Wicked Tickets NYC

It’s very likely that, even if you are not a musical theatre aficionado, you will have heard of Wicked. Based on the book Wicked (1995) by Gregory Maguire and directed by Joe Mantello, the show opened on Broadway on 30 October 2003, after a successful run in San Francisco in the summer of that year. The musical stars Samantha Barks and Willemijn Verkaik as Elphaba; Camilla Kerslake as Glinda; and Mark Dinning as Fiyero. The original Broadway cast – Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero, and Idina Menzel (of Frozen fame), who originated the role of Elphaba – is a veritable who’s who of musical theatre legends.

Wicked is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman, based on the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, which itself is a retelling of the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum and the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz.

The scale of the production is one of the reasons that Wicked is so popular. It’s been at New York’s Gershwin Theatre on West 51st Street in the Paramount Plaza building in midtown Manhattan since its Broadway premiere in 2003. The theatre seats almost two thousand people, the largest seating capacity on Broadway. And it’s regularly sold out, thanks to its international status as one of the shows to see in NYC. Named the Uris Theatre when it opened in 1972 in an art nouveau style by Ralph Alswang, it was renamed in 1983 to honor the Gershwins. The set is loud, bright – and very, very green. Visit the Broadway shows in NYC. Get special offers and access to tickets for major theatre shows.

Wicked adapts the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by L Frank Baum, reimagining the story of Oz from the point of view of its witches: Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Galinda, later named Glinda the Good Witch. We experience how they met at school, the magnitude of their rivalry and disdain towards each other, and develop their friendship prior to Elphaba’s ‘fall from grace’. Elphaba and Galinda share a love interest, Fiyero, but this musical is less interested in romance and more in themes of friendship, the social construct of ‘wickedness’, and empathy towards other people’s motives.

The original cast album won a Grammy Award and was nominated for ten Tony Awards, eventually winning three, including Best Actress for Menzel. Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz bought the rights to Maguire’s novel in 1998; although it isn’t an entirely faithful adaptation, Schwartz collaborated with writer Winnie Holzman to create a plot that worked onstage. The musical developed through a series of readings with Chenoweth alongside Stephanie J Block as Elphaba. Menzel joined the production in 2000 along with Joe Mantello as director. Wicked is one of Broadway’s most beloved productions: its scope is epic and its production is huge, glittering, and mesmerizing, but more than that, it is a story that is at its heart about love, truth, and friendship – and those are qualities that audiences will always respond to.

The first act begins as the people of Oz rejoice after the death of Elphaba as Glinda the Good Witch takes center stage. Then the show moves back in time to depict Elphaba’s birth, her relationship with her disabled sister Nessarose, and her time at school with Galinda, where they were roommates and rivals. Elphaba’s magical talent is discovered, Prince Fiyero appears, and Galinda and Elphaba become friends before traveling together to meet the Wizard of Oz. There, they discover corruption on an epic scale, and Elphaba runs away after swearing to take her revenge on the Wizard. In the second act, we discover she has been nicknamed the Wicked Witch of the West, while Galinda – now Glinda – has been placed in public opposition to her. When Dorothy reaches the land of Oz, things get even more complicated…

Wicked is packed with catchy melodies and onstage antics, but it is hard to argue that the heart of the story lies with the development of the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda, from What Is This Feeling? too Popular to their last duet, For Good, arguably the most tear-jerking and emotional part of the entire show. The musical is full of spectacle, color, vibrant costumes, and funny lines, but the end of the first act is probably the most visually stunning as Elphaba sings Defying Gravity, the most famous song in the show, and rises slowly into the air. The high notes will send a shiver down your spine.