LONDON PRODUCTION CONTINUES TO BE WEST END'S TOP PERFORMING SHOW, GROSSING £50 MILLION SINCE OPENING
The smash-hit musical WICKED continues to break box office records worldwide when its latest international production opened on 12 July at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. The production opened to rave reviews and sold a record-breaking $1.5 million (Australian) in ticket sales the day after opening, shattering Melbourne box office records. The musical currently has advance ticket sales of over $13 million.
Australian co-producer John Frost states, "The fantastic critical reaction and overwhelming audience excitement for WICKED in Melbourne has exceeded our wildest expectations. We always felt there was a huge audience for WICKED here in Oz, and we're thrilled that Melbourne has embraced this spectacular musical as its own. We're proud to join the list of international 'Emerald Cities' which WICKED can call home for a long and healthy run, and we thank the Broadway producers, Marc Platt and David Stone, for choosing to mount this spectacular production with us here in Melbourne."
The London production continues its smash-hit run in the West End, having grossed well in excess of £50 million since its London premiere in September 2006. The production, which recently celebrated its 750th performance, recouped its entire capitalisation in early January 2008, becoming the first Broadway musical transfer to recoup in the West End in nearly a decade. Acknowledged as "the West End's most successful musical" (The Independent on Sunday), WICKED is consistently the West End's top grossing show.
Since its official Broadway opening at the Gershwin Theatre on 30 October 2003, WICKED has been sold out at virtually every performance and has consistently been Broadway's highest-grossing show. WICKED has been called "Broadway's biggest blockbuster" by the New York Times and "a cultural phenomenon" by Variety. The Washington Post said WICKED is, "a breathtaking success story, of a magnitude the theater has not witnessed since the peak years of The Phantom of the Opera."
Based on Gregory Maguire's best-selling novel that re-imagined the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz', the award-winning WICKED tells the incredible untold story of the Witches of Oz and how one came to be called 'good' and the other 'wicked'...
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