New casting has been announced for the smash-hit London production of Wicked; the new cast will join the Wicked family from 1 February 2022.
Lucie Jones, most recently seen in the West End & UK tour of Waitress will play Elphaba, alongside Ryan Reid(Fiyero), Sophie-Louise Dann (Madame Morrible) and Gary Wilmot (The Wizard).
They will join Helen Woolf, who returns from maternity leave to continue her acclaimed performance as Glinda, Carina Gillespie (Nessarose), Nicholas McLean (Boq), Simeon Truby (Doctor Dillamond), Amy Webb (Standby for Elphaba) and Charli Baptie (Standby for Glinda), who all continue in their starring roles.
Reid was in the original London cast of Dreamgirls, directed by Casey Nicolaw, subsequently taking over the leading role of ‘Curtis Taylor, Jr.’. Ryan’s other credits include ‘Marvin’ in Sweet Charity at the Donmar Warehouse; Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights at the King’s Cross Theatre; the original UK Tour of Shrek The Musical and Blues In The Night at the Hackney Empire.
Two-time Olivier award nominee Sophie-Louise Dann‘s many theatre credits include Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s musical The Girls; Bend it Like Beckham; Made in Dagenham; and, most recently, ‘Fergie’ in The Windsors: Endgame.
Gary Wilmot‘s four decade career includes his acclaimed West End debut in 1989 as ‘Bill Snibson’ in Me and My Girl; ‘Joe’ in Simon Callow’s production of Carmen Jones (The Old Vic); and, most recently, ‘Jethro’ in The Prince of Egypt and ‘Elisha Whitney’ in Anything Goes. He is also, almost as well known for his legendary performances in pantomime at the London Palladium including Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Dick Whittington, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pantoland.
The complete new London cast from Tuesday 1 February 2022 will be: Lucie Jones(Elphaba), Helen Woolf (Glinda), Ryan Reid (Fiyero), Sophie-Louise Dann (Madame Morrible), Gary Wilmot (The Wizard), Carina Gillespie (Nessarose), Nicholas McLean (Boq), Simeon Truby (Doctor Dillamond), Amy Webb (Standby for Elphaba), Charli Baptie* (Standby for Glinda), Yuki Abe, Kofi Aidoo-Appiah, Meg Astin, Alishia-Marie Blake, Pàje Campbell, Grace Chapman**, Michael Colbourne, Fergus Dale, Nolan Edwards, Nicola Espallardo, Danny Fogarty, Laura Harrison, Amie Hibbert, Lucie Horsfall, Samuel How, Christian Knight, Nick Len, Jasmine Leung, Rhidian Marc,PaddyJoe Martin, Jessica-Alice McCluskey, Stacey McGuire, Harry Mills, Lewis Newton, Natalie Spriggs, Samantha Thomas***, Joe Thompson-Oubari and James Titchener.
Currently the 9th longest running West End musical of all time and the 5th longest West End musical currently playing, the fan favourite musical is currently booking at the Apollo Victoria Theatre London through November 2022.
Laura Pick (Elphaba), Sophie Evans (Glinda), Alistair Brammer (Fiyero), Kim Ismay (Madame Morrible) and Andy Hockley (The Wizard) will all play their final performances on Sunday 30 January 2022.
Wicked Executive Producer (UK) Michael McCabe said “We’re thrilled to announce that the new cast of Wicked from 1 February 2022 will be led by the sensational Lucie Jones as Elphaba, West End ‘Dreamgirls’ star Ryan Reid as Fiyero, two-time Olivier Award nominee Sophie-Louise Dann as Madame Morrible and Gary Wilmot – whose prolific 40+ year career has made him one of the UK’s most popular actors and entertainers – as The Wizard. They will join Helen Woolf, who returns from maternity leave to continue her acclaimed performance as Glinda, together with 17 current cast members who continue with us, including Carina Gillespie as Nessarose, Nicholas McLean as Boq, Simeon Truby as Doctor Dillamond, Amy Webb as Standby for Elphaba and Charli Baptie as Standby for Glinda. We are also extremely proud to welcome Yuki Abe, Kofi Aidoo-Appiah, Alishia-Marie Blake, Pàje Campbell, Fergus Dale, Nicola Espallardo, Danny Fogarty, Laura Harrison, Amie Hibbert, Samuel How, Christian Knight, Jasmine Leung, PaddyJoe Martin, Harry Mills, Lewis Newton and Joe Thompson-Oubari to our ensemble.”
The West End and Broadway musical imagines a beguiling backstory and future possibilities to the lives of L. Frank Baum’s beloved characters from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West. This year it celebrates its 15th year in London and since resuming performance in September has been seen by over 30,000 people.
Wicked has music and lyrics by multi-Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy Award winner Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, The Prince of Egypt; Disney’s Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Enchanted) and is based on the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and written by Winnie Holzman. Musical staging is by Tony Award-winner Wayne Cilento with direction by two-time Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello.
Wicked is booking until 27 November 2022 at the Victoria Apollo Theatre, London.
