Arielle Jacobs & PJ Benjamin to Board Broadway's WICKED Next Week

Beginning performances Tuesday, March 10, Wicked will welcome ARIELLE JACOBS in the role of Nessarose and PJ BENJAMIN, who will return to the Broadway blockbuster in the role of The Wizard. They join a cast which currently includes Caroline Bowman as Elphaba, Kara Lindsay as Glinda, Matt Shingledecker as Fiyero, Kathy Fitzgerald as Madame Morrible, Timothy Britten Parker as Dr. Dillamond and Robin De Jesus as Boq. Current cast members Catherine Charlebois (Nessarose) and Tom McGowan (The Wizard) will play their final performances on Sunday, March 8th.

ARIELLE JACOBS returns to Broadway after playing the Baker's Wife in the National Tour of Into The Woods. Arielle played Nina opposite Lin-Manuel Miranda in the Broadway production of In The Heights. She was also seen in the National Tours of In The Heights (Nina) and Disney's High School Musical (Gabriella). Off-Broadway and regional credits include Farhad or the Secret of Being (Farhad), Sotto Voce, Two Gentlemen of Verona (Julia), and Rent (Mimi). She has been seen on television in "Taxi Brooklyn" (NBC), "Commander in Chief" and "Disney's 365." Arielle founded the non-profit, Girls Camaraderie Project, which aims to inspire camaraderie, instead of competition, among middle-school girls.

Prior to his six year run as The Wizard on Broadway and across the country, PJ BENJAMIN appeared as "Mr. Cellophane" in Chicago. Most recently he played "Joe Keller" in All My Sons at Delaware Theater Company. Other Broadway: Torch Song Trilogy, Sophisticated Ladies, Pippin, Charlie and Algernon, Saravá, The Pajama Game, The Wind In The Willows and Damn Yankees. TV/film credits include "Law and Order: SVU" and Ice Age (voice of Sergeant DoDo Bird). With wife, actress Louisa Flaningam, his latest production is restoring The Captain Timothy Hill House, the oldest house on Chincoteague Island, Virginia, now a museum and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

WICKED has been declared "A Cultural Phenomenon" by Variety and "The Best Musical of the Decade" by Entertainment Weekly. Wicked currently has seven productions around the world, in New York, London, Japan, Australasian Tour, a U.K. Tour, and two concurrent North American National Tours.

Since its New York premiere over a decade ago, Wicked has grossed over $3.7 billion worldwide and has been seen by over 46 million people across the globe. Wicked has been performed in over 100 cities in 13 countries around the world (U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan, Germany, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, The Philippines, and Mexico) and has thus far been translated into five languages: Japanese, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Korean.

Winner of over 100 international awards including the Grammy Award and three Tony Awards, Wicked is the untold story of the witches of Oz. 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.

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster www.ticketmaster.com/wicked. For more information, visit www.wickedthemusical.com. Wicked is performed at the Gershwin Theatre, 222 West 51st Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue.