Full-Length Wicked May Fly Into Japan in 2007

Variety reports that a full-scale production of the Broadway smash Wicked may soon be flying to Japan.

"We now have fairly definite plans with the Shiki Theatrical Company (Japanese tours of The Lion King and Mamma Mia!) to undertake a full Japanese language production in 2007," said Marc Platt, one of Wicked's producers. 

The Japanese Wicked staging would be presented before audiences who might already have had exposure to the musical's first act.  A 30-minute version is currently playing Osaka's Universal Studios theme park.  With the aid of composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz and bookwriter Winnie Holzman, Wicked was cut down to focus on the troubled friendship between misunderstood Elphaba and popular Glinda; it ends with "Defying Gravity," the first-act finale.

The upcoming full-length production will also be performed all in Japanese; about 30% of the abbreviated theme park version is in English.

Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, Wicked is directed by Joe Mantello, with musical staging by Wayne Cilento.  It is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone. 

Wicked, the highest grossing show on Broadway and across the country, currently has three companies in North America: on Broadway; on a National Tour; and in a separate, open-ended engagement at Chicago's Ford Center for Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre.  When the upcoming Los Angeles production begins in February, there will be four North American companies of Wicked running concurrently.  A London production begins performances at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in September.

Winner of 15 major awards including the Grammy Award and three Tony Awards, the show "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 Witch," state press notes.

Wicked features set design by Tony Award winner Eugene Lee, costume design by Tony Award winner Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kenneth Posner and sound design by Tony Meola.  The orchestrations are by William David Brohn, with dance arrangements by James Lynn Abbott.

Visit www.wickedthemusical.com for more on Wicked.