Wicked (musical comedy)

Wicked is a American Musical comedy produced by Universal Pictures composed by Stephen Schwarz (words, music) and Winnie Holzman (booklet). The history takes as a starting point a news of Gregory Maguire, " Wicked: The Life and Times off the Wicked Witch off the West".

The musical comedy, just as the news of Maguire, is a recovery of traditional of L. Frank Baum, the Magician of OZ , but from the point of view of the witches of the country of OZ, before arrived of Dorothy unloads Kansas. The part refers many to the film of the Magician of OZ

History of the production in Broadway

Shortly after the exit of the news of Maguire in 1995, the producer Marc E. Platt starts to develop a film adaptation under Universal Pictures, in collaboration with the company of production of Demi Moore, Moving Pictures. Platt was contacted by Stephen Schwarz in 1997, which succeeds in convincing it that the history would be more interesting in the shape of a musical comedy. Platt, Schwartz, and the writer Winnie Holzman start to develop the comedy with Los Angeles, and the first took place in 2000. Concerning the team, Kristin Chenoweth joined the project as a Glinda , and Stephanie J. Block played the part of Elphaba before Idina Menzel is recruited in 2001. Followed a test in suburbs of San Francisco, the original production of Broadway of " Wicked" played for the first time at the theater Georges Gershwin, in Broadway, on October 8th 2003, and opened officially on October 30th. The team was made of Kristin Chenoweth in the role of Glinda, Idina Menzel in Elphaba, and Joel Grey played the part of the Magician of OZ.

Reception by the public

In spite of different criticisms from the magazines, the popularity of Wicked is especially due to the word of mount. The artists and the spectators appreciated this spectacle for its way of exposing current topics like the women, the friendship, the social norms, whereas others allot this success to the resumption of the known world, OZ.

Wicked was nominated by 10 Tony Awards, of which Tony Award for the best musical comedy. This reward was not gained by Avenue Q, another musical comedy. The greatest reward was when Menzel (which plays Elpheba) was named Meilleure actress of musical comedy, and the comedy accepted two other Tony Awards: Eugene Lee gained Tony Award of the best decoration and Susan Hilferty gained the reward for the best costumes. The recording of the comedy accepted the Grammy Award for the best album of musical comedy in 2005 and was platinum disc by RIAA on November 30th, 2006.

With a budget of 14 million $, Wicked refunded the starting investment completely on December 21st, 2004. Only the first year, 56 million $ was collected! The spectacle, played in front of a growing crowd, garners more than one million dollard every week according to the playbill.com site.

At the end of the first week of January 2006, it was announced that Wicked had beaten the record of the greatest weekly benefit of the history of Broadway, with 1.610.934 dollards, a recors previously held by The Producers . The spectacle battut its own record on November 26th, 2006, weekly ave cun benefit of 1.715.155 $!. The 1.000ème representation of Wicked was celebrated on March 23rd, 2006.

Since, several productions of Wicked were create, as much inside than outside the USA (England, Germany, Japan…)

Synopsis

Wicked immagine how the Malicious Witch of the West, named here Elpheba, was in fact a person badly included/understood and victim of the glance of the others, therefore the reaction was simply a rejection of a corrupted government and a magician impostor. It also shows his relationship with beautiful and ambitious Galinda Upland (note: Upland means " montagne" or " High terres" in English) which will become finally " Glinda, good the sorcière" , and during all the spectacle, their friendship (innatendue!) must undergo the personal conflicts, the different points of view, the competition in love, and, of course, the possible disgrace of Elpheba

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