WICKED Tour Welcomes Amanda Jane Cooper as New 'Glinda'

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The company of the first North American tour of WICKED welcomes Amanda Jane Cooper as Glinda on today, April 19, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Cooper's NY credits include: Letter From Algeria (Abingdon Theatre), BUNKED! A New Musical (Lucille Lortel Theatre/Fringe Encore Series). Other roles include Geraldine Barclay in What the Butler Saw (Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre), and Little Red Ridinghood in Into the Woods (CMU). Film credits include Smart People and Homecoming.

Cooper joins a cast that includes Jackie Burns as Elphaba, Randy Danson as Madame Morrible and Mark Jacoby as the Wizard.

The company also features Justin Brill (Boq), Stefanie Brown (Nessarose), Colin Hanlon (Fiyero), Paul Slade Smith (Dr. Dillamond), and Mariand Torres (Standby for Elphaba) with Lauren Boyd, Rick Desloge, Emily Ferranti, Melanie Field, Luis Augusto Figueroa, Dominic Giudici, Napoleon W. Gladney, Brenda Hamilton, Spencer Jones, Renee Lawless-Orsini, Allison Leo, Philip Dean Lightstone, Marissa Lupp, Corey Mach, Yanira Marin, Sterling Masters, Kevin McMahon, Christopher Russo, Adam Sanford, Adea Michelle Sessoms, Carla Stickler, Brandon Tyler, Jessica Walker, Bud Weber and Lauren Ashley Zakrin.

The Ft. Lauderdale engagement of WICKED is currently running through April 24 at the Broward Center. Good seats are still available. Tickets can be purchased by calling (954) 462-0222. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Broward Center's ticket office or online at www.browardcenter.org.

WICKED, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Disney's Enchanted, Academy Award winner for Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt) and book by Winnie Holzman ("My So Called Life," "Once And Again" and "thirtysomething"), is based on the 1995 best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire. The musical is directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Take Me Out, Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Vagina Monologues) and features musical staging by Tony Award winner Wayne Cilento (Aida, The Who's Tommy, How To Succeed...). WICKED, the untold story of the witches of Oz, is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone.

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.

WICKED features set design by Tony Award winning Eugene Lee (Ragtime, Show Boat, Candide, Sweeney Todd), costume design by Tony winner Susan Hilferty (Spring Awakening, Into the Woods, Assassins), lighting design by Tony nominee Kenneth Posner (Tony Award winner for The Coast of Utopia, Hairspray) and sound design by Tony Meola (The Lion King). Stephen Oremus is the show's music director. Orchestrations are by William David Brohn, with dance arrangements by James Lynn Abbott.

WICKED has "cast quite a spell" (Washington Post) throughout North America, breaking box office records in every city that it has played, including Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Boston to name a few.

Called "a cultural phenomenon" by Variety and named "the defining musical of the decade" by The New York Times, WICKED continues to thrill audiences around the world. There are currently seven productions of WICKED worldwide, including two North American tours, a Broadway production, London production, a Japanese-language production, a German-language production and Australian production. A Dutch-language production of WICKED will open in 2011.