Record-breaking Wicked flies in for five week run

WICKED flies back onto the stage of the Playhouse this evening for its only Scottish dates with 65,000 tickets already sold for the five week season - fantastic news to any producer's ears.

Amy Ross as Elphaba. Pic: Matt Crockett

The spectacular West End and Broadway musical tells the untold story of the Witches of Oz and is a prequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Based on the best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire that ingeniously re-imagines the stories and characters created by L Frank Baum as the story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two sorcery students unfolds.

Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good witch and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Having already visited the Playhouse once before, from November 2014 to January 2015 when it was seen by more than 175,000 people (equivalent to one in three of the entire population of the Capital), the 2018 tour has already played record-breaking engagements across the UK.

The production currently stars Amy Ross as Elphaba, Helen Woolf as Glinda, Aaron Sidwell, who is best known as Steven Beale in EastEnders, as Fiyero, with Steven Pinder, best known as Max Farnham in Brookside, returning as The Wizard and Doctor Dillamond.

Other principals include Kim Ismay as Madame Morrible, Emily Shaw as Nessarose and Iddon Jones as Boq.

Now the 15th longest running show in West End theatre history, the musical’s show-stopping number, Defying Gravity, was also recently voted the UK’s No 1 favourite musical theatre song by listeners of Encore Radio.

Wicked, Playhouse, until Saturday 9 June, 7.30pm (2.30pm), £25-£92.50, 0844-871 3014