Colin Hanlon to Join Cast of WICKED Tour In Appleton 2/15

The company of the first North American tour of WICKED welcomes Colin Hanlon as Fiyero on Tuesday, February 15 in Appleton, WI.

Hanlon's Broadway/off-Broadway credits include Rent, Pirates of Penzance (Frederic) and I Love You Because (Austin; CD on PS Classics). Recently Colin was Luke in the regional premier of Next Fall at St. Louis Rep. He played Warren in Michael Mayer's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (New York Stage & Film). He's worked at KC Rep, Westport Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Cape Cod Theatre Festival and the O'Neill Theater Center.

Hanlon joins a cast that includes Jackie Burns as Elphaba, Chandra Lee Schwartz as Glinda, Randy Danson as Madame Morrible and Mark Jacoby as the Wizard.

The company also features Justin Brill (Boq), Stefanie Brown (Nessarose), Paul Slade Smith (Dr. Dillamond), and Mariand Torres (Standby for Elphaba) with Rick Desloge, Emily Ferranti, Melanie Field, Luis Augusto Figueroa, Dominic Giudici, Napoleon W. Gladney, Brenda Hamilton, Spencer Jones, Renee Lawless-Orsini, Allison Leo, Philip Dean Lightstone, Marissa Lupp, Corey Mach, Sterling Masters, Kevin McMahon, Christopher Russo, Adam Sanford, Adea Michelle Sessoms, Carla Stickler, Brandon Tyler, Jessica Walker, Bud Weber and Lauren Ashley Zakrin.

The Appleton engagement of WICKED is currently running through February 20 at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. Tickets can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 982-2787 or the Center's ticket office at (920) 730-3760. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center's ticket office or online at foxcitiespac.com.

WICKED, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Disney's Enchanted, Academy Award winner for Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt) and book by Winnie Holzman ("My So Called Life," "Once And Again" and "thirtysomething"), is based on the 1995 best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire. The musical is directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Take Me Out, Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Vagina Monologues) and features musical staging by Tony Award winner Wayne Cilento (Aida, The Who's Tommy, How To Succeed...). WICKED, the untold story of the witches of Oz, is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone.

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.

WICKED features set design by Tony Award winning Eugene Lee (Ragtime, Show Boat, Candide, Sweeney Todd), costume design by Tony winner Susan Hilferty (Spring Awakening, Into the Woods, Assassins), lighting design by Tony nominee Kenneth Posner (Tony Award winner for The Coast of Utopia, Hairspray) and sound design by Tony Meola (The Lion King). Stephen Oremus is the show's music director. Orchestrations are by William David Brohn, with dance arrangements by James Lynn Abbott.

WICKED has "cast quite a spell" (Washington Post) throughout North America, breaking box office records in every city that it has played, including Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Boston to name a few.

Called "a cultural phenomenon" by Variety and named "the defining musical of the decade" by The New York Times, WICKED continues to thrill audiences around the world. There are currently seven productions of WICKED worldwide, including two North American tours, a Broadway production, London production, a Japanese-language production, a German-language production and Australian production. A Dutch-language production of WICKED will open in 2011.

Grammy Award-Winning Cast recording available on Decca Broadway. For more information about WICKED log on to www.wickedthemusical.com.