Use the form below to search for Wicked tickets on your desired date. Dates from 07 September 2006, Mon-Sat 19:30. Wed,Sat Mats 14:30. No perf. Jul 27. Extra Mat Jul 26 at 14:30
Synopsis
So much happened before Dorothy dropped into Oz and the musical Wicked fills in the gaps!
Long before that girl from Kansas arrives in Munchkinland, two other girls meet in the Land of Oz. Elphaba born with emerald green skin--is smart, fiery, and misunderstood and Galinda is beautiful, ambitious, and very popular. Their friendship struggles through their opposing personalities, rivalry over the same love-interest, their reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace. The Wicked musical explains how these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.
With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman, Wicked the musical London is loosely 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 the 1939 film of L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
The Wicked musical first dazzled Broadway in October 2003. Directed by Joe Mantello, with musical staging by Wayne Cilento, the original stars were Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth and Joel Grey. The Broadway production's success spawned productions in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, as well as international productions in Japan, Germany and Australia.
The Wicked London theatre is the Apollo Victoria Palace where it opened in September 2006. The London theatre production reunited the show's original creative team with Idina Menzel (reprising her role of Elphaba from the original Broadway production). Other original Wicked cast members included Helen Dallimore, Miriam Margolyes, Adam Garcia and Nigel Planer.
Gina Beck and Matt Willis will join the cast from Monday, 12 December 2011 to star as Glinda and Fiyero respectively. In addition Desmond Barrit is returning to the show to play The Wizard.
Wicked the Musical has won various awards including our own What’s on Stage Award for Best West End Show and an Olivier Audience Award for Most Popular Show. Entertainment Weekly has also named it 'The Best Musical of the Decade'.
Book some of the best Wicked tickets London and you'll see that you've not been told the whole story about the land of Oz...
Dates: Opens 27 September 2006. Mon-Sat 19:30. Wed,Sat Mats 14:30. No perf. Jul 27. Extra Mat Jul 26 at 14:30 24 March 2012 14:30 - Open Captioned (STAGETEXT) 28 September 2012 19:30 - Open Captioned (STAGETEXT)
Broadway blockbuster musical Wicked opened last night at the West End’s Apollo Victoria Theatre (See News, 16 Dec 2005), complete with a green carpet for the celebrities dotted among the audience, and cheers from the supportive crowd as each of the main characters arrived on stage. But did it live up to the hype?
Wicked tells the “untold story” of the Witches of Oz - popular blonde Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, and her spin-victim friend Elphaba, the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West – who were both immortalised in the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz. The show has a book by Winnie Holtzman, based on Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.
The majority of overnight critics enjoyed the spectacle of the lavish production, and the “powerhouse” performances of Menzel and Dallimore as the Wicked and Good Witches, respectively. However, they also said the show was overblown, occasionally preachy, and suffered from more hype than heart.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (3 stars) – “For all its spectacular beauty, ingenious costumes, literate lyrics and well crafted songs, the show is curiously cold and often, unlike the original yellow brick road, quite hard to follow.... Joe Mantello’s production, with designs by Eugene Lee and costumes by Susan Hilferty, is a miracle of staging and showmanship, full of witty allusions to the 1939 MGM movie, but equally determined to create its own visual world within a huge arrangement of cogs, lifts, steel structures and scenic daubs. The songs, too, cover the full range of point numbers, anthems and power ballads with a sure grasp of satirical intent and emotional energy. As on Broadway, Idina Menzel’s Elphaba is a green-skinned dynamo with a surging voice and a wonderfully light touch…. Her opposite number, Glinda, the prom school queen with a popularity obsession, is beautifully played and sung – if a little too squeakily at first – by Australian newcomer Helen Dallimore. Adam Garcia plays Fiyero with far less comic bluster than did Norbert Leo Butz originally, but he has a wild and compensating charm. Miriam Margolyes makes a fully rounded (in every sense of the word) character of Madame Morrible, the headmistress at Shiz who becomes the Wizard’s press secretary, while the Wizard himself is delightfully played by Nigel Planer.”
