Wicked Tour will make a stop at Jacksonville Florida next week for the performances at Times Union Ctr Perf Arts Moran Theater starting January 04 through Sunday, January 22, 2012.
The first stage version played on Broadway in 1902. The musical “The Wiz,” which featured a black cast, was a Broadway hit in 1975 and a movie in 1978. Last year, The Artist Series brought a meticulously faithful-to-the-movie stage version of “The Wizard of Oz” to the Moran Theater.
Like many Americans of his generation, Stephen Schwartz, 63, got his first exposure to the world of Oz when he watched an early television screening of the 1939 movie, “The Wizard of Oz.”
Unlike most of those who fell under the spell of the iconic movie, Schwartz got a chance to create his own variation on the Oz story when he wrote the music and lyrics for “Wicked.” That musical has been running on Broadway since 2003 and a touring production will come to Jacksonville Wednesday, January 04 2012 for 31 performances over 19 days.
Schwartz said that Oz’s ongoing appeal is partly attributable to the fact that it is, like “Lord of the Rings” and “Star Wars,” an archetypal quest story.
What “Wicked” also does, Schwartz noted, is take that beloved story and “turn the whole thing on its head.”
At the time he became aware of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” Schwartz had sworn off Broadway. The composer, who launched his career with the Broadway hits “Godspell” (1971) and “Pippin” (1972), spent the 1990s writing music for animated films such as “Pocahantas,” for which he won two Academy Awards.
But Schwartz said he knew as soon as he read “Wicked” that he yearned for Broadway again.
Read the complete story {Via Jacksonville.com}
Wicked will play at Times Union Ctr Perf Arts Moran Theater through January 22, 2012. Buy Wicked Jacksonville FL Tickets Online. Use Code AFF$10 to Get $10 OFF on Wicked Times Union Ctr Perf Arts Moran Theater Tickets Orders over $350!
