Wicked Witches Give Bialystock a Run for His Money???

Look out Max Bialystock: two Wicked witches have just stolen the highest box office gross for any show in Broadway history, flying high with a whopping $1,610,934 in the week ending yesterday (4 January 2006). The record was previously held by The Producers, which grossed $1,600,243 for the week ending 4 January 2004 when original stars Nathan Lane (playing Bialystock) and Matthew Broderick returned for a limited engagement. Could Wicked give The Producers a run for its money in London this year as well? Perhaps. The musical, which tells the back story of the The Wizard of Oz’s warring witches opens at the West End’s Apollo Victoria in September (See News, 16 Dec 2005). But The Producers will be a hard act to follow in the money stakes here as well. The West End production of Mel Brooks’ multi award-winning hit recouped its £5,500,000 capitalisation and took more than £20,000,000 at the box office less than a year after opening at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where it’s still running (See The Goss, 21 Jul 2005). Wicked has a book by Winnie Holtzman, based on Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.

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