‘Wicked’ Success in London
Wicked tickets have been extended in London as they are now on sale to October 30, 2010 at the Apollo Victoria Theatere. The production recently celebrated the 1000th performance during Valentine’s Day this past yeear (February 14th, 2009) and welcomed its two millionth theatregoer May 11, 2009, grossing more than £80 million at the UK Box Office. Michael McCabe, the executive producer, said “As Wicked enters its fourth year in the West End our business continues to climb. As we are already 7% up on last year, we fully expect 2009 to be our highest grossing year to date. It’s a remarkable achievement, especially in this financial climate, and we are all greatly indebted to the cast, company, orchestra and crew who work so brilliantly and tirelessly to deliver audiences such a superb experience every night.” Wicked first opened at the Apollo September 27, 2006 to praise from critics and fans. The current cast until March 27, 2010 includes Alexia Khadime as Elphaba, Oliver Tompsett as Fiyero, Harriet Thorpe as Madam Morrible, Sam Kelly as The Wizard, Dianne Pilkington as Glinda, Natalie Anderson as Nessarose, Alex Jessop as Boq and David Stoller as Doctor Dillamond. If you want to see the show here in the States, tickets see just as well so get your hands on some quickly today!
TPAC’s Wicked Arrival is Finally Here
Wicked is currently performing at TPAC, as it continues to prepare for the big arrival of Wicked for its three week run. The show has managed to keep enforcing strict guidelines on media privileges as they theatre announced a day of performance of lottery Wicked tickets for a limited number of orchestra seats, available for cash only at $25 for winners. The shows began yesterday and will continue through September 20th.
TPAC (Tennessee Performing Arts Center) is located in the James K. Polk Cultural Center at 505 Deaderick Street in Nashville; an entire city block between 5th and 6th Avenues and Deaderick and Union Streets, the building houses the Tennessee State Museum and the 18 story James K. Polk Office Tower. The venues include Andrew Jackson Hall, seating 2,472, James K. Polk Theater, with 1,075, Andrew Johnson Theater, with 256, and War Memorial Auditorium at 1,1661. The theatre shows serious Broadway shows and special engagements. TPAC’s Mission Statement:
| The mission of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center is to provide facilities, services and programs of the highest quality for the greatest benefit of the people, institutions and communities of the state, and to take a leadership role in fostering the performing arts, arts education, resident arts groups and other arts organizations. |
Wicked Venturing to Nashville
Former Wicked star Julie Reiber, who played the green witch Elphaba in the Broadway performance, is taking on a new role this season as a solo act at New World Stages next month. The actress will present her cabaret acts, “Colors of the Rainbow,” on October 4th reports PlayBill.com, and will feature of mix of pop and Broadway tunes along with “In the Heights’” Zach Dietz. The show times are 12:30pm, 2pm and 3:30. Reiber has been performing on stages for years, with shows that include Wicked, Brookyn and All Shook UP, as well as the tours for Rent, Brooklyn and Jekyll & Hyde.
Wicked premiers today in Nashville and the tons of thousands of punds of trucks, costumes, performers and more are all unpacking and gearing up for a show its fans will never forget. More than a dozen semi-trucks hauled into the arena, filled with lights, props and 5,000 costumes as the crew set up the stage for its nearly three week run, beginning tonight at T-PAC. ”It’s great to be in Nashville. This is a city that we look forward to coming to - touring. There’s lots of music and good food. It’s a great city. We’re all downtown here. You can walk around. There are things to do. It’s a great city,” said “Wicked” head carpenter Justin Klynsma. If you want to be part of the event, get those Wicked tickets today.
Sin City Residents - Head to SF for a Real Treat
For Las Vegas residents, the Strip is always filled with extraordinary shows, imaginations and wild audiences - which makes it a strange occurance that Wicked hasn’t, nor probably will never, hit the Las Vegas Striop. So the closest any fan can come to seeing and enjoying the show is San Francisco, its current and first home, but it is worth the trip. The Orpheum Theatre is showing the Broadway production and three time Tony Award winning feature throughout the month with Wicked ticket prices the highest at $99 (prices that any Las Vegas show worth seeing begin at) and flight time that requires less effort than the show’s time.
The story is easily approacable, as families around the world are familiar with ‘The Wizard of Oz’ made famous by Judy Garland. The story follows the witches that first meet Dorothy on her trip home, as characters Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West are paired up during witching boarding school. The script is written by Winnie Holzman, author and creator of the television series “My So Called Life,” and devliers wit and entertainment that delves far beyond just the standard political assumptions. So make sure that you enjoy this adventure and make a weekend trip out of it, for those stuck in Sin City.
Wicked Hitting the TPAC
Tennessee’s Performing Arts Center is beginning its 2009-2010 Broadway season with “Wicked.” The show, no matter what city its in or getting ready to hit, finds fans with serious enthusiasm. In Nashville, travelers were easy to spot Thom Widmanns’ emerald toned luggage tags. ”In airports, getting in the taxi, it’s always ‘Have you seen it?’ ‘Are you in it?’ Everyone wants to start the conversation,” says Widmann, the international show’s New York-based production supervisor. No matter whether the party questioning him has seen it or not, there is some serious excitement with everything they ask. ”There’s this anticipation,” he says. “A very high bar has been set. And it’s been very fun to be a part of that.” Now the show hits Nashville’s Tennesse Performing Arts Center until Wednesday, September 20th and is taking over the city - with 14 trucks of rigging, scenery, costumes and more, a complete cast of 33, a crew of 18, a band of 6, a physical therapist, three stage managers and local professionals. ”We still have to pinch ourselves, how happy we are that Wicked is coming,” says Kathleen O’Brien, TPAC’s president and CEO. “We’re not immune to that, either.” The show is bound to be a hit when it comes to the stage this week, so don’t miss it with Wicked tickets today.
