New Year Welcomes Two New Witches to the Wicked Tour

Wicked.gif" vspace="10" width="150"/>The national tour of Wicked will welcome two new witches when the hit musical begins performances Jan. 3 at the Providence Performing Arts Center in Rhode Island

Victoria Matlock will star as the soaring Elphaba with Christina DeCicco as the bubbly Glinda, according to the official Wicked website.  Matlock has toured nationally with The Full Monty, Evita and Jekyll & Hyde: In Concert; DeCicco has been seen in regional productions of Urinetown, West Side Story, Beauty and the Beast and Annie Get Your Gun.

For it's January 3rd opening in Rhode Island the company will also feature Alma Cuervo as Madame Morrible, P.J. Benjamin as The Wizard, Cliffton Hall as Fiyero, K. Todd Freeman as Dr. Dillamond, Deedee Magno Hall as Nessarose and Josh Lamon as Boq.

Wicked will play the Providence Performing Arts Center through Jan. 21. Following its Rhode Island engagement, the musical will play Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre beginning Jan. 24.

Wicked began its smash Broadway run in 2003.  The Chicago company of Wicked took the stage on Friday, June 24, 2005 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, following the National Tour engagement. It continues to play to capacity audiences.  The much-anticipated West End production of the show will begin previews on September 7, 2006 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London, Its official opening is on September 27.

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," state press materials.

Based on the acclaimed novel 'Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West' by Gregory Maguire, the show has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Winnie Holzman, music supervision by Stephen Oremus, orchestrations by William David Brohn, scenic design by Eugene Lee, costumes by Susan Hilferty, lighting by Kenneth Posner, sound by Tony Meola, projections by Elaine J. McCarthy, wig and hair designs by Tom Watson, music arrangements by Alex Lacamoire and Stephen Oremus, dance arrangements by James Lynn Abbott, musical staging by Wayne Cilento and is directed by Joe Mantello.

For more information, visit www.wickedthemusical.com.