Photos: West End Wicked celebrates five millionth visitor

Wicked welcomed its five millionth theatregoer to the West End’s Apollo Victoria Theatre over the Easter bank holiday weekend. Stewart Lyons, together with his partner Cristina Kane, from Kirkcaldy in Fife, attended the matinee performance on Saturday 30 March 2013 and were invited backstage to meet the cast after the show.

Asked how it felt to be the five millionth theatregoer of the Whatsonstage.com and Olivier Award-winning audience favourite, Lyons said: “It feels fantastic. We loved the show, and even though it is our first visit to Wicked, it won’t be our last.”

The blockbuster musical, which opened at the West End’s Apollo Victoria in 2006, tells the untold story of the witches of Oz and has music by Stephen Schwartz. The current cast includes Louise Dearman (Elphaba), Gina Beck (Glinda), Ben Freeman (Fiyero), Louise Plowright (Madame Morrible), Keith Bartlett (The Wizard), Katie Rowley Jones (Nessarose), Sam Lupton (Boq) and Christopher Howell (Doctor Dillamond).

UK executive producer Michael McCabe said: “All long-running shows depend as much on audiences coming back for more as they do on first-time visitors, and Wicked is no exception. We have been swept along to the incredible milestone of five million visitors by passionate fans and incredible word-of-mouth that inspires new ticket buyers every day. We are truly grateful to everyone who continues to make Wicked such a popular and enduring success and to all those who supported Wicked in the public vote for the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award. We are all delighted to be shortlisted for this very special Olivier Award for a third time”.

HAVE YOU SEEN? In celebration of this year’s Olivier Awards, proud sponsor MasterCard is running a series of “priceless theatre” competitions, including the current one in which one lucky winner will receive the “star treatment” at Wicked. To enter, log onto the competition page here: http://wos.im/MCWicked. The Wicked prize draw takes place at 9:59am Monday 8 April 2013. All entrants will also be entered into a second prize draw for a VIP package for two to attend this year’s Oliviers. The Oliviers prize draw takes place on 22 April, ahead of the 2013 Olivier Awards ceremony on Sunday 28 April. Find out more on the Whatsonstage.com Discussion Forum, also sponsored this month by MasterCard.

– All photos by Dan Wooller