WICKED Makes Barnes And Noble Appearance 12/4

WICKED Cast Members to perform at Barnes & Noble on Friday, December 4 @ 5pm at 28801 Chagrin Boulevard, in Woodmere, Ohio.

To celebrate the release of Wicked The Musical: A Pop-up Compendium of Splendiferous Delight and Thrillifying Intrigue (Melcher Media, $29.95), Barnes & Noble will host the exclusive Cleveland launch for the book, featuring live (free!) performances by Wicked cast members Stephanie Torns as Elphaba and Stefanie Brown as Glinda, who will be signing copies of the book afterwards. This event is being held in conjunction with the national tour of WICKED, which is currently performing at PlayhouseSquare through Sunday, December 13.

For more information, please visit www.barnesandnoble.com or call (216) 765-7532.

About the Book:

From stage to page, it's Wicked as you've never experienced it before!

The very first theater pop-up book ever published, Wicked The Musical: A Pop-Up Compendium recreates some of the most unforgettable moments from the smash-hit, record-breaking, Tony Award-winning musical that has captivated audiences around the globe, including:

· Glinda's dramatic descent among the Ozians in her bubble machine
· Elphaba defying gravity
· The Monkeys' amazing release from captivity

Plus, discover secret artifacts (and artifictions) that you won't find anywhere else:

· The actual letters Galinda and Elphaba wrote home to their parents.

· A tourist-friendly map of the Emerald City and fact sheet with must-have information about the city.

· The Shiz University Gazette, a student newspaper featuring an exclusive interview with Fiyero Tigelar, an Op-ed piece by Dr. Dillamond in defense of animal rights, and advice for the lovelorn by Galinda Upland, among other stories.

· A munchkin-sized Grimmerie complete with spells to practice at home.

With a storybook-style telling of Wicked that allows you to experience the musical again and again (and again!), this richly detailed, beautifully illustrated, handcrafted gift book is designed for children of all ages. Produced by Melcher Media, Wicked The Musical: A Pop-Up Compendium of Splendiferous Delight and Thrillifying Intrigue is the perfect companion volume to Wicked: The Grimmerie (Melcher Media/Hyperion, 2006), the most successful theater book in history with over a quarter of a million copies in print-and counting.

To quote the Wizard himself: It's wonderful!

Creative Team

Greg Call (Illustrator) has worked for clients including Disney, TOR, Time Warner, HarperCollins, Penguin Putnam, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, The National Football League, Capitol Records, Curb Records, Priority Records, A&M Records, Sega, and Hasbro. Greg has been recognized for his work repeatedly and has gained awards from the Society of Illustrators and Addy among others. He lives in Montana.

Kees Moebeerk (Paper Engineer) has created numerous pop-up books for children and grown-ups, including a dimensional adaptation of Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and The Master of Suspense, a pop-up translation of seven Alfred Hitchcock movies. For Melcher Media he has made The Pop-up Book of Sex, The Neiman Marcus Pop-up Book, and Even More Outrageous Celebrity Meltdowns. He lives in the Netherlands.

Paul Kepple (Graphic Designer) is better known as Headcase Design, an award-winning graphic design and illustration studio based in Philadelphia. His work has been recognized by such publications as the AIGA's 365 and 50 Books/50 Covers, American Illustration, Communication Arts, and Print. For Melcher Media, Kepple has designed Wicked: The Grimmerie, Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious, Jersey Boys, and many more.

Melcher Media (Producer) is an award-winning content producer and book packager that has conceived and produced projects for a diverse group of clients from HBO to the Smithsonian Institution. With over 120 titles to its credit, totaling more than 12 million books in print, Melcher Media's expertise at brand extension and skill at translating nontraditional media into print has propelled many of the company's books onto national bestseller lists and garnered them numerous industry awards. A sample of Melcher Media's award-winning books includes: Top Chef, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, The Lucky Shopping Manual, South Park: A Stickyforms Adventure, Rent (the Broadway musical), Wicked: The Grimmerie, The Pop-Up Book of Phobias, The Pop-up Book of Celebrity Meltdowns, Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell, and Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious.

About the Broadway musical Wicked

Winner of 26 major awards including the Grammy Award and three Tony Awards, Wicked is the untold story of the witches of Oz. Long before Dorothy drops 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. Wicked tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

Declared "A Cultural Phenomenon" by Variety, Wicked currently has productions in New York, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Melbourne and on two North American tours. Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, Wicked has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and a book by Winnie Holzman. The production is directed by Joe Mantello with musical staging by Wayne Cilento. Wicked is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone.

WICKED, Broadway's biggest blockbuster, continues performances through December 13 in the State Theatre at PlayhouseSquare, as part of the U.S. Bank Star Performance Series. Performances are Tuesday - Friday evenings at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 1:00 and 6:30 p.m. A special 2:00 p.m. matinee will be held on Thursday, November 19, and an 8:00 p.m. performance will be held on Monday, November 23. There will be no performances on Thursday, November 26 (Thanksgiving). Ticket prices range from $29.50 to $130, and are currently on sale at The PlayhouseSquare Ticket Office (1519 Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland), online at playhousesquare.org or by calling 216-241-6000. Group orders for 20 or more may be placed by calling 216-664-6050. For more information about WICKED, please log on to www.wickedthemusical.com