Wicked’s Return

The three week run of Wicked at Memphis’ Orpheum theatre was such a huge success that companies are willing and ready to bring it back. “We had almost 58,000 people here to see the show,” says Pat Halloran, President and CEO of The Orpheum. “That’s like filling the FedEx Forum three times.” It wasn’t just a huge success for the theatre, as restaurants, hotels and the general economy of the arena got an all around boost after the three weeks of “Wicked” fun saw visitors from all around the great state of Tennessee. Now as producers are in talks of bringing back the Broadway theatre show, the show just deomonstrates how much time and money people are willing to spend to get out of their economic state of depression. “In this tough economy, we’ve proven that people want to get out, they want to go see quality theatre,” Halloran continues. The show was sold out after its first week - as some analysts have deemed the “Twitter Effect,” where social networking has become so common that people are able to respond on an event within the first day, something that would typically take up to four days - and people are listening. The $4 million in ticket sales alone estimated $7 million into the relative economy. “I went into a restaurant…and all the waiters applauded. I thought I was the star of the show,” Halloran said, who is gearing for a return in 2010.

If you’re in the area, get ready for a return of Wicked with Wicked tickets today.

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