Don Amendolia & Zach Hanna Join WICKED Tour as Wizard, Boq Dec. 9

The 2nd National Tour of Wicked will welcome a new Boq and a new Wizard beginning December 9 in Schenectady, New York. Don Amendolia will step into the role of Wizard following Tom McGowan's exit, while Zach Hanna assumes the part of Boq from Ted Ely.

Amendolia's has appeared on Broadway in Stepping Out and My One and Only. Additional stage credits include Off-Broadway's Some Men, Dedication, Cloud Nine (original cast) and The Firebugs. Hanna in Off-Broadway's Altar Boyz (Mark) and in the national tours of Copacabana (Tony) and Altar Boyz (Mark). Regional theater credits include Jesus Christ Superstar (Annas), Baby (Danny), Convenience (Ethan), The Who's Tommy (Tommy).

In the 2nd North American National Tour, the role of Elphaba is played by Marcie Dodd and the role of Glinda is played by HeléNe Yorke. Playing the role of Madame Morrible is Marilyn Caskey.

The company includes David de Vries (Doctor Dillamond), Colin Donnell (Fiyero), Kristine Reese (Nessarose), and Carrie Manolakos (Standby for Elphaba). Rounding out the cast are Meredith Akins, Alicia L. Albright, Kerry Blanchard, Anne Brummel, Jeremy Duvall, Peter C. Ermides, Ryan Patrick Farrell, Jenn Furman, Jacqueline Graziano, Charles Hagerty, Todd Hanebrink, Gregory Haney, Zach Hanna, Lauren Linville, Michelle London, Shylo M. Martinez, Nathan Peck, Casey Quinn, Don Richard, Libby Servais, Daniel Torres, Nicky Venditti, Natalie Weiss, Erin Wilson, and Kevin Samual Yee.

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 "one of the most successful shows in Broadway history" by The New York Times and "a phenomenon that keeps growing" by the Los Angeles Times, WICKED continues to thrill audiences around the world. There are currently eight productions of WICKED worldwide, including two North American tours, a Broadway production, San Francisco production, London production, a Japanese-language production, a German-language production and Australian production. A Dutch-language production of WICKED will open in 2010.

Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, WICKED has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. The production is directed by Joe Mantello, with Musical Staging by Wayne Cilento. WICKED is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone.

Winner of 20 major 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 Witch

The 1st North American tour of WICKED, was seen by more than 4.4 million people and broken the house record in every single city in which it played.

For more information about WICKED and a complete list of tour stops, visit www.wickedthemusical.com.

Photo Credit (top): Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.