Sheridan Morley in the Daily Express – “This is a truly eccentric affair…. To judge from the way the first night audience was cheering as at a rock concert from the outset, I suspect it may… prove triumphant over here for its sheer spectacle…. While no Sondheim, Schwartz writes a succession of songs which admirably fit the fast changing moods. Idina Menzel recreates her Tony Award-winning performance as the Wicked Witch, with Helen Dallimore now playing the sickly sweet Glinda. Nigel Planer is perhaps a little lightweight as the Wizard, but he makes up for that in the score’s one show-stopping number, ‘Wonderful’. For the rest, just sit back and marvel at what it must all have cost, preferably without recalling the movie too clearly or indeed too affectionately.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (3 stars) – “Friends of Dorothy may be diverted by this musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz. But, although it has been a hit in New York, it seems all too typical of the modern Broadway musical: efficient, knowing and highly professional but more like a piece of industrial product than something that genuinely touches the heart or mind…. There is a certain zest about the love-hate relationship between the despised Elphaba and the glamorous Glinda, who are college contemporaries. Stephen Schwartz's lyrics even display an unusual literacy…. Miriam Margolyes, as a statuesque, magic-dispensing college principal, has a Dickensian exuberance that evokes the world of Boz more than Oz. Having whetted our appetites, Wicked lapses into knowingness and moralism…. Worse still, the musical decides it has to make a public statement about the importance of sisterhood. In the least beguiling number in the show, Elphaba and Glinda jointly and unconvincingly assert: ‘Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.’ Admittedly, the show is well performed. As Elphaba, Idina Menzel possesses lungs of brass and displays the vulnerability of the congenital loner. Helen Dallimore's Glinda is very funny as the peachy blonde who begins by announcing ‘it's good to see me, isn't it?’ and gradually evolves into an Evita-style power-broker. Nigel Planer potters around effectively as the not-so-wonderful wizard and Adam Garcia endows the male romantic interest Fiyero with a louche charm.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph – “The account of fickle girly relationships is told with wit and panache…. At times the show undoubtedly slips into preachy. But mercifully Winnie Holzman’s script keeps the gags coming as it cleverly subverts the film that spawned it. And Joe Mantello’s production… is packed with spectacular coups de theatre…. Stephen Schwartz’s lyrics are occasionally touched with wit, but what he really specialises in are big gloopy power ballads that allow the two female leads to stand centre stage and soar into the stratospheric. This they do with some style. Idina Menzel… offers a winning powerhouse performance as Elphaba…. Helen Dallimore is at times laugh-out-loud funny as the pert, preening Glinda…. No one could accuse Wicked of being a great musical – indeed at times it’s a bit of a mess – but it proves far more enjoyable than I had dared to hope, and deserves a wider audience than adolescent schoolgirls.”
Paul Taylor in the Independent – “The audience was so papered with connected people that everything was greeted with uniform ecstasy. Green-faced and in hideously clashing student clothes, Idina Menzel had merely to walk on stage, as Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch, and the roof came off…. I confess that my tummy lurched pleasurably during the evening's big uplifting number…. The Wonderful Wizard (a very poor Nigel Planer) is exposed early on as a fraudulent coward, who, because he can't read his own spell-literature, has to unite the country by demonising sections of the community - animals, Munchkins etc. The attempt at topical political allegory is well-meaning but also melodramatic, incoherent and dreadfully superficial…. I enjoyed very little apart from the delicious Miriam Margolyes…. The songs sound like dozens you've heard before. The acting is, by and large, appalling. The book is aimed uncertainly at several constituencies. The production manages to feel at once overblown and empty. As the crowds heaved up for air during the interval, a lady next to me asked: ‘Are you liking it?’ ‘I'm afraid I'm not,’ I replied. There was a ghastly pause. ‘Well, everyone else is!’ she barked. I fear the show's message about the need to assert the right to be different may not be getting across.”
