Broadway’s Biggest Blockbuster Wicked Surpassed ‘Cats’ to become fourth longest-running Production in Broadway History on April 11, 2023.

The Stephen Schwartz-Winnie Holzman musical plays its 7,486th performance at the Gershwin Theatre, becoming the fourth longest-running production in Broadway history, surpassing another Lloyd Webber musical, Cats.

Wicked began previews on Broadway October 8, 2003, with an official opening October 30. The original cast included Tony winners Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth as, respectively, the green-faced, misunderstood Elphaba and the curly-locked Glinda.

The musical, based on Gregory Maguire’s best-selling novel, has played both on Broadway and in London’s West End, as well as touring cities all over the world. Stephen Schwartz wrote the songs and lyrics while Winnie Holzman penned the book. The popular Broadway production continues to receive high accolades for its iconic musical numbers – including Defying Gravity, The Wizard and I, No Good Deed and Popular – and stunning set and costume designs.

Wicked won 2004 Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical (Menzel), Best Costume Design (Hilferty), and Best Scenic Design (Lee).

Buy Wicked Gershwin Theatre Tickets Online at discounted prices.

Wicked musical on broadway playing standing production at Gershwin Theatre. Wicked became the 10th longest running show in Broadway history as it it played its 5,124th performance at Gershwin Theatre yesterday, surpassing the original production of Rent which previously held the title.

Wicked musical is based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, featuring music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. The current Broadway cast includes Rachel Tucker (Elphaba), Carrie St. Louis (Glinda) and Jonah Platt (Fiyero).

The international hit musical originally opened on Broadway on 30 October 2003, and is currently playing in London’s West End at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.

Top 10 longest running Broadway musicals as of 15 February 2016:

1. The Phantom of the Opera: 11,670 performances.
2. Chicago: 7,995 performances.
3. The Lion King: 7,593 performances.
4. Cats: 7,485 performances.
5. Les Miserables: 6,680 performances.
6. A Chorus Line: 6,137 performances.
7. Oh, Calcutta!: 5,959 performances.
8. Mamma Mia!: 5,758 performances.
9. Beauty and the Beast: 5,461 performances
10. Wicked: 5,125 performances

Derek Klena, the California native joined the Wicked Broadway Musical show in late May, is putting his own spin on Fiyero, the Winkie prince who captures the heart of Glinda and Elphaba.

Derek Klena in Wicked as Fiyero

Broadway.com recently caught up with the 21-year-old actor to chat about leading the 10th anniversary cast, reuniting with his Dogfight co-star Lindsay Mendez and how he went from baseball player to Broadway star.

Read the chat below:

We love watching you on Fly Girl. How is acting on Broadway different than your experience leading an off-Broadway musicals?
The stakes are a lot higher on Broadway; there’s so much more going on and everything’s so much more intricate. It’s definitely more intimidating. And going into Wicked, I don’t have the privilege of originating my role like I did with Carrie and Dogfight.

What makes your Wicked and Dogfight leading lady Lindsay Mendez the ultimate co-star?
We just instantly clicked! We’ve developed this great friendship, and that’s been the key to us being compatible on stage. Anything that she does or anything that I do, we are there 100% for each other, and that’s all you can ask for in a co-star—trust and respect. That’s what makes this show so much more enjoyable, having someone like that by your side—a co-pilot.

Wasn’t Wicked your first Broadway show? How did it feel to make your debut in it?
Surreal. When I saw the show eight years ago, I had no idea I would get the opportunity to perform it someday. It was just a dream I had when I was younger. It’s kind of unbelievable to be working with Joe Mantello and the group at Wicked, which I’ve idolized all these years. Fiyero is a role I’ve always wanted to play, and I’m actually getting to experience that on the Broadway stage.

What would you have said if someone had told you eight years ago that you’d be playing Fiyero in the 10th anniversary cast of Wicked?
I would have said, “Yeah right, I want to play baseball.” [Laughs.] At the time, I was pretty into sports; I didn’t know yet that this is what I wanted to pursue. Seeing Wicked definitely sparked that in me and pushed me to pursue it as a career. It’s kind of bizarre that it took me to Wicked.

When you were growing up, was it hard to be the jock who also did theater?
Yeah, it was harder when I was younger because my friends didn’t understand yet. But once high school and college rolled around, my friends matured and understood it’s kind of a cool thing; they were were blown away with the theater side of me. They grew to respect it, which was really cool to see.

