when it grossed $2,150,665. It is also the record for the largest weekly gross in Broadway history.

Two other Broadway musicals (Lion King and The Phantom of the Opera) have reported that they have broken their respective theater’s records for highest weekly grosses during the week ending January 2. The Broadway League has reported that grosses for the week for all shows totaled $34,997,571.

In addition, 14 other shows grossed over $1 million for the week.

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.

WICKED Breaks Its Own Box Office Record To Become The Highest Grossing Show In Broadway History

For the third time in just six weeks, the Broadway smash WICKED has grossed over $2 million for one week of performances. For the week ending Sunday, November 29, the musical, now in its 7th year, grossed $2,086,135, and for the week ending December 27, the musical surpassed its own record, grossing $2,092,745. For the week ending January 3, 2010, the musical shattered the record once again, making Broadway history by taking in an unprecedented $2,125,740 and setting a new house record at the Gershwin Theatre.

Below are the Top 10 Grosses from BroadwayWorld.com for the week ending January 3, 2010.

Wicked $2,125,740
The Lion King $1,740,130
Billy Elliot: The Musical $1,663,895
West Side Story $1,485,158
Jersey Boys $1,440,456
Shrek The Musical $1,387,182
The Phantom of the Opera $1,374,875
Mary Poppins $1,323,699
Mama Mia! $1,315,354
HAIR $1,121,847

Additionally, the show’s three other North American productions broke house records in San Francisco ($1,485,692), Providence ($1,793,764), and Schenectady ($1,657,139), bringing the musical’s one-week North American box office gross to $7,062,335.

The musical, which was recently called “the defining musical of the decade” by The New York Times, currently has eight productions across the globe: in New York, San Francisco, London, Stuttgart, Osaka, Sydney, and on two concurrent North American National Tours. WICKED has amassed over $1.7 billion globally in ticket sales and has been seen by over 21 million people worldwide in its 7-year history.

Winner of 26 major awards including the Grammy Award and three Tony Awards, WICKED is the untold story of the witches of Oz. 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.

Declared “The Best Musical of the Decade” by Entertainment Weekly and “A Cultural Phenomenon” by Variety, WICKED is based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and a book by Winnie Holzman. The production is directed by Joe Mantello with musical staging by Wayne Cilento. WICKED is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone.

The musical currently stars Dee Roscioli as Elphaba, Erin Mackey as Glinda, Kevin Kern as Fiyero, Rondi Reed as Madame Morrible, P.J. Benjamin as The Wizard, Alex Brightman as Boq, Michelle Federer as Nessarose, and Timothy Britten Parker as Dr. Dillamond.

Find Great Seats for best prices through WickedTheMusicalTicketsOnline.com. For more information, visit www.wickedthemusical.com. WICKED is performing at the Gershwin Theatre, 222 West 51st Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue.