Wicked to Fly into Australia for July '08 Opening

Melbourne, Australia will be home to a new production of the smash musical Wicked, which will open at Melbourne's Regent Theatre in July 2008.

This will be the fourth international production of Wicked.  A London production opened in September 2006 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, and Wicked is scheduled to begin performances in June in Tokyo, Japan and in November in Stuttgart, Germany.  These productions will join the four current North American companies of Wicked: in New York City on Broadway at the Gershwin Theater, in Chicago at  the Ford Center for Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre, in Los Angeles at the Pantages Theatre, and on National Tour.

Producer David Stone announced, "We're delighted that Melbourne will be the home for the fourth international production of Wicked.  We're looking  forward to working with John Frost and the Gordon/Frost Organization and know that Australian audiences will be just as enchanted by Wicked as the audiences are in America and England."

Casting details for the Melbourne company will be announced at a later date.

Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, the show has music and lyrics by  Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman.  It 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.

Winner of 15 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 Witch," as described in press notes.

Wicked features set design by Tony Award winner Eugene Lee, costume design by Tony Award winner Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kenneth Posner and sound design by Tony Meola.  The orchestrations are by William David Brohn, with dance arrangements by James Lynn Abbott.

The Grammy Award-winning original cast recording is available on Decca Broadway.

For more information, visit www.wickedthemusical.com .