\n <\/p>\n
Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in the Broadway debut of \u201cWicked\u201d at the Gershwin Theater.<\/span> <\/p>\n \u201cWicked\u201d is an undisputed juggernaut \u2014 one of the biggest productions in musical theater history. The stage show, by the composer Stephen Schwartz and the librettist Winnie Holzman, has grossed $1.8 billion on Broadway, and $6.2 billion globally. Worldwide, it has been seen by more than 72 million people.<\/p>\n But none of that was a foregone conclusion. Based on Gregory Maguire\u2019s 1995 novel, which in turn was based on L. Frank Baum\u2019s \u201cThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz,\u201d the musical had a so-so reception during its pre-Broadway run in San Francisco in the spring of 2003. In New York that fall, it divided critics when it opened on Broadway at the Gershwin Theater, starring Idina Menzel as the green-skinned \u201cwicked witch,\u201d Elphaba, and Kristin Chenoweth as her frenemy, Glinda, a.k.a. the Good Witch of the South. (\u201cThere\u2019s Trouble in Emerald City\u201d was the headline on the review in The New York Times.)<\/p>\n \u201cYou wake up the morning after opening night, and some of those notices were pretty devastating, and you think, \u2018Oh, well, this is the final word,\u2019\u201d Mantello said. \u201cBut then the audiences are telling you a completely different story.\u201d<\/p>\n Menzel performed \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d at the 2004 Tony Awards, and took home the prize for best leading actress in a musical.<\/span> <\/p>\n The production pretty quickly became a fan favorite, and over the years, audiences made the show their own. The \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d base was, of course, a huge factor \u2014 the 1939 film is a much-loved American classic \u2014 but, also, the musical\u2019s depiction of female friendship became a central part of its allure, and kept audiences returning for repeat viewings.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce word kicked in, it took on a life that none of us could have ever predicted,\u201d Mantello said. \u201cIt was the audience, and not a critical consensus, that turned it into the hit that it became.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a hit! Fans waiting for Menzel\u2019s autograph outside the Gershwin Theater in May 2004.<\/span> <\/p>\n Menzel, the original Elphaba, won a Tony Award for best leading actress in a musical in 2004. In 2005, the day before her final performance, she fell through a trap door onstage; she couldn\u2019t perform at her last show, but made a cameo in a red tracksuit.<\/p>\n The show expanded rapidly, and now has a global footprint. The London production opened in September 2006, after the prior year\u2019s introduction of a North American tour and a production in Chicago, where it ran for three and a half years. Los Angeles, Japan and Germany began in 2007; and Australia in 2008. In the years since, productions have run in the Netherlands, Mexico, South Korea and Brazil; productions are still running in London and South Korea, and touring in North America.<\/p>\n A South Korean production featured, in 2016, Jeong Sun-ah and Cha Ji-yeon.<\/span> <\/p>\n The 15th anniversary cast included Amanda Jane Cooper as Glinda and Jessica Vosk as Elphaba.<\/span> <\/p>\n In 2018, the show celebrated its 15th anniversary, a milestone achieved by few shows. And \u201cWicked\u201d has continued to outpace its peers: It has since become the fourth-longest-running production in Broadway history, following \u201cThe Phantom of the Opera,\u201d \u201cChicago\u201d and the top-grossing show, \u201cThe Lion King.\u201d<\/p>\n The show reopened with Ginna Claire Mason as Glinda.<\/span> <\/p>\n Broadway shows were closed from the spring of 2020 through the fall of 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. In August 2021, the touring production of \u201cWicked\u201d restarted in Dallas \u2014 the first Broadway touring production to do so \u2014 and in September 2021 \u201cWicked\u201d reopened on Broadway.<\/p>\n The idea of adapting \u201cWicked\u201d for the screen goes way back. In fact, it predates the stage musical. Universal Pictures had optioned the novel but couldn\u2019t figure out how to turn it into a film, and agreed to let Schwartz, working with Holzman, develop it into a stage musical first. (Universal didn\u2019t miss out; it is one of the lead producers of the stage musical, along with Marc Platt and David Stone.)<\/p>\n Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande rehearsing \u201cPopular\u201d in September 2022.<\/span> <\/p>\n Once the stage production became a ginormous hit, the film adaptation was an inevitability, but still there were false starts, abandoned schedules and creative-team overhauls along the way. News coverage of a film adaptation began in 2010; at one point, the director Stephen Daldry was attached and a 2019 release was announced; in 2021 Jon M. Chu became the director, and the next year he said it would be split into two films.<\/p>\n Grande and Erivo had both become fans via the stage show. Grande saw it with her grandmother on Broadway in 2004 (and met Chenoweth backstage); Erivo saw the London production when she was a student.