Victorian Tourism Minister Tim Holding today confirmed the “worst kept secret in Melbourne” – Wicked the “hottest musical in the world” will open in Melbourne’s Regent Theatre in July 2008.Victorian premier Steve Bracks, met with the show’s Australian and international producer’s in London, and officially announced overnight that the event was coming to Victoria.
Securing the production for Melbourne involved the efforts of the Victorian Major Events Company, Marriners Theatres and the show’s Australian co-producer John Frost, who described the production as “certainly the biggest event I‘ve ever produced.”
“This is a spectacular musical that has won the big awards: the Grammy for Best Musical Show album…three Tony’s and six Drama Desks including Best Musical”
“In New York alone, where it’s broken the house record eighteen times at Broadway’s biggest theatre, the Gershwin, advance sales are currently $US 40 million…Four months ago in London, it had the highest weekly gross in West End history.”
The current West End production includes three Australians in principal roles, including Helen Dallimore as Glinda the Good Witch who has indicated she is considering reprising her role for the Melbourne production.Wicked – the Musical is based on the 1995 bestselling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, and features 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 takes a sideways glance at the children's classic The Wizard of Oz, delving into the past and re-telling the tale from the Witchs’ point of view. Throughout the story many of the “secrets” of Oz are revealed – like why the cowardly Lion is cowardly and the origin of the ruby slippers.
Long before Dorothy dropped 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 Witch.
Confirmation of the production follows on from the announcement in February that another Broadway blockbuster, Monty Python’s Spamalot will open in Melbourne later this year.
Photo Credits: Top - Wicked - US National Touring Company. Right - Christina DeCicco as Glinda. Photos - Joan Marcus