Was it difficult to give up baseball?
It was. I got into UCLA for theater, and I had to make a decision whether to let baseball go. I ended up switching out of theater; I figured I could still do theater outside of school. I played baseball my freshman year as a pitcher, but at the end of the year, I realized that my true love and passion is in acting and singing. I’m glad I made that choice. I play in the Broadway softball league and a restaurant league, so I still get that sports atmosphere. I feel like I get enough playing recreationally and casually.

What is the secret to wearing the infamous Fiyero pants?
Just being fearless. The first time I put them on I was a little doubtful, but you have to wear them with pride. A lot of people come to the show knowing those pants are coming, so you’ve just got to wear them with pride.

Read the complere interview {Via Broadway.com}

Buy Wicked Broadway Tickets Online and see Derek Klena as Fiyero in Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre.

Tiffany Haas to Join Wicked Broadway Company

Tiffany Haas (former Glinda, ensemble, u/s Glinda, Nessarose – 2nd Ntl. Tour) will join the Broadway company of Wicked on Tuesday, November 20, 2012, taking on the position of standby for Glinda. She replaces Kate Fahrner, who has been the Broadway Glinda standby since August 2011.

Tiffany Haas joins after a nine month run as Glinda on the 2nd National Tour, concluding in June 2012.

Buy Wicked Gershwin Theatre Tickets Online at discounted prices – Save $10 on Orders of $350 or more, Use code AFF$10.

Wicked Broadway Musical grossed $1,990,184 and had a 98.7% attendance rate, about 0.2% more than the previous week. The 35 shows on the boards grossed $24,964,889, improving around 7.51% from the previous week’s totals.

Below are the Top 13 Grosses from BroadwayWorld.com for the week ending June 10, 2012.

1. Wicked – (GERSHWIN) $1,990,184
2. The Lion King – (MINSKOFF) $1,847,364
3. The Book Of Mormon – (EUGENE O’NEILL) $1,615,231
4. Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark – (FOXWOODS) $1,489,655
5. Evita – (MARQUIS) $1,387,065
6. Newsies – (NEDERLANDER) $997,067
7. Jersey Boys – (AUGUST WILSON) $946,692
8. Nice Work If You Can Get It – (IMPERIAL) $907,652
9. The Phantom Of The Opera – (MAJESTIC) $873,562
10. Once – (JACOBS) $845,343
11. Mary Poppins – (NEW AMSTERDAM) $827,112
12. Gore Vidal’s The Best Man – (SCHOENFELD) $758,637
13. Mamma Mia! – (WINTER GARDEN) $720,055

{Via BroadwayWorld.com}

Wicked Broadway grossed $1,742,571 and had a 94.3% attendance rate, around 2.7% less than that of the previous week. The 39 shows on the boards grossed $26,084,412, about 0.66% more than that of the previous week’s totals.

Below are the Top 12 Grosses from BroadwayWorld.com for the week ending April 29, 2012.

1. The Lion King – (MINSKOFF) $1,761,855
2. Wicked – (GERSHWIN) $1,742,571
3. The Book Of Mormon – (EUGENE O’NEILL) $1,603,228
4. Evita – (MARQUIS) $1,515,746
5. Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark – (FOXWOODS) $1,371,737
6. Jersey Boys – (AUGUST WILSON) $907,895
7. Death Of A Salesman (ETHEL BARRYMORE) – $900,749
8. Newsies – (NEDERLANDER) $897,046
9. Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (SCHOENFELD) – $892,877
10. The Phantom Of The Opera – (MAJESTIC) – $890,181
11. Nice Work If You Can Get It (IMPERIAL) – $829,755
12. Mamma Mia! – (WINTER GARDEN) $804,623

{Via BroadwayWorld.com}

Broadway rang in more than a billion for the 2011 calendar year, with “Wicked” once again claiming the title of the year’s top grosser. Though the 2010 chart was dominated by long-running successes, In the year 2011, two big-earning newbies — “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” and “The Book of Mormon” – show potential for longer runs.

