'Wicked' Celebrates 5th Anniversary with 'Yellow Brick Road' Benefit

As part of its 5th Anniversary celebration this October, the Broadway smash WICKED will present THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD NOT TAKEN, a one-night-only, all-star benefit performance featuring scenes and songs from the original drafts of WICKED.  The benefit will take place on Monday, October 27 at 7:30pm at the Gershwin Theatre (222 West 51st Street) and will be directed by Matt Lenz. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on September 5 through Ticketmaster, 212-307-4100 or www.ticketmaster.com.  A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the New York Restoration Project.  Celebrity casting will be announced in the coming weeks.

In THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD NOT TAKEN, WICKED composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz and book writer Winnie Holzman will share some of the scenes and songs from early drafts of the musicAl Blockbuster, performed by an all-star cast in this special benefit performance.  Featuring never-before-seen material performed publicly for the first time, as well as songs cut during the show's development and pre-Broadway engagement, this one-night-only event will tell the story of WICKED the way it's never been told before and will illuminate the various paths the writers took in creating what has become one of the most popular Broadway musicals.

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.

Declared "A Cultural Phenomenon" by Variety, WICKED currently has productions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Melbourne and on a North American tour.  Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, WICKED has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and a 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.

For more information on WICKED, please visit www.wickedthemusical.com.