Smash-Hit Musical 'Wicked' Is Coming to Auckland Next Year

With supercalifragilistic musical Mary Poppins currently playing out and hit jukebox production Jersey Boys set to take stages across the country next year, there are plenty of large-scale productions to shake your jazz hands at.

Now, the second highest grossing musical in Broadway history is scheduled to land in Auckland for a short run. Wicked is flying into SkyCity Theatre from September 2021, with North Shore Music Theatre and its 40-strong cast of local talent set to take audiences along the yellow brick road to the Emerald City.

The musical — last performed here in 2013 — is based on the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, itself a retelling of L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 novel and the accompanying 1939 film.

Wicked tells the story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students in the Land of Oz: the blonde and very popular Glinda (the Good Witch) and a misunderstood green girl named Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West). Its plot begins before and continues after Dorothy Gale arrives in Oz from Kansas, and includes several references to the 1939 film and Baum's novel.

The large-scale production marks a return to SkyCity Theatre for North Shore Music Theatre, who previously staged Hairspray there in 2014. The company says its version of Wicked will feature exquisite costuming and sumptuous sets to accompany the set list of power ballads and emotional love songs.

Wicked will run from 10 September to 2 October, 2021 at SkyCity Theatre. Tickets range from $39–79 and will be available here from 28 October 2020.

Images: Showbiz Christchurch, Danielle Colvin.