We’re back in the land of Oz – and it’s a very good time to be here. While Kerry Ellis just keeps getting better and better vocally and emotionally as Elphaba - her outstanding performance as the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West is worthy of its own award - she’s now been joined by several new, largely welcome additions, not least her co-star Dianne Pilkington, who’s taken over from original London cast member Helen Dallimore as Glinda the Good Witch.
With a wonderful voice and superb comic timing, Pilkington fits perfectly into her role – and succeeds in maximising the laugh factor. Her big song “Popular” becomes a real showstopper that leaves the audience in hysterics. But she also succeeds in plucking the heart strings, particularly in the touching “Ozdust Ballroom” scene. The love-hate relationship between Elphaba and Glinda is crucial to the show’s plot, and as the two rivals Ellis and Pilkington match each other in spades, thereby raising the emotional stakes to captivating effect.
Oliver Thompsett, who has taken over as Fiyero, doesn’t yet feel fully settled into his role as the charming boy who comes between the two friends. His dancing lacks the power to own the stage during his big number “Dancing Through Life”, and there’s little genuine chemistry between him and Elphaba. That said, he does compensate with a powerful voice.
Elsewhere, Andy Mace gives his all as Dr Dillamond, to pleasing effect, and Susie Blake makes a delicious Madame Morrible opposite a weary, supposedly “wonderful” Wizard of Oz Nigel Planer, who should stop walking the yellow brick road soon - he seems to have lost all energy for the show.
Still, Wicked is fantastic family entertainment – spellbinding even – and now more magical than ever thanks to Ellis and Pilkington. Oh, and the sets are still elaborate and the costumes divine. Magical.
- Ryan Woods
Note: The following THREE-STAR review dates from January 2007.
Kerry Ellis had big shoes to fill when she took over from Tony Award-winner Idina Menzel in the role of Elphaba, the “wicked” green-skinned witch in the much-hyped Broadway hit Wicked. And fill them she does, as her assured, vocally and emotionally powerful performance is easily on a par with that of her predecessor.
While Menzel played the role with her own American accent, Ellis' Elphaba bears the new star's natural English accent, which works well in dialogue. Curiously, she opts to perform some of the songs with more than a hint of a transatlantic influence, no doubt a mark indelibly left by Menzel who created the now almost iconic role. However, Ellis has an incredibly strong voice which does not suffer by comparison. She raises the roof with her "Wizard and I", "Defying Gravity" and "No Good Deed". All of these seem to require enormous lung power, and Ellis delivers it.
But that said, where she really triumphs is in creating a more believable character of Elphaba, with her awkward, nervous mannerisms on arrival at the University of Shiz (which is to Wicked what Hogwarts is to Harry Potter) gradually giving way to a more confident, mature personality. The humour she brings to the role is enjoyable and stirring. Where Menzel was slightly too “Hollywood”, Ellis keeps it real. Well, as real as you can be in a world of flying monkeys and tin men.
The other lead cast members continue to please, in particular Helen Dallimore, who plays the ever-popular Glinda and is hilarious in her big song, "Popular". There’s a touching relationship between the two “witches”, and a genuine spark between Ellis and Adam Garcia as the dashing Fiyero.
Wicked is good family entertainment, and though it may try too hard to be worthy by over-emphasising its messages of friendship and tolerance (and there are some horribly cringe-worthy lines, particularly in Act Two), there's plenty here to please its legions of fans, new and old, for many months to come.
- Caroline Ansdell
Note: The following THREE-STAR review dates from September 2006 and this production's original opening night with previous Elphaba, Idina Menzel.
Wicked is something of a mystery to me. In telling the back story, or prequel, to Frank L Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, it delves into all sorts of interesting areas of political speculation, friendship, the price of popularity and the layered relationships between the human, animal and supernatural kingdoms.
And yet for all its spectacular beauty, ingenious costumes, literate lyrics and well-crafted songs, the show is curiously cold and often, unlike the original yellow brick road, quite hard to follow. While I found the musical both confusing and overwhelming in New York two years ago, I was more struck by the obvious effect it had on an audience for whom The Wizard of Oz is a Biblical text and Gregory Maguire’s cult 1995 novel Wicked, the musical’s main source, and sauce, a valid expression of a national curiosity about the characters.