The $1.08 billion total reps the cume from the 52-week period ending Dec. 25. (Next year will be one of the calendar’s periodic 53-week seshes.) The 2011 tally is up by some $44 million over the prior frame — no surprise, given rising ticket prices and increasing prominence of premium-ticket sales. Attendance, on the other hand, just barely showed an uptick — by about 25,000 theatergoers to 12.13 million.

Last year saw longtime top dog “Wicked” unseated multiple times from its habitual perch by both “Lion King” and “Spider-Man.” Still, “Wicked” finished first often enough to maintain its status as the highest-grossing Broadway show for the eighth year in a row, the only production ever to do so. “The Phantom of the Opera” also has been a top annual grosser for eight years, but those years weren’t consecutive.

For its part, “Lion King” can tout its unusually strong B.O. performance heading into its 15th year on Broadway. The show’s holiday-week tally of $2.4 million was its best ever on the Rialto; the same frame saw the tuner break house records in Las Vegas and on the road as well.

It was “Spider-Man” that provided the biggest shakeup in the year-end charts, overcoming much-publicized tech troubles and nasty reviews to gross $69 million for the year. There’s no guarantee the show will continue to maintain that momentum for another year, but given the $2.9 million tally logged by the musical for the week ending Jan. 1, it’s clear producers know how take advantage of high-demand periods.

There’s also “Book of Mormon,” with a $51 million total that placed it right behind the $52.3 million belted out by “Jersey Boys.” The Broadway edition of “Mormon” likely won’t approach the pile of money earned by “Wicked” or “Lion King” because of its venue’s substantially smaller seating capacity, but the strength of those figures suggest the Tony winner could be adding to the Broadway pot for a considerable while.

Read the complete news {Via Variety.com}

The Broadway musical Wicked has extended its booking period through to 1 Jul 2012. 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 *Teal Wicks(Elphaba), **Katie Rose Clarke (Glinda), Tom McGowan (The Wizard), Kathy Fitzgerald (Madame Morrible), Richard H. Blake (Fiyero), Cristy Cand (Nessarose), Tom Flynn (Doctor Dillamond) and Etai Benshlomo (Boq). Jackie Burns as Elphaba from 27 Sep and Chandra Lee Schwartz as Glinda from 27 Sep.

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

The musical is directed by Joe Mantello, with choreography by James Lynn Abbott, scene design by Eugene Lee, costumes by Susan Hilferty, lighting by Kenneth Posner and sound by Tony Meola.

The production is now booking through 1 Jul 2012 at Gershwin Theatre. Buy Wicked Gershwin Theatre Tickets Online. Use Code AFF$10 to Get $10 OFF on Wicked New York NY Ticket Orders over $350!

Watch the Video of Wicked Highlights from Wicked Broadway – Video Composed by Playbill.com.

{Via Playbill.com}

Mandy Gonzalez and Katie Rose Clarke, who star as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, in Broadway’s Wicked, posed with Brett LaTorre, who was the production’s 5 millionth audience member to have his ticket scanned in at the Gershwin Theatre, which occurred at the 2pm matinee performance on Wednesday, September 29.

Katie Rose Clarke, Brett LaTorre and Mandy Gonzalez

View the Entire Gallery Here – Photos (© Jillian Nelson)

Brett LaTorre, Wicked's 5 Millionth Broadway Audience Member

Briana Yacavone and Brett LaTorre

Briana Yacavone, Brett LaTorre and Jonathan Warren

Briana Yacavone, Katie Rose Clarke, Brett LaTorre, Mandy Gonzalez and Jonathan Warren

Brett LaTorre of Sparta, NJ, received a special surprise when he took in the Sept. 29 Wicked matinee. LaTorre, who was celebrating his 21st birthday with his girlfriend and grandparents, was holding the 5 millionth ticket scanned for the show at the Gershwin Theatre.

He was given a special “Key to the Emerald City” as well as a free trip to London to see the West End production of Wicked and complimentary hotel accommodations at the luxury hotel Rubens at the Palace.

The cast currently includes Mandy Gonzalez as Elphaba, Katie Rose Clarke as Glinda, P.J. Benjamin as The Wizard, Andy Karl as Fiyero, Alex Brightman as Boq, Jenny Fellner as Nessarose, Kathy Fitzgerald as Madame Morrible and Timothy Britten Parker as Dr. Dillamond.

Click Here to Buy Wicked Musical Tickets and Find Wicked Tour Updates.