The company of WICKED assembled for the first day of rehearsals on Monday 24 July. Director Joe Mantello, choreographer Wayne Cilento and lead producers Marc Platt and David Stone welcomed the cast, company and production team at the start of a 7 week rehearsal process. Joe Mantello said:
"I'm so happy to be back here, working in London, and especially pleased to be here with WICKED. We have a truly amazing cast and it's a pleasure to be collaborating with them on this London premiere production."
WICKED, Broadway's top-selling musical of the past two years, tells the untold story of the legendary witches from L. Frank Baum's classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It will open at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre on Wednesday 27 September with previews from Thursday 7 September.
The full London cast of WICKED is: Idina Menzel, who will recreate her Tony Award-winning Broadway performance as Elphaba, Helen Dallimore, who will make her West End debut as Glinda, Adam Garcia (Fiyero), Miriam Margolyes (Madame Morrible), Nigel Planer (The Wizard), Martin Ball (Doctor Dillamond), James Gillan (Boq), Katie Rowley Jones (Nessarose), Simon Adkins, Paul Ayres, Elinor Collett, Joseph Connor, Nadine Cox, Sarah Earnshaw, Jye Frasca, Maria Graciano, Nicky Griffiths, Simon Hardwick, Pippa Higgs, Melissa Hunte, Kady-Jo Jackson, Cassidy Janson, Caroline Keiff, Joshua Lacey, Andy Mace, Adam Murray, Dominic Shaw, Philippa Stefani, Craig Stein, Oliver Tompsett, Tim Walton and Kerry Washington. Kerry Ellis will be standby for Elphaba and Annalene Beechey will be standby for Glinda. From January 2007, the role of Elphaba will be played by Kerry Ellis.
Winner of fifteen major awards, including the Grammy and three Tonys, WICKED has played to over two million people since opening at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway in October 2003. The musical is also playing to sell-out audiences in Chicago and on a record-breaking North American tour.
Based on the novel 'Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West' by Gregory Maguire, WICKED has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Winnie Holzman, 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 supervision and arrangements by Stephen Oremus, UK music supervision by Gareth Valentine, orchestrations by William David Brohn, dance arrangements by James Lynn Abbott, musical staging by Wayne Cilento and is directed by Joe Mantello.
WICKED is presented in London by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone. UK General Management: Nick Salmon / Act Productions, Executive Producer: Michael McCabe.
|