How did the Wicked Witch exactly become so “wicked”? Winnie Holzman’s adaptation of Maguire’s novel and the songs of Stephen Schwartz transport us back in time to a pre-mythical journey through the fantasy land of Oz: in the University of Shiz, on an away-day to the Emerald City, deep in the tangled forests of flying monkeys and high on the turrets of the Wizard’s Palace.
It turns out, of course, that the Wicked Witch, Elphaba, wasn’t really wicked at all, just green. Her friendship with the Good Witch of the North, Glinda, is the show’s axis, and their college pal Fiyero, a self-regarding playboy, their target of romantic competition. In standing up for truth and justice – represented by her climactic Act One closer, “Defying Gravity” – Elphaba finds herself on the wrong side of the political regime in Oz and Glinda has to find a way of redefining their friendship.
Joe Mantello’s production, with designs by Eugene Lee and costumes by Susan Hilferty, is a miracle of staging and showmanship, full of witty allusions to the 1939 MGM movie, but equally determined to create its own visual world within a huge arrangement of cogs, lifts, steel structures and scenic daubs. The songs, too, cover the full range of point numbers, anthems and power ballads with a sure grasp of satirical intent and emotional energy.
As on Broadway, Idina Menzel’s Elphaba is a green-skinned dynamo with a surging voice and a wonderfully light touch, as when she's presented with the black hat that looks something like the crooked spire of the church at Chesterfield and her life ahead crumbles to dust in a single look. Her opposite number, Glinda, the prom school queen with a popularity obsession, is beautifully played and sung – if a little too squeakily at first – by Australian newcomer Helen Dallimore. Adam Garcia plays Fiyero with far less comic bluster than did Norbert Leo Butz originally, but he has a wild and compensating charm.
Miriam Margolyes makes a fully rounded (in every sense of the word) character of Madame Morrible, the headmistress at Shiz who becomes the Wizard’s press secretary, while the Wizard himself is delightfully played by Nigel Planer, taking another significant step on his latter-day progress through musical comedy roles. In the big onward sweep of the show, some characters, especially that of Elphaba’s crippled sister Nessarose (Katie Rowley Jones) get lost in the wake. But that may seem a footling complaint in the cynical showbiz land of Oz where the biggest bang makes the biggest bucks and humanity, in the end, goes to the wall.
I've seen Wicked twice in three months and it was, excuse the pun, magical on both occasions. Rachel Tucker manages to have both a powerful stage presence which is also sympathetic as Elphaba whilst Louise Dearman matches her presence as Galinda/Glinda. May it fly high for a long time to come. - Rob
28 Nov 11
I saw Wicked last week and have to say what an utterly brilliant show it was. Go and see it! Rachel Tucker and Louise Dearman make the perfect team and are both so talented. They were just amazingly good. Unfortunately, we saw understudy Tommy Sherlock as Fiyero and he was very disappointing. Terrible acting and mediocre singing and dancing. He had about as much allure as a cabbage and had no chemistry with poor Rachel at all! Sort out your understudies Wicked - people are paying £65 a ticket and deserve better! If it wasn't for a second rate Fiyero, I would have given the show 5 stars, as everything else was just fab. - Susanne
16 Sep 11
Rachel Tucker and Louise Dearman - you were amazing! So talented, I'm well jel. x - BFG
16 Sep 11
How odd - nobody has bothered to review Wicked since our last visit in September. Anyway, a WoS outing was an ideal opportunity to see the show again and to renew acquaintance with Louise afterwards. At some point I am sure I will get bored with Wicked but yet again the quality of the story and the production drew me in. It is also to everyone's credit that there is no suggestion of complacency amongst the cast and this is still a Broadway standard production. The close proximity of the fourth row provided an opportunity to pick out some small details which might be missed further back. It's also good to see Zoe Rainey who we have seen graduate from small ensemble roles at the Donmar as a paricularly wicked Nessa Rose. Wicked is still one of the best shows in town and, if not the very best, it's easy to see why it wins every audience award it is eligible for. - David Baxter
11 May 11
