Live Theater, Local

WICKED Opens Tomorrow Night at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis (June 16 – July 11)

Posted: June 15, 2010 at 3:26 pm   /   by   /   comments (1)

Wicked Broadway National Tour St Louis 2010After incredible international popularity and St. Louis demand, WICKED is returning to the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis from June 16 to July 11, 2010.

Check out our interview with WICKED cast-member and St. Louis native Todd Hanebrink.

WICKED has won numerous awards since it’s debut in 2003, including a Grammy and three Tony Awards®. In both 2005 and 2007 during it’s time at The Fox, the show broke box office records and sold out in record time – setting new national attendance records.

Currently in its 7th year on Broadway, WICKED’s four North American and four international companies have cumulatively grossed nearly $1.8 billion and have been seen by nearly 23 million people worldwide. Over 4.8 million people have seen WICKED on Broadway alone.

About WICKED

Long before Dorothy dropped in, two other girls meet in the Land of Oz. One, born with emerald green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. How these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch makes for the most spellbinding new musical in years.

WlCKED, the untold story ofthe witches of Oz, features music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Academy Award-winner for Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt) and book by Winnie Holzman (“My So-Called Life,” “Once And Again” and “thirtysomething”), and is based on the best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire. With musical staging by Tony Award-winner Wayne Cilento (Aida, The Who’s Tommy, How To Succeed…) WICKED is directed by 2003 and 2004 Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello (Take Me Out, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Glengarry Glen Ross.)

Recommended age for children is 8 and up. No children under 4 admitted. Running time for the show is 2 hours and 30 minutes, plus a 15 minute intermission.

Performances of WICKED at the Fox Theatre run from June 16 to July 11, 2010. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit Metrotix or the Fabulous Fox Theatre website.


Fun WICKED Facts:

Currently in its 7th year on Broadway, WICKED’s four North American and four international companies have cumulatively grossed nearly $1.8 billion and have been seen by nearly 23 million people worldwide.

NATIONAL

* The New York Times called WICKED “Broadway’s biggest blockbuster” and just a few months ago, the Times referred to WICKED as “the defining musical of the decade.”

Over 4.8 million people have seen WICKED on Broadway since it began performances in the fall of 2003.

The Broadway production of WICKED has broken the house record at the Gershwin Theatre twenty (20) times during the course of its run. It regularly grosses in excess of $1.5 million each week.

For the week ending January 3, 2010, the Broadway production of WICKED grossed over $2.1 million, the highest one-week box office take in Broadway history.

WICKED has grossed a combined total of nearly $1.4 billion for its four North American companies.

Current advance sales for the Broadway production of WICKED are approximately $25 million in the show’s seventh year on Broadway. It is unprecedented for a show to maintain that level of advance sales so long after its initial debut.

* In his coverage of the national touring production, Peter Marks, of The Washington Post, called WICKED “a breathtaking success story of a magnitude that North America has not witnessed since the peak years of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.”

On national tour (which has been traveling across North America for 320 weeks), over 6.6 million people have seen WICKED. There are currently two North American touring companies.

Since it began in March 2005, the national tour of WICKED has broken the house record in every single city in which it’s played, including Toronto, San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, Hartford, Washington D.C., Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit, Cleveland, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Phoenix/Tempe, Portland, Seattle, Providence, Baltimore, Miami, East Lansing, Oklahoma City, Columbus, Charlotte, Orlando, Kansas City, Rochester, Buffalo, Ottawa, Minneapolis, Louisville, Appleton, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Omaha, Fort Myers, Birmingham, Jacksonville, Norfolk, Indianapolis, Memphis, Tulsa, Austin, Nashville, Des Moines, Wichita, Syracuse, Greenville, Dayton, Richmond, and New Orleans.
In St. Louis, the national tour of WICKED grossed $2,307,263 in a single week (week ending January 7, 2008), the highest weekly gross in North American touring history.

* Chris Jones, of the Chicago Tribune, has called WICKED “the most popular piece of Chicago theatre in a generation.”

