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Based on the book by Gregory Maguire, Wicked tells a different side of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. It follows Elphaba and Galinda through their tumultuous days at Shiz University. They become friends despite their differences, but their friendship is riddled with conflict from troubles with everything from romance to a corrupt government. Wicked shows how these trials shaped them into Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda, the Good Witch. Since the show opened on Broadway in 2003 it has enjoyed great critical acclaim and outstanding box office success. There have been productions of Wicked all over the world, from Chicago to Melbourne to Oberhausen, Germany. Wicked has won over 35 awards including Drama Desk’s Outstanding Musical award and The Dress Circle Award for The Greatest Musical. Wicked London alone has won awards such as the London People’s Choice Award 2009 for Best Family Fun and Whatsonstage.com’s Award for Best West End Show in 2010. Wicked London is performed in the historic Apollo Victoria, which was rated as the ‘Favourite London Venue’ by lastminute.com. It opened in 1930 as a cinema and has since survived many closings and resurrections. The interior of the theatre has beautiful Art Deco construction complete with columns, subtle lighting, and two-level seating that holds over 2,000 patrons. The theatre is located in London’s West End, an area of central London which is popular with tourists. The original London cast featured much of the original Broadway creative team. Idina Menzel was also in the original Broadway cast, and starred as Elphaba in the West End production for the first three months after it opened in 2006. The current London cast of Wicked features Rachel Tucker as Elphaba and Louise Dearman as Glinda. Rachel Tucker first gained fame as a finalist on the BBC’s ‘I’d Do Anything’ and has since played in ‘Tonight’s the Night’, ‘Rent’, and ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Louise Dearman is a theatre veteran who has starred as Eva Perón in ‘Evita’, Grizabella in ‘Cats’, and preformed in many other stage and television shows. The rest of the cast includes Lee Mead as Fiyero the prince, Julie Legrand as Madame Morrible the ‘headshiztress’ of Shiz niversity, and Clive Carter as The Wizard.
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