My wife's birthday so another trip to see Wicked was inevitable. Last time we saw it I predicted that the current cast could be the best ever and I think they have lived up to that. Rachel Tucker has fully grown into the role of Elphaba, providing light and shade rather than the full-on impact of some of her predecessors, including (heresy I know) Idina Menzel. It's worth remembering that originally the bigger name actress was cast as Glinda until the unstoppable Menzel effect took over. Louise Dearman has restored the character to prominence without any attempt to upstage her off-stage friend Rachel. Louise's perfromance is rich with irrepressible humour but also awareness of the friendship with Elphaba she has lost. Louise's singing voice still has remarkable range, even though it is not displayed to full effect here (see her in concert to gauge the full extent of her talent). I had expected to be a bit bored with Wicked by now but this was probably my favourite performance of the five we've seen. - David Baxter
04 Sep 10
Have seen this 3 times. The first with Kerry Ellis, I gave it 5 stars. The second with Alexa Kheidhiem, 4 stars and this time with Ashleigh Gray. I'm sure she's a very nice person but why do the producers think I want to pay top whack to watch the lead who can't really sing, it's like a shout with very little natural vibrato. She alone managed to turn it into a "middle class" toff story with the public school accent etc. This really does need the American accent to suceed. Every one was brilliant. It needed a cast change so I'll give it another go after checking Ashliegh Gray isn't the understudy. - Dave Woolrich
27 May 10
An extensive cast change was the motivation for a return trip to Wicked. Lewis Bradley is aptly cast as the shallow, dim Fiyero but actually sings well aprt from one horrible bum note. Clive Carter is probably the best singer to play the Wizard and Cassandra Compton must be the prettiest Nessa Rose. Rachel Tucker was clearly the most professional of the Nancy contestants and has earned her chance of a leading role. At first I had my doubts; her singing voice is excellent but her Elphaba was almost devoid of personality, but from Defying Gravity onwards something clicked. Her rock belt rivals Kerry Ellis and she also got under the (green) skin of the character. This was only her fourth day in the role but Rachel could develop into a brilliant Elphaba. However, the main reason for buying tickets is that, at long last LOUISE DEARMAN IS A WEST END STAR.We have followed this brilliant girl's career for years and wondered when a producer would see the talent we have always believed in and Louise truly lives up to expectations. She has a beautiful singing voice with enviable range and versatility but it is her natural sense of comedy that makes her such a superb Glinda. She correctly plays her as a spoilt teenager (Popular could now belong in Legally Blonde) but the transition to a more mature, thoughtful Glinda is brilliantly conveyed and there is a genuine chemistry between her and Rachel, befitting off-stage friends. The show itself may be the most poular in London although it is not in the same league as Les Mis, Phantom or the suprisingly short-lived Hairspray, to name but three, but, with Lee Mead still to come, Wicked might have its' best cast yet and in Louise Dearman - a star is born. - David Baxter
02 Apr 10
Brilliant show..The Alexia Khadime that I saw was terrific .. as was Diane Pilkington. Don't know what show correspondent "cassox" saw but it seems to have been something else entirely.
However if his/her hearing is as poor as
his spelling then maybe it is a hearing aid he needs to appreciate just how good the show actually is!
- finnbarr
26 Oct 09
Still awfull.
there is nothing to commend this show other than its a newly composed musical....... but unfortunatly Schwartz is a terrible composer... granted that 'popular' is a good yarn and 'Defying Gravity' a great power ballad.. or sorts....... but the wholething looks cheep, tacky and is a dreadfull travesty of musical theatre...
and what is more it is a rape-ing of a mockery of a tarvesty of the book.......
awfull..
i know you wont listen.... - cassox
08 Oct 09
I took a chance and went to see this sparkling show and was pleasently supriced. I think Alexia and Dianne was absolutely brilliant. A very funny and entertaining piece of work. - Risto Pohjola,Finland
Built in 1930 as a cinema (New Victoria). 1524 seats+40 standing, (2574 seats but many lost to Starlight Express set). Society of London Theatre member.
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