In Chicago (where the sit-down production concluded a run of over 3 ½ years – and 1,500 performances – on January 25, 2009), over 3.1 million people saw WICKED. The production grossed $206 million and, for the week ending January 4, 2009, took in $1,764,428, making it Chicago’s highest-grossing week ever.

* In his review of the Los Angeles production, Charles McNulty, of the Los Angeles Times, stated that “WICKED is a phenomenon that keeps growing.”

WICKED opened a California production with a sit-down engagement at Los Angeles’ Pantages Theatre on February 21, 2007. The production, which gave its final Los Angeles performance on January 11, 2009, was seen by over 1.8 million people and grossed over $145 million during its 100 week run. For the week ending January 4, 2009, WICKED broke the house record at the Pantages Theatre – with a box office gross of $2,579,945 – and became the highest grossing attraction in Los Angeles theatre history.

* Chad Jones, of the San Francisco Chronicle, called WICKED, “the San Francisco-born musical that has conquered the world.”

The California company moved to San Francisco (where WICKED had its pre-Broadway world premiere in May 2003) for a sit-down engagement which opened February 6, 2009 at the Orpheum Theatre. For the week ending February 15, WICKED grossed $1,459,610, breaking the San Francisco one-week box office record.

WICKED’s second national tour kicked off on March 7, 2009 in Fort Myers, FL.

The four North American companies of WICKED cumulatively gross in excess of $5.7 million per week.

WICKED has won 35 major awards, including the Grammy Award, the Olivier Award, three Tony Awards and six Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical.

In November 2006, the Grammy Award winning (Best Musical Show Album) original cast recording of WICKED was certified “Platinum” by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and it now has sales of 2 million copies in print.

The novel “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire, published in 1995, has sold 4 million copies, with 3.3 million of those sold since 2003 when the musical opened. Buoyed by the musical’s success, the novel still appears on bestseller lists 14 years after its initial publication.

THE GRIMMERIE, WICKED’s official companion book about the making of the musical, has sold nearly 250,000 copies, making it the best-selling book of its kind in theatre history.

Merchandise sales for WICKED (t-shirts, caps, jewelry, stuffed toys, etc.) have exceeded $125 million, making it the fastest selling show-related merchandise in history.
INTERNATIONAL

* In his review of the London production, Tim Walker, of the Sunday Telegraph (London), called WICKED “blockbuster entertainment – it is magnificent to see a musical that manages to be both populist and intelligent at the same time.”

WICKED opened in London’s West End on September 27, 2006 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. It created London theatre history by selling over ₤100,000 worth of tickets in its first half-hour of sales. It has since gone on to set the all-time record for highest weekly gross in West End history with the week ending December 31, 2006, taking in £873,020/$1,694,000 (U.S).

The London production of WICKED has played for more than 3 ½ years and over 1,300 performances. It is consistently the highest-grossing show in the West End.

* In his review of the Japanese language production, Hitomi Hagio, of The Tokyo, called WICKED “a spectacular entertainment with deep emotions and a serious message.”

A Japanese language production of WICKED opened in Tokyo on June 17, 2007 at the Dentsu Shiki Theatre and played to consistent capacity crowds through September 6, 2009. The production moved to Osaka on October 11, 2009.

* In his review of the German language production, Tim Schleider, of Stuttgarter Zeitung, proclaimed, “there is no doubt, Wicked is the most entertaining, the liveliest, the most colorful and, above all, the smartest production that we have seen at the Stuttgart Musical Centre.”

A German language production of WICKED opened in Stuttgart on November 15, 2007 at the Stuttgart Musical Centre and played to capacity crowds through January 29, 2010. The production moved to Oberhausen on March 5, 2010.

* In his review of the Australian production, John Bailey of The Age raved, “this dazzling entertainment more than justifies the hype. WICKED has it all – the glitz and glamour and smiles, the anthemic tunes and mind-boggling sets. It also has a brain.”

The Australian production of WICKED began at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre in June, 2008 and concluded its record-breaking run in August, 2009. It opened on September 12, 2009 at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre.

A Dutch-language production of WICKED will open in 2011.