<\/p>\n The \u201cWicked\u201d films\u2019 rollout began in earnest in early 2024, with a trailer that ran during the Super Bowl, and the actresses were ubiquitous throughout that year, including in promotional spots that aired during the Paris Summer Olympics. (NBC Universal, the parent company of Universal Pictures, has the American broadcasting right to the Games.)<\/p>\n The marketing budgets for most Hollywood films are vastly larger than those for Broadway shows. In this case, because there are two films \u2014 one released last year and one released last month \u2014 the marketing campaigns, as well as publicity and news coverage, was doubled. The films had an estimated marketing budget of at least $125 million each \u2014 or $250 million total \u2014 along with the numerous brand partnerships that also generated a ton of attention. By contrast, the Broadway show has an annual marketing budget of about $11 million.<\/p>\n The movies\u2019 effect on the stage production was significant. In 2023, \u201cWicked\u201d grossed $97.85 million on Broadway; in 2024 it was up nearly 15 percent, to $112.13 million, and this year it expects to be up another 13.4 percent, to $127.3 million.<\/p>\n The show says the effect in London has also been sizable: It expects London \u201cWicked\u201d grosses this year to be up 29.4 percent over last year, and last year the grosses were up 10.5 percent over the previous year. (\u200b\u200bThe show also holds a record for the highest weekly grosses in West End history, set this year during the week that included New Year\u2019s Day.)<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d Schwartz said in an interview. \u201cBefore the movies came out, I wondered what the impact would be on the show. I don\u2019t think any of us anticipated how strong it would be. You can never plan on this kind of thing, or even hope for it, but it\u2019s really lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n Actors don harnesses and elaborate wings to portray the flying monkeys who become Elphaba\u2019s allies.<\/span> <\/p>\n The Broadway production of \u201cWicked\u201d grossed $5 million over Christmas week last year (just a month after the first film\u2019s release) \u2014 it is the first and only Broadway show to gross that much in a single week. (It was also the first show to cross the $2 million mark and the $3 million mark.)<\/p>\n What\u2019s next? The second movie was released just before Thanksgiving, giving a second surge for \u201cWicked\u201d in all its forms, and now the year looks to be ending strong for the stage show. The Broadway production grossed more than $3 million over Thanksgiving week (by comparison, it had generally been grossing $2.3 million to $2.5 million during Thanksgiving weeks that preceded the films\u2019 release). Just around the corner: the Christmas and New Year\u2019s stretch, always a good period for Broadway, and this year, even more so for \u201cWicked.\u201d<\/p>\n Broadway grosses reflect the most recent box office receipts as reported by the Broadway League. Grosses are not adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n Images: Sara Krulwich\/The New York Times and Universal Pictures.<\/p>\n Videos: CBS; Wicked Musical Korea; Broadway.com; Theater Mania; Ariana Grande; Pink News; Out; FOX; NBC; Universal Pictures.<\/p>\n Produced by Leo Dominguez, Hollis Johnson, Rebecca Lieberman and Josephine Sedgwick. Additional reporting by Leo Dominguez and Jeremy Singer-Vine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oct. 30, 2003 Broadway Opening Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in the Broadway debut of \u201cWicked\u201d at the Gershwin Theater. \u201cWicked\u201d is an undisputed juggernaut \u2014 one of the biggest productions in musical theater history. The stage show, by the composer Stephen Schwartz and the librettist Winnie Holzman, has grossed $1.8 billion on Broadway, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[13767,9797,1394,4037,3570,12844],"class_list":{"0":"post-37942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-boosted","9":"tag-broadway","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-musicals","12":"tag-sales","13":"tag-wicked"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}March 23, 2006<\/h5>\n
1,000th Broadway Performance<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Sept. 27, 2006<\/h5>\n
\u2018Wicked\u2019 International<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Oct. 30, 2018<\/h5>\n
Another Milestone: 15 Years<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Sept. 14, 2021<\/h5>\n
\u2018Wicked\u2019 Reopens After the Shutdown<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Dec. 7, 2022<\/h5>\n
Yes, We\u2019re Making a Movie<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Feb. 11, 2024<\/h5>\n
Marketing Saturation<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Nov. 22, 2024<\/h5>\n
\u2018Wicked: Part I\u2019 U.S. Theatrical Release<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Dec. 25, 2024<\/h5>\n
$5 Million on Broadway<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Nov. 21, 2025<\/h5>\n
\u2018Wicked: For Good\u2019 U.S. Theatrical Release<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n