Wicked

Wicked is a musical based on a novel by Gregory Maguire : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995), a parallel novel to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman.

Wicked is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz: Elphaba. There is the misunderstood girl with emerald-green skin, and Galinda, later Glinda, the beautiful, ambitious and popular blonde.  The two clash  and Wicked tells the story in which these two unlikely friends as they grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North. All the time struggling through opposing personalities different viewpoints,  a rivalry over a love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and finally, Elphaba's  fall from grace. The plot begins before Dorothy's arrival from Kansas and includes references to locations, events, characters and situations from the original 1939 film and Baum's novel and ends some time after Dorthy departs.

Wicked was originality produced by Universal Pictures in coalition with Marc Platt and David Stone, the Joe Mantello-directed and Wayne Cilento-choreographed original production premiered on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre in October 2003, after completing pre-Broadway SHN tryouts at San Francisco's Curran Theatre in May 2003. It originally stared included Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, and Joel Grey as the Wizard. Though the critics were originally luke warm , the musical has proved a favorite among patrons. The success of the Broadway production has spawned openings of five other North American productions, including two national tours, as well as a four-year strong West End production and several international productions in Japan, Germany and Australia.

While the original production won three out of its ten Tony Award nominations, garnered six Drama Desk Awards and received one Grammy Award, Wicked has since accrued one Laurence Olivier Award and six Helpmann Awards internationally. Since its 2003 debut, Wicked has broken box office records around the world, holding weekly-gross-takings records in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, and London. It's  original production, having played 3,259 performances, and celebrating its eighth anniversary on October 30, 2011. This milestone  makes Wicked the 14th longest-running Broadway show in history.