Shows get the movie treatment

A buoyant West End is leading to some big-screen remakes of West End hits.

Twenty-three years after Susan Hill’s terrifying novel The Woman in Black first opened on the London stage, a new movie version is to be distributed in cinemas later this year starring Daniel Radcliffe.

It marks a growing interest in developing big screen projects based on successful stage shows, with movie producers realising the potential of some theatre brands that have built up large and loyal international audiences over long periods of time.

In the last few years successful movie versions of stage hits have proved popular at the box-office including Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway musicals Chicago and Hairspray, and Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.

The forthcoming The Woman in Black movie version is produced by Hammer Films, the cult British film studio that made stars out of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing with its horror movies such as Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein. Now in post-production, the film has been adapted by Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass), directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake) and also stars a heavy-weight British cast including Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer and Roger Allam.

Inspired by the creative and box-office success of War Horse, Steven Spielberg has also started work on a big screen adaptation of First World War story. Already an enormous hit for the National Theatre – first at their South Bank home and currently at the New London Theatre – the movie goes back to Michael Morpurgo’s novel and features a screenplay by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall and Love Actually’s Richard Curtis. Dreamworks, which now sits within Disney, has moved forward the planned release date of the film to 28 December 2011 such is the excitement surrounding the project.

The War Horse movie cast features rising young star Jeremy Irvine as Albert, Benedict Cumberbatch, who is currently starring in Frankenstein at the National Theatre, as Major Stewart, David Thewlis as Lyons and Emily Watson as Albert’s mother. Plus man of the moment Tom Hiddleston – who is also starring in the movie of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea.

A number of new stage-to-screen projects are also in development, including Will Smith’s new movie version of Annie with his daughter Willow, and two Cameron Mackintosh film adaptations: Les Miserables – the world’s longest-running musical, in association with Working Title and Universal, and My Fair Lady. The later is being worked on with Sony and current stars tipped for leads of Eliza and Professor Higgins are Cary Mulligan and Colin Firth.

Also Glee creator Ryan Murphy is rumoured to be working on a remake of the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show – based on the cult stage musical  - following his Rocky Horror homage in the latest series of Glee.

Finally, and perhaps most exciting of all for theatre fans, smash-hit musical Wicked is set for a movie version, with Universal currently scouting for directors to take it on. The musical movie version is not to be confused with the mini-series planned for ABC in the US produced by Salma Hayek and based on the original Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

It is safe to say that stage to screen adaptations will never over shadow the reverse trend of screen-to-stage shows, with a enormous number of current West End and Broadway hits based on movies, including Legally Blonde, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing – and forthcoming shows The Wizard of Oz, Ghost and Shrek.

But new movie adaptations of hit shows, alongside initiatives such as the National Theatre’s live cinema programme and recent cinema screening of the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary concert at the O2, continue to widen the audience and appeal of West End theatre around the world.

LINKS

Book tickets to The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre and SAVE £20

Book tickets to War Horse at the New London Theatre

Hammer Films website

The Woman in Black movie Facebook page

MARK EVANS in Wicked

Watch out for Mark Evans – new star of Wicked and a man on the up!

Mark Evans has been tipped for greatness for a while now, so a lead role in Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre – replacing none other than Lee Mead in the part of Fiyero – is a good sign.

He has already been singled out by Lord Lloyd Webber, as a finalist in the BBC’s 2009 search for a Eurovision star, and parts in Jet Set Go! at the Jermyn Street Theatre, High School Musical, Wicked and The Rocky Horror Show have all put the young actor firmly on the map.

His full credits include: On stage as Curly in Oklahoma (UK Tour); Prince Charming in Snow White with Craig Revel Horwood; Brad in The Rocky Horror Show (UK National Tour); Richard in Jet Set Go! (Jermyn Street Theatre); Prince Charming in Cinderella (Churchill Theatre Bromley); Troy Bolton in High School Musical (Hammersmith Apollo); plus roles in Chess (Royal Albert Hall); Wicked (Apollo Victoria); Spamalot (Palace Theatre) and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (UK Tour).

