WICKED becomes 10th longest-running West End show in British history
by Best of Theatre Staff on Wednesday 24 April 2024, 10:11 am in West End News & Gossip
WICKED, the West End stage musical phenomenon that tells the incredible untold story of the Witches of Oz, will today (Wednesday 24 April 2024) play its 6,762nd performance, becoming the 10th longest-running West End stage production in British history. Wicked surpasses the run of the legendary farce No Sex Please, We’re British, which ran from June 1971 until September 1987, playing a total 6,761 performances.
“One of the all-time musical theatre successes” (The Guardian), the Tony®, Grammy®, Olivier, and WhatsOnStage award-winning musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman opened at London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre in September 2006 where it has already been seen by more than 12 million people.
The ten longest-running West End stage productions in British history are: The Mousetrap, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, The Woman in Black, Blood Brothers, Mamma Mia!, Cats, The Lion King, Starlight Express, and Wicked.
Michael McCabe, Executive Producer of Wicked in the UK said:
“As we celebrate the historic milestone of becoming the West End’s 10th longest ever running stage show, we offer our heartfelt thanks to the amazing audiences who have supported and championed Wicked since its very first performance in 2006. We also thank our exceptional creative and backstage teams, performers, and musicians who have worked so tirelessly and diligently to deliver every performance of the show.”
All Christmas 2024/25 performances are now on sale, with 8 extra shows added on:
Friday 20 December 2024 @ 2.30pm, Monday 23 December 2024 @ 2.30pm & 7.30pm, Friday 27 December 2024 @ 2.30pm, Monday 30 December 2024 @ 2.30pm & 7.30pm, Tuesday 31 December 2024 @ 2.30pm, and Thursday 2 January 2025 @ 2.30pm. Doors open 90 minutes prior to performance times.
Through its ‘For Good’ charitable endeavours and acclaimed Wicked Active Learning cultural and social education programme, the London production of Wicked proudly supports and champions the work of the Anti-Bullying Alliance, the National Literacy Trust, and Theatre Works!, the charity providing theatre tickets to disadvantaged children across the UK. www.WickedActiveLearning.co.uk
Wicked currently stars Alexia Khadime (Elphaba), Lucy St. Louis (Glinda), Ryan Reid (Fiyero), Sophie-Louise Dann (Madame Morrible), Michael Fenton Stevens (The Wizard), Caitlin Anderson (Nessarose), Graham Kent (Doctor Dillamond), Joe Thompson-Oubari (Boq), Laura Harrison (Standby for Elphaba), Christine Tucker* (Standby for Glinda), Zac Adlam, Conor Ashman, Jessica Aubrey, Jeremy Batt, Felipe Bejarano, Asmara Cammock, Joshua Clemetson, Effie Rae Dyson, Aston Newman Hannington, Aimee Hodnett, Kate Leiper, Jemima Loddy, Joshua Lovell, Rory Maguire, PaddyJoe Martin, Darnell Mathew-James, Millie Mayhew, Ayden Morgan, Rishard-Kyro Nelson, Aiesha Naomi Pease, Jeanie Ryan, Natalie Spriggs, Charlotte Anne Steen, James Titchener, Micaela Todd, Taela Yeomans-Brown, and Jacob Young. *Maternity cover for Lisa-Anne Wood.
A spectacular touring production of Wicked continues engagements until January 2025. Currently playing at the Bradford Alhambra Theatre until 19 May 2024, the critically acclaimed production will then continue to Southampton Mayflower Theatre; Liverpool Empire; Dublin Bord Gáis Energy Theatre; Sunderland Empire; Cardiff Wales Millennium Centre, and Manchester Palace Theatre.
Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s celebrated stage musical is based on the acclaimed novel by Gregory Maguire and imagines a beguiling backstory and future possibilities to the lives of L. Frank Baum’s beloved characters from ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. Wicked reveals the decisions and events that shape the destinies of two unlikely university friends on their journey to becoming ‘Glinda The Good’ and the ‘Wicked Witch of the West’.
Wickedhas music and lyrics by multi-Oscar® and Grammy® Award winner Stephen Schwartz (‘Godspell’, ‘Pippin’, ‘The Prince of Egypt’, Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’and ‘Enchanted’). It is based on the multimillion-copy best-selling novel ‘Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of theWest’ by Gregory Maguire and written by Emmy® and Tony Award® nominee Winnie Holzman (creator of the landmark American television series ‘My So-Called Life’). Musical staging is by Tony Award®winner Wayne Cilento with direction by two-time Tony Award® winner Joe Mantello.
The stage musical Wicked is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Stage Productions, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt, and David Stone. Executive Producer (UK) Michael McCabe.