Emma Hunton to Join Cast of WICKED's First National Tour as Elphaba, 4/23

The company of the first North American tour of Wicked will welcome Emma Hunton as Elphaba on Wednesday, April 23 in Richmond, VA.

Hunton's credits include the Broadway company of Spring Awakening (Ilse) as well as the Off-Broadway company of RENT (Maureen). She was last on tour with the 1st National Tour of Next to Normal (Natalie) and most recently played Ryan in the world premiere of Witness Uganda at the American Repertory Theater.

Hunton joins a cast that includes Gina Beck as Glinda, Alison Fraser as Madame Morrible and Tim Kazurinsky as The Wizard.

The company also features Nick Adams (Fiyero) Jenny Florkowski (Nessarose), Tom Flynn (Dr. Dillamond), Jesse JP Johnson (Boq) and Emmy Raver-Lampman (Standby for Elphaba) with Shayla Beck, Dina Bennett, Nikki Bohne, Lauren Boyd, Kyle Brown, Nirine S. Brown, John Carroll, Rick Desloge, Timothy A. Fitz-Gerald, Dominic Giudici, Brenda Hamilton, Spencer Jones, Sheila Karls, Trevor Ryan Krahl, Rebecca Kritzer, Marina Lazzaretto, Alison Leo, Marissa Lupp, Raymond Joel Matsamura, Jonathan McGill, Kevin McMahon, Shanon Mari Mills, Christopher Russo and Daniel Switzer.

Hunton will join the Wicked Company on Wednesday, April 23 in Richmond, VA. Wicked will return to the Altria Theater April 23 - May 4. Tickets start at $40 and are available online at BroadwayInRichmond.com, charge by phone at 1-800-514-3849 (ETIX) or at the Altria Theater and CenterStage box offices.

WICKED, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Pippin, Godspell, 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, and how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

WICKED has been declared "A Cultural Phenomenon" by Variety and "The Best Musical of the Decade" by Entertainment Weekly. Wicked currently has nine productions around the world, in New York, London, Japan (Tokyo), Australia, Asian Tour (Manila), South Korea (Seoul), Latin America (Mexico City), a U.K. Tour (Dublin), and two concurrent North American National Tours. Since its New York premiere a decade ago, Wicked has grossed over $3.2 billion worldwide and has been seen by over 40 million across the globe. Wicked has been performed in over 100 cities in 13 countries around the world (U.S., Canada, England, 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.

Grammy Award-Winning Cast recording available on Decca Broadway. For more information about Wicked log on to www.wickedthemusical.com.