Mark’s TV work includes the lead in Marcaroni (S4C); a finalist in Your Country Needs You with Andrew Lloyd Webber (BBC and film includes Lake Placid and Showing Brain.

LINKS

Book tickets to Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London

Special Offer: Free dinner deal at Wicked

In the West End This Week: Wicked, Oliviers

What’s coming up in the West End this week, including The Wizard of Oz, Wicked, Shoes, the Olivier Awards and The Children’s Hour.

Monday 7 February 2011

A new cast joins Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Lee Mead said farewell to the company on Saturday night, and a number of new cast members join the show tonight including Mark Evans as Fiyero, Zoë Rainey as Nessarose and Ben Stott as Boq, alongside current stars Rachel Tucker as Elphaba and Louise Dearman as Glinda.

The Olivier Award nominations will be announced today at 11am at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. This year’s awards – which will be presented on 13 March at Drury Lane – promise to have upped the star and glamour quotient and will be televised by the BBC.

The Wizard of Oz starts previews tonight. This mega new production at the London Palladium, rebooted by Jeremy Sams and produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Bill Kenwright, sees Over The Rainbow star Danielle Hope join Michael Crawford and Hannah Waddingham.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

A big theatre day! Shoes – the hugely successful Sadler’s Wells show – opens tonight at the Peacock Theatre to give the show a much deserved West End airing.

Million Dollar Quartet, the musical that recreates the historic day when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis all made music together, starts previews at the Noel Coward Theatre on Tuesday.

Also much deserving is Clybourne Park, which gets its official opening at the Wyndhams Theatre starring Sophie Thompson and Stephen Campbell Moore. Bruce Norris’ satirical comedy, directed by Dominic Cooke for the Royal Court, has been sweeping the boards at various awards including the recent South Bank Sky Arts Awards and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards.

Also on Tuesday, Showstopper the Improvised Musical begins at the Ambassadors Theatre in London with the the all-singing, all-dancing cast creating a brand new musical from scratch every night in this award-winning production. Plus, the Southwark Playhouse opens its new production of Sondheim’s Company directed by Joe Fredericks.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

The Children’s Hour gets its official opening night at the Comedy Theatre tonight, starring Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Keira Knightley and Ellen Burstyn in Lillian Hellman’s controversial play.

Friday 11 February 2011

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee starts previews as the Donmar Warehouse.

And coming up

Next week sees The Woman in Black celebrate its 23rd birthday, having opened in the West End on 15 February 1989. 2011 promises to be a big year for the show, with a brand new movie version of Susan Hill’s classic horror story opening in cinemas starring Daniel Radcliffe.

Wicked Day this weekend

West End blockbuster Wicked will be celebrating this weekend, Sunday 31 October 2010, with its annual WICKED DAY.

Now in its fifth year, WICKED DAY is a free day of family fun that celebrates the show and raises money for charity. This year’s event will take place at St Pancras International station in London between 12 noon and 4pm and feature live performances from the cast of the show, plus Halloween-themed events including face-painting and workshops.

Proceeds from the day will go to the Woodland Trust and New Horizon Youth Centre in Kings Cross.

LINKS

More information on Wicked Day
Book tickets to Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London
Great mal and ticket deals to Wicked

Apollo Victoria Theatre – History

History of Apollo Victoria Theatre

The Apollo Victoria originally opened as a cinema called the New Victoria on 15 October 1930 showing George Arlis movie Old English. It cost £250,000 to build – quite significant at the time. Despite being built as a cinema, the venue has always staged shows from its very opening – with a host variety and big bands playing at Apollo Vic. In 1933 a Royal Matinee for King George V was staged at the theatre and in June 1939 the cinema presented a live relay of the Epsom Derby, in an early experiment in “event cinema” which is only now starting to take off with the advent of digital cinemas.

In the 1950s the theatre was nearly demolished but was saved and continued to play host to ballet, live shows and films.

