WICKED SIGNED BROADWAY MUSICAL BY CAST STEPHEN SCHWARTZ

Wicked is a musical with songs and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. The story is based on the best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, a parallel novel of L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz.

Wicked tells the story of Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West and her relationship with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. (In the album notes, Gregory Maguire explained that he derived the name "Elphaba" from the initials of L. Frank Baum.) Their friendship struggles through their opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, their reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace. The plot is set mostly before Dorothy's arrival from Kansas, and includes several references to well-known scenes and dialogue in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz as a backstory.

The musical debuted on Broadway on October 30, 2003. It was produced by Universal Pictures and directed by Joe Mantello, with musical staging by Wayne Cilento. Its original stars were Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, and Joel Grey as the Wizard.^[1] Although the production received mixed reviews and was panned by The New York Times, it has proved to be a favorite among patrons. The Broadway production's success spawned productions in Chicago, Los Angeles, London's West End, Tokyo, Melbourne, and Stuttgart, along with two North American tours that have visited over 30 cities in Canada and the United States.^[2]

Wicked has broken box office records around the world, holding weekly-gross-takings records in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, and London, and the record for biggest opening in the West End (£100,000 in the first hour on sale).^[3] The West End production has played to more than 1.4 million people, and the North American tour has been seen by over two million patrons.^[4] The show was nominated for ten 2004 Tony Awards, winning those for Best Actress, Scenic Design and Costume Design. It also won six Drama Desk Awards.

The score of Wicked is heavily thematic, bearing in some senses more resemblance to a film score than a traditional musical score.^[17] While many musicals' scores develop new motifs and melodies for each song with little overlap, Schwartz integrated a handful of leitmotifs throughout the production. Some of these motifs indicate irony – for example, when Galinda presents Elphaba with a "ghastly" hat in "Dancing Through Life", the score reprises a theme from "What Is This Feeling?" a few scenes earlier,^[17] in which Elphaba and Glinda had espoused their mutual loathing.

Two musical themes in Wicked run throughout the score. Although Schwartz rarely reuses motifs or melodies from earlier works,^[17] the first – Elphaba's theme – came from The Survival of St. Joan, on which he worked as musical director.^[17] "I always liked this tune a lot and I never could figure out what to do with it," he remarked in an interview in 2004.^[17] The chord progression that he first penned in 1971 became a major theme of the show's orchestration. By changing the instruments that carry the motif in each instance, Schwartz enables the same melody to convey different moods. In the overture, the tune is carried by the orchestra's brass section, with heavy percussion. The result is, in Schwartz' own words, "like a giant shadow terrorising you".^[17] When played by the piano with some electric bass in "As Long As You're Mine", however, the same chord progression becomes the basis for a romantic duet. And with new lyrics and an altered bridge, the theme forms the core of the song "No One Mourns the Wicked" and its reprises.^[17]

Schwartz uses the "Unlimited" theme as the second major motif running through the score. Although not included as a titled song, the theme appears as an interlude in several of the musical numbers. In a tribute to Harold Arlen, who wrote the score for the 1939 film adaptation, the "Unlimited" melody incorporates the first seven notes of the song "Over the Rainbow." Schwartz included it as an inside joke as, "according to copyright law, when you get to the eighth note, then people can come and say, 'Oh you stole our tune.' And of course obviously it's also disguised in that it's completely different rhythmically. And it's also harmonized completely differently.... It's over a different chord and so on, but still it's the first seven notes of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'".^[17] Schwartz further obscured the motif's origin by setting it in a minor key in most instances. This also creates contrast in the songs in which it forms a part, for example in "Defying Gravity", which is written primarily in the key of D-flat major. In "The Wicked Witch of the East", however, when Elphaba finally uses her powers to let her sister walk, the "Unlimited" theme is played in a major key.^[17]

With a $14 million capitalization, the Broadway production earned back its initial investment by December 21, 2004.^[11] In its first year it grossed more than $56 million.^[31] The production has been playing to capacity crowds for almost every recent performance (even to the extent that the sold out sign is nailed to the theater) and grosses more than a million dollars every week according to reports published by Playbill. In the week ending January 1, 2006, Wicked broke the record, previously held by The Producers, for the highest weekly box office gross in Broadway history, earning $1,610,934.^[33] Wicked broke its own record in the week ending November 26, 2006, when it grossed a total of $1,715,155.^[34] The Broadway production broke its own record again in the week ending December 30, 2007, grossing $1,839,950. That week the show also broke its own weekly gross records in Los Angeles ($1,949,968), Chicago ($1,418,363), and in St. Louis ($2,291,608), as the seven worldwide productions of the show grossed a collective $11.2 million.^[35]

Although West End theatres do not publish audited weekly grosses,^[36] the London production of Wicked claims to hold the record for highest reported one-week gross at £761,000, achieved in the week ending December 30, 2006.^[37][38] On June 23, 2008, the producers reported that over 1.4 million people had seen the London production since its opening, grossing over £50 million.^[39] Per the same reports, the show has consistently been one of the two highest-grossing shows in the West End.^[38]

The Broadway company of Wicked celebrated its 1,000th performance on March 23, 2006.^[40] Several of the other productions have also reached the landmark figure, including the North American touring company on 15 August 2007,^[41] the Chicago company on November 14 2007.^[42] and the West End company on 14 February 2009.