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In the Broadway musical, the character of Elphaba was originated by Idina Menzel (shown above), who won the Tony award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for the role and is scheduled to reprise the role in London, England. After she left the show, her replacements were Shoshana Bean and Eden Espinosa. On the musical's first national tour, Elphaba was first played by Stephanie J. Block, then replaced by Julia Murney. In the permanent Chicago run of the show, she was played by Ana Gasteyer (of Saturday Night Live fame) and Kristy Cates. London, Los Angeles, and Japan productions are in the works.
Idina Menzel was recently cast to reprise her role as Elphaba for the first few months of the West End production of Wicked. She will be replaced by Kerry Ellis in early 2007.
Wicked is a musical that premiered on Broadway at the George Gershwin Theatre on October 30, 2003. It is touted as the untold story of the witches of Oz and is loosely based on the best selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. The musical features music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. With musical staging by Tony Award winner Wayne Cilento, Wicked is directed by Tony winner Joe Mantello.
The original cast included Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, and Joel Grey as The Wizard. Business and popularity boomed due to very good word-of-mouth, and the box office was boosted when the show was nominated for ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The show was considered the front-runner for the award, making it the show to beat. Menzel was named Best Actress in a Musical. The musical received two additional Tony awards—to Eugene Lee for scenic design and Susan Hilferty for costume design. The cast recording received the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2005.
Wicked earned back its entire initial investment by December 21, 2004. The show had a $14 million capitalization. In its first year it grossed more than $56 million. The show, which is open-ended, has been playing to capacity crowds for almost every recent performance and grosses more than a million dollars every week. In the week ending January 1, 2006, it was announced that Wicked had broken the record for the highest weekly box office gross in Broadway history, with $1,610,934; a record that was previously held by The Producers. The Broadway company of Wicked celebrated its 1000th performance on March 23, 2006.
The show began its first national tour in early 2005 with extended runs in cities such as Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, and Boston. In late June of 2005, a permanent production of Wicked, separate from the national tour, opened at Chicago's Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre with an open-ended run, which many consider to be a harbinger of things to come for Chicago theatre. In addition, another engagement is scheduled to open in London's West End theatre district on September 27, 2006. There have also been rumors of future productions in Los Angeles, Germany, Japan, and Australia.