However, the New Victoria cinema finally closed down in 1976, finding it hard to compete with TV and video. The building was empty for five years and then bought by Apollo Leisure, who reopened it as a dedicated theatre space -the Apollo Victoria – in 1981.

It re-opened with a Shirley Bassey concert, followed by The Sound of Music starring Petula Clark. In 1982 Camelot opened starring Richard Harris but it was not a success. Wayne Sleep was up next with his dance show Dash in 1983, and then Topol returned to London to play Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. The theatre was then transformed in 1984 when Andrew Lloyd Webber opened Starlight Express, removing 1,000 seats to accommodate giant roller-skating ramps that weaved through the stalls. The show ran for 18 years and over 7,400 performances.

When Starlight closed it was an opportunity to refurbish the theatre and architects Jaques Muir and Partners came in to restore the auditorium. As part of this they removed over 3,500 power-hungry incandescent lamps and replaced them with 88,000 LEDs – a first for theatre auditoriums.

Following Starlight, Lloyd Webber was back at the theatre in 2002 with Bombay Dreams, which ran for 1,500 performances, closing in 2004. Saturday Night Fever opened next, from July 2004 to October 2005, followed by a short run of Movin’ Out, featuring the music of Billy Joel, in 2006.

The Apollo Victoria’s current show is a smash-hit – on Broadway, in London and around the world. Wicked opened on 27 September 2006 with Idina Menzel, Helen Dallimore, Nigel Planer, Adam Garcia, Miriam Margolyes, Katie Rowley Jones, James Gillan and Martin Ball, and has continued to pack them in at the theatre.

Apollo Leisure sold the Apollo Victoria to Live Nation in 2000. This year the theatre was sold by Live Nation to the Ambassador Theatre Group.

The Apollo Victoria’s design

The building is widely believed to be the most important and architecturally interesting cinema building ever erected in the UK.
The New Victoria was designed by E. Wamsley Lewis in 1929, with W E Trent also onboard as architect to Provincial Cinematograph Theatres – who owned the site. The theatre has two impressive Germanic Art Deco facades – one on Wilton Road and one on Vauxhall Bridge Road. Both are linked with a single foyer. Originally the facades were lit up at night by concealed neon tubes – something that has been brought back in recent years. The theatre is faced in Portland stone, with two bas-relief panels by sculptor Newbury Abbot Trent on either side of the Wilton Road entrance. Also look out for a small Charlie Chaplin figure carved into the wall. Newbury Abbot Trent also produced a relief paying homage to the movies and movie stars, which is on the main foyer staircase.

The auditorium -which is rumoured to have been inspired by “a mermaid’s dream of heaven” consisted of pale blue and green marine life with technically ambitious lighting effects of pink, green and blue. A dolphin used to adorn the walls but has long since disappeared – but some of the aquatic features can still be seen today, including a rather sexy mermaid above the Gents toilet door. The circle had the design of an ocean liner with port holes on the doors.

Book tickets to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria in London

THEATRE INFO

MORE INFORMATION about the Apollo Victoria Theatre, including directions, maps, seating plans and what’s on

LINKS

Cinema Treasures – Apollo Victoria
Wikipedia – Apollo Victoria
Arthur Lloyd – Apollo Victoria

Further reading:

The Great Theatres of London
London’s Theatres
Scene/Unseen: London’s West End Theatres

Theatre of the month: Apollo Victoria Theatre

The Apollo Victoria Theatre in London celebrates its 80th birthday this year. Celebrations have included an all-star charity gala featuring the cast of the venue’s current show, Wicked, and past productions including Starlight Express. The theatre’s birthday forms part of a historic year for West End theatres, with a number of venues celebrating their 80th anniversaries this year.

History of Apollo Victoria Theatre

The Apollo Victoria originally opened as a cinema called the New Victoria on 15 October 1930 showing George Arlis movie Old English. It cost £250,000 to build – quite significant at the time. Despite being built as a cinema, the venue has always staged shows from its very opening – with a host variety and big bands playing at Apollo Vic. In 1933 a Royal Matinee for King George V was staged at the theatre and in June 1939 the cinema presented a live relay of the Epsom Derby, in an early experiment in “event cinema” which is only now starting to take off with the advent of digital cinemas.

