Emma Kingston and Zizi Strallen Will Join West End Cast of WICKED

WICKED has announced its full new London cast who are set to begin performances at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre on Tuesday 25 March 2025. Leading the company are Emma Kingston (Heathers: The Musical) as Elphaba, opposite West End sensation Zizi Strallen (Mary Poppins) as Glinda. The current 2024 / 25 company's final performance will take place on Sunday 23 March 2025.

Wicked London welcomes back Carl Man (& Juliet) as Fiyero. Carl played Fiyero to sensational reviews across the UK and Ireland 2023 – 2025 tour, having previously covered the role in London's 15th-anniversary cast. Sarah Ingram (whose many and varied credits include Legally Blonde: The Musical through to Richard III) joins the principal cast as Madame Morrible alongside Michael Matus (known for his Oliver Award-winning relationship with the RSC and musicals including Singin' in the Rain and Stephen Schwartz's The Baker's Wife) as The Wizard. Wicked marks the fourth production that Sarah and Michael have worked on together.  Hannah Qureshi (Hamilton) will star as Nessarose, David McKechnie (Standing at the Sky's Edge) as Doctor Dillamond and Ross Carpenter (Book of Mormon) as Boq. Laura Emmitt (Frozen: The Musical) returns to Wicked London as Alternate Elphaba having previously covered the role in the West End and Lydia Gerrard (The Phantom of The Opera, UK & Ireland Tour) joins as Standby for Glinda having covered the role on the recent tour.

The 2025/6 company is completed by Iroy Abesamis, Zac Adlam, Steph Asamoah, Meg Astin, Rebecca Bowden, Shaun Chambers, Erin Gisele Chapman, Grace Durkin, Onyemachi Ejimofor, Aaron Elijah, Aimee Hodnett, Nat Ingham, Holly Lawrence, Jemima Loddy, Josh Lovell, Rory Maguire, PaddyJoe Martin, JoJo Meredith, Ayden Morgan, Rina Punwani, Abbie Quinnen, Jemma Revell, Jeanie Ryan, Charlotte Anne Steen, Chris Tarsey, Hannah Taylor, James Titchener and Jacob Young.

Emma Kingston's theatre credits include: The Purists (Kiln Theatre), The Band's Visit (Donmar Warehouse); Carousel (Kilworth House); Heathers: The Musical (The Other Palace); Evita (International Tour); Children of Eden (Cadogan Hall); The Last 5 Years (Minack Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof (Chichester Festival Theatre); In the Heights (King's Cross Theatre/Southwark Playhouse); Les Misérables (Queen's Theatre); Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Grease (UK Tours). Her television credits include Sound of Musicals with Neil Brand; and for film, BKLYN The Musical (Lambert Jackson) and Been So Long (Netflix).

Zizi Strallen is best known for playing Mary Poppins in Cameron Mackintosh's West End production at the Prince Edward Theatre, for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Other stage credits include; Cake (The Other Palace and Lyric Theatre); Nine (The Hopemill); Rock Follies (Chichester Festival Theatre); Oklahoma in Concert (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Sunset Boulevard (Royal Albert Hall); Follies (National Theatre); Strictly Ballroom (Piccadilly Theatre); Pippin (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Matthew Bourne's The Carman (Royal Albert Hall);  CATS (London Palladium); Hairspray (Leicester Curve); Rock of Ages (Shaftesbury Theatre); Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory and Harold Pinter Theater); Dirty Dancing (Aldwych Theatre); The Music Man (Chichester Festival Theatre). Screen work includes: CATS (universal and working title); Dinotopia (Hallmark); Victoria and Albert (ITV); and Bramwell (ITV).

“One of the most successful musicals of all time” (BBC News), Wicked opened in London in 2006 and is already the 10th longest-running West End production in history. Winner of more than 100 global awards, the production has now been seen by more than 12 million people in London alone and celebrated its 7000th performance at the Apollo Victoria Theatre on Friday 15 November 2024.

Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's celebrated stage musical is based on the acclaimed novel by Gregory Maguire and imagines a beguiling backstory and future possibilities to the lives of L. Frank Baum's beloved characters from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Wicked reveals the decisions and events that shape the destinies of two unlikely university friends on their journey to becoming ‘Glinda The Good' and the ‘Wicked Witch of the West'.

Wicked has music and lyrics by multi-Oscar and Grammy Award winner Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, The Prince of Egypt, Disney's Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Enchanted). It is based on the multimillion-copy best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire and written by Emmy and Tony Award nominee Winnie Holzman (creator of the landmark American television series ‘My So-Called Life'). Musical staging is by Tony Award winner Wayne Cilento with direction by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello.

Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman have collaborated on the two-part Universal Pictures film version of Wicked, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Part 1 of the blockbuster opened on November 22nd, 2024, and has become the highest-grossing film, based on a stage musical, in history.

Performances continue Tuesday - Saturday at 7.30pm, and Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2.30pm. The following twelve added shows are also on sale, including Christmas 2025: Thursday 20 February 2:30pm, Thursday 17 April 2:30pm, Thursday 7 August 2:30pm, Thursday 21 August 2:30pm, Thursday 30 October 2:30pm, Friday 19 December 2:30pm, and Monday 22 December 7:30pm, Tuesday 23 December 2:30pm, Monday 29 December 2:30pm & 7:30pm, Tuesday 30 December 2.30pm 2025 and Friday 2 January 2:30pm 2026.

A spectacular touring production of Wicked recently concluded a year-long, critically acclaimed tour in Manchester - where it closed the tour having completed a Christmas season at the Palace Theatre on Sunday 12 January 2025.

The stage musical Wicked is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Stage Productions, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt, and David Stone. Executive Producer (UK) Michael McCabe.

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