Wicked’s Fame Still Burning
As popular as Wicked is today, the show wasn’t as astounding from the start as playwrites, producers and actors made it out to be. When it first did previews in San Francisco, the reviews mixed. When it moved to New York, the reveiws didn’t change, even with actor changes and set design. For The New York Times’ Ben Brantley, the story carried some weight with its key players, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda and Idina Mezel as Elphaba (the latter who won a Tony Award), but he also said that if it weren’t for its stars, Wicked would be ‘a bloated production that might otherwise spend close to three hours flapping its oversized wings without taking off.’
But before any other reviewers could say anything else, the fans got a hold of the show and overwhelmed those professional reviews with some of their own. It became an audiences’ show, as tour would eventually open up in Tokyo, London, Melbourne, Australia, Stuttgart, Germany and other US cities to break box office records, pick up a total of three Tony Awards and show off some of today’s brightest stars. So the story became popular, just like Glinda sings to Elphaba in the story, and Wicked tickets continued to sell out to crowds across the country and world. See for yourself what all the fuss is about.
Elphaba Isn’t Green with Envy - She’s Green with Excitement!
Alexia Khadime has returned as London’s Elphaba for the show “Wicked’ that has gained fame around the world for its relatabilty and passion. Talking with BWW, Khadime is estatic to be part of the cast again. “It’s a great story, but it does have bits of reality in there. If you’re young, old, male, female, wherever you’re from, you’ll watch it and at some point you’ll think, “I know what that’s like.” I first saw the show in Chicago in 2005, and I had no idea what it was about. I came out thinking how amazing and how well-written it was - I absolutely loved it,”she says to the BWW. Formerly of “The Lion King,” the star had never dreamed of appearing onstage plastered in green makeup. But as luck would have it, the same casting director for her former play was dealing with ‘Wicked’ and personally requested a tryout from her. “And I did, and I kept getting recalled - I can’t remember quite how many auditions I went through, but it was more than five. Then I got the phone call, and my heart was thumping. I remember saying to them, “No, I can’t have got it, you’re lying!’” But she did, and has manged to turn West End’s version of the Broadway feat into a timeless treasure as well, making Wicked tickets an outstanding treat for the whole family!
Getting a Shade Darker than ‘Teal’
Teal Wicks is wicked - really wicked. So much so that every night she gets dolled up in a black rope and green makeup to play the role of Elphaba onstage for packed audiences, singing the singles like “Defying Gravity” and more. The 26 year old first last year, and has since played Elphaba with the Los Angeles company following the stint with the national tour. “It’s a role I’ve wanted to play ever since I was a kid growing up in Sacramento. I’ts a dream come true for me,” she said. Growing up along Garden Highway and attending Natomas High School, she still returns to her home town where her family still resides.
The story has been hashed out on this blog before - the ‘backstory’ of the witches of Oz, the Sacramento’s role on stage is extremely demanding, as she flies around on a broomstick while belting out tunes that are difficult and extremely profound. Meanwhile, she is painted head to toe in green makeup. “I get green every night for the show - it takes about 25 minutes, it make me a greener shade of teal,” she jokes. Currently Wicked is playing at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco on an extended run, so if you want to see the show and Wicks’ talent, get Wicked tickets today! “Come see me Sacramento, you’re so close!”
Wizard of Oz’s 70th Anniversary
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz, and as the play WIcked was based on the novel of the same name which was based off of the the Oz story by L. Frank Baum’s 1900 book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” let’s pay tribute to that tale and the film that went with it. For those in Kansas, members still celebrate its legacy with a line of designer ruby red slippers, a hot air balloon tour around the coutnry and OZtoberFest Festival and International Oz Club Convention in Wamego and Manhattan.
Though ‘Wicked’ became one of the most well known stories to come out of Oz, written as a prequel to the story played out by Judy Garland, there are many more depictions of what happened before and after the hit Broadway play and film. One such is Rob Schneider’s “Silver Shoes,” a story that follows Donald Gardner (sound familiar? Garland’s character was Dorothy Gale), the mother and father, a reclusive man - all who have characteristics that resemble Dorothy’s friends in the story. “The story itself is very reflective of Kansans’ inferiority complex,” Craig Miner said, professor of history at Wichita State University. OZtoberFest will also be in conjunction with the International Wizard of Oz club’s international convention from Oct. 2 to Oct. 4 in Wamego and Manhattan.
Oz Celebrates 70 Years this Week
Wizard of Oz fans everywhere are celebrating its 70th annivesary this week. The film first opened August 15th, 1939 and eventually became a cult classic when it showed in theaters everywhere as the first color film. Now the show has not only seen references in everything from ‘Star Wars’ characters like Chewis and C3PO but a prequl best selling novel and Broadway play based on the characters. The film took a while to find a serious home among audiences, as the year it premieredd “Gone with the Wind” stormed through the Academy Awards, though “Over the Rainbow” picked up the award for Best Song, as well as Best Core and Best Performances by a Juvile went to Judy Garland for her work in this film as well as “Babes in Arms.” It was a decade later, upon its re-release in theaters that the witches of Oz and Dorthy and her friends really caught the mainstream attention they deserved, earning twice as much as they had before. When the film first debuted on television in 1956 - it streamlined to over 45 million viewers. Though the “Wicked” series, which starts with the novel turned play and continues on with two more stories (and a fourth on the way), are the only Oz novels. If you want to celebrate its seven decades, get the next best thing to a televised version of the show with Wicked tickets today.
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