In the 1950s the theatre was nearly demolished but was saved and continued to play host to ballet, live shows and films.

However, the New Victoria cinema finally closed down in 1976, finding it hard to compete with TV and video. The building was empty for five years and then bought by Apollo Leisure, who reopened it as a dedicated theatre space  -the Apollo Victoria – in 1981.

It re-opened with a Shirley Bassey concert, followed by The Sound of Music starring Petula Clark. In 1982 Camelot opened starring Richard Harris but it was not a success. Wayne Sleep was up next with his dance show Dash in 1983, and then Topol returned to London to play Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. The theatre was then transformed in 1984 when Andrew Lloyd Webber opened Starlight Express, removing 1,000 seats to accommodate giant roller-skating ramps that weaved through the stalls. The show ran for 18 years and over 7,400 performances.

When Starlight closed it was an opportunity to refurbish the theatre and architects Jaques Muir and Partners came in to restore the auditorium. As part of this they removed over 3,500 power-hungry incandescent lamps and replaced them with 88,000 LEDs – a first for theatre auditoriums.

Following Starlight, Lloyd Webber was back at the theatre in 2002 with Bombay Dreams, which ran for 1,500 performances, closing in 2004. Saturday Night Fever opened next, from July 2004 to October 2005, followed by a short run of Movin’ Out, featuring the music of Billy Joel, in 2006.

The Apollo Victoria’s current show is a smash-hit – on Broadway, in London and around the world. Wicked opened on 27 September 2006 with Idina Menzel, Helen Dallimore, Nigel Planer, Adam Garcia, Miriam Margolyes, Katie Rowley Jones, James Gillan and Martin Ball, and has continued to pack them in at the theatre.

Apollo Leisure sold the Apollo Victoria to Live Nation in 2000. This year the theatre was sold by Live Nation to the Ambassador Theatre Group.

The Apollo Victoria’s design

The building is widely believed to be the most important and architecturally interesting cinema building ever erected in the UK.
The New Victoria was designed by E. Wamsley Lewis in 1929, with W E Trent also onboard as architect to Provincial Cinematograph Theatres – who owned the site. The theatre has two impressive Germanic Art Deco facades – one on Wilton Road and one on Vauxhall Bridge Road. Both are linked with a single foyer. Originally the facades were lit up at night by concealed neon tubes – something that has been brought back in recent years. The theatre is faced in Portland stone, with two bas-relief panels by sculptor Newbury Abbot Trent on either side of the Wilton Road entrance. Also look out for a small Charlie Chaplin figure carved into the wall. Newbury Abbot Trent also produced a relief paying homage to the movies and movie stars, which is on the main foyer staircase.

The auditorium -which is rumoured to have been inspired by “a mermaid’s dream of heaven” consisted of pale blue and green marine life with technically ambitious lighting effects of pink, green and blue. A dolphin used to adorn the walls but has long since disappeared – but some of the aquatic features can still be seen today, including a rather sexy mermaid above the Gents toilet door. The circle had the design of an ocean liner with port holes on the doors.

Book tickets to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria in London

LINKS

Cinema Treasures – Apollo Victoria

Wikipedia – Apollo Victoria

Arthur Lloyd – Apollo Victoria

Further reading:

The Great Theatres of London
London’s Theatres
Scene/Unseen: London’s West End Theatres

Anniversaries: Phoenix, Wicked, Stomp

A number of West End anniversaries are celebrated in London this week, including the 80th birthday of the Phoenix Theatre.

Phoenix Theatre

Today, 24 September 2010, marks the 80th anniversary of London’s Phoenix Theatre. Commissioned by Sidney Bernstein, who started Granada television, the Charing Cross Road theatre opened in 1930 with Noel Coward’s classic play Private Lives, staring Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Laurence Olivier and Adrianne Allen.

Other notable successes for the theatre included Noel Coward again, this time with his Tonight at 8.30 one-act plays in 1936, Canterbury Tales in 1968, Night and Day in 1978 and a long list of famous players including John Gielgud, Vivien Leigh, Paul Scofield and Vanessa Redgrave. The Phoenix Theatre currently hosts Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers, which opened at the venue in November 1991.

The Phoenix theatre was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, Bertie Crew and Cecil Masey with Theodore Komisarjevsky.

A number of West End venues are celebrating their 80th birthdays this year,  following a boom in theatre building in the Art Deco 1930′s, including the Prince Edward, Cambridge, Trafalgar Studios, Apollo Victoria and Adelphi theatres.

Stomp and Wicked

Long-running West End shows Stomp at the Ambassadors Theatre and Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre also celebrate birthdays this month. Stomp celebrates its 8th birthday tomorrow, having opened at the Vaudeville Theatre on 25 September 2002. The high-energy show, which combines theatre, dance, comedy and percussion, moved to its current home at the Ambassadors in 2007.

On Monday 27 September big-budget Broadway musical Wicked celebrates its 4th birthday at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London. Currently starring Lee Mead, Rachel Tucker and Louise Dearman, Wicked remains one of the most successful shows on both sides of the Atlantic. The Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman musical is based on the best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, a companion novel to L. Frank Baum’s classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

PHOENIX THEATRE QUICK FACTS

Hard to now imagine but the original site had been a factory, before becoming a Music Hall called the Alcazar.

In 1969 the owners of the Phoenix, Gerald and Veronica Flint-Shipman, organised a midnight matinee for Noel Coward’s 70th birthday, attended by Princess Margaret. A few days before, he opened the Noel Coward bar in the theatre’s foyer.

In 1976 the Phoenix hosted a Hollywood season of four plays featuring particularly starry names: Rock Hudson and Juliet Prowse in I Do I Do, Glynis Johns and Louis Jordan in 13, Rue De L’Amour, Lee Remick in Bus Stop and Douglas Fairbanks Jr in The Pleasure of His Company.

On reviewing the theatre when it first opened, The Stage newspaper said that, “Each seat has sufficient body and leg room and is provided with its own hat rack”.

LINKS

News: Historic year for West End venues

ArthurLloyd.co.uk: Phoenix history

Blood Brothers – book tickets

Stomp – book tickets

Wicked – book tickets

Historic year for West End theatres

An historic number of West End theatres celebrate important anniversaries this year, including 80th birthdays for three theatres in September.

A boom in theatre building in the Art Deco 1930′s has resulted in six West End theatres celebrating their 80th anniversaries in 2010.

September proves a particularly important month, with three theatres celebrating their 80th: the Cambridge Theatre on Earlham Street on 4 September; Charing Cross Road’s Phoenix Theatre on 24 September; and the Trafalgar Studios on Whitehall, formerly known as the Whitehall Theatre, on 29 September.

Already this year the Prince Edward Theatre has celebrated its 80th birthday on 3 April, and later in the year the Apollo Victoria Theatre will mark its 80th on 15 October and the Adelphi Theatre on 3 December.

Celebrations will include a charity gala for the Apollo Victoria on 10 October featuring the cast of the venue’s current show, Wicked, and past productions including Starlight Express.

Advisory Body, The Theatres Trust, commented on the anniversaries: “The West End theatres that celebrate their 80th anniversaries this year are among the UK’s best examples of art deco and moderne style venues. Each is distinctive and unique, built to appeal to a public eager for entertainment, plays, films, variety and musicals. It is a mark of their quality that they continue to do so to this day.”

2010 also marks theatrical milestones for a number of other venues, notably the 100th anniversary of the famous London Palladium on 26 December. A special Facebook page has been set up for the London Palladium’s centenary allowing theatregoers and theatre professionals to remember the historic venue. Also, on Radio 2 this autumn a two-part documentary series, The London Palladium Story, will tell the story of the theatre, narrated by Michael Grade.

Also this year the Peacock Theatre, originally called the Royalty Theatre, will celebrate its 40th birthday in June, and the former Leicester Square Theatre, now the Odeon West End cinema, will turn 80.

QUICK THEATRE FACTS

Adelphi Theatre

Opened: 3 December 1930

Designed: Ernest Schaufelberg, incorporating parts of the former Sans Pareil theatre

Location: Strand, London, WC2E 7NA Adelphi Theatre Map

First production: Ever Green by Benn W. Levy and Lorenz Hart

Current production: Love Never Dies

Apollo Victoria Theatre

Opened: 15 October 1930

Designed: E. Wamsley Lewis and W E Trent

Location: 17 Wilton Road, London, SW1V 1LL Apollo Victoria Theatre Map

First production: originally opened as a cinema (film: George Arlis in Old English)

Current production: Wicked

Cambridge Theatre

Opened: 4 September 1930

Designed: Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie with Serge Chermayeff

Location: Earlham Street, London, WC2 9HU Cambridge Theatre Map

First production: Charlot’s Masquerade by Ronald Jeans

Current production: Chicago

London Palladium

Opened: 26 December 1910

Designed: Frank Matcham

Location: London Palladium, Argyll Street, London, W1F 7TF London Palladium Map

First production: A Variety Show and one act play called The Conspiracy.

Current production: Sister Act

Peacock Theatre

Opened: June 1960

Designed: Lewis Solomon and Kaye and Partners

Location: Portugal Street, London, WC2A 2HT Peacock Theatre Map

First production: opened as a cinema

Current productions: include La Boheme, Euridice

Phoenix Theatre

Opened: 24 September 1930

Designed: Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, Bertie Crew, and Cecil Masey, with Theodore Komisarjevsky

Location: Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0JP Phoenix Theatre Map

First production: Noel Coward’s Private Lives

Current production: Blood Brothers

Prince Edward

Opened: 3 April 1930

Designed: Edward A. Stone with Marc-Henri and Laverdet and Gaston Laverdet

Location: Old Compton Street, London, W1D 4HS Prince Edward Theatre Map

First production: Rio Rita by Harry Tierney

Current production: Jersey Boys

Trafalgar Studios

Opened: 29 September 1930

Designed: Edward A. Stone with Marc-Henri and Laverdet and Gaston Laverdet

Location: Whitehall, London, SW1A 2DY Trafalgar Studios Map

First production: The Way To Treat A Woman by Walter Hackett

Current productions: include Shirley Valentine, Educating Rita, State Fair

LINKS:

The Theatres Trust

Arthur Lloyd website

Apollo Victoria celebrates 80 years

A charity gala is being held at the Apollo Victoria this October to celebrate the West End theatre’s 80th birthday.

Opened on 15 October 1930, the Art Deco theatre was designed by E. Wamsley Lewis with W.E. Trent and originally built as a super cinema.

To celebrate its 80th birthday, a special gala concert will be held on 10 October 2010 featuring the cast of the venue’s current show, Wicked, alongside a number of musicals stars from shows including Saturday Night Fever, Bombay Dreams, Movin’ Out and Jersey Boys. Also a reunion of some of the cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express, which played at the theatre from 1984 for 18 years, is also promised. Celebrities to appear include Wicked’s Lee Mead and Oliver Thompsett, Sharon D Clarke and Patina Miller from Sister Act.

All proceeds from the evening will go to Cancer Research UK, plus a raffle will be held in aid of the Entertainment Artiste’s Benevolent Fund.

The gala is being put together by Wicked’s UK Associate Director Petra Siniawski and Dance Supervisor Adam Murray. Other events at the theatre on 10 October include talks, tours and a curated display of the theatre’s history.

Tickets are on sale from tomorrow, Friday 13 August 2010, on 0844 847 2288.

Wicked tickets at the Apollo Victoria Theatre

Experience the unforgettable, award-winning musical WICKED and discover that you’ve not been told the whole story about the land of Oz…

Based on the acclaimed novel by Gregory Maguire that re-imagined the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, WICKED tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Sexy, sassy and sensational – it is magnificent to see a musical that manages to be both populist and intelligent at the same time.” The Daily Telegraph.

Book tickets to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London

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