Wicked Tickets

Before Dorothy ever arrives in Oz, two very different young women meet at university and change each other’s lives. Wicked tells their story: Elphaba, clever, principled and born with green skin that marks her out wherever she goes, and Galinda, blonde, popular and effortlessly sure of her place in the world. What starts as mutual loathing grows into a fierce, complicated friendship, and the choices the two make set them on the path to becoming Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Adapted from Gregory Maguire’s novel with a score by Stephen Schwartz, Wicked takes a story everyone thinks they know and asks who really decides which of us is called good and which is called wicked. It has played at the Apollo Victoria Theatre since 2006, making it one of the longest-running musicals in West End history, and has been seen by more than 65 million people around the world.

Why it’s worth the watch

Nearly two decades in, Wicked still fills the Apollo Victoria night after night. Here is why it endures:

• The score. Stephen Schwartz’s songs range from the witty (‘What Is This Feeling?’, ‘Popular’) to the genuinely soaring. The first-act closer ‘Defying Gravity’ is one of the great moments in modern musical theatre, and ‘For Good’ tends to leave the audience in bits.
• The friendship at its heart. Beneath the spectacle, Wicked is a sharp, moving story about two women who shape each other, which is why it lands as hard with adults as it does with children.
• The staging. The Emerald City, the Clock of the Time Dragon and Elphaba’s mid-air ascent make full use of one of the West End’s largest stages.
• A fresh angle on a classic. By retelling The Wizard of Oz from the witches’ point of view, Wicked turns a familiar tale into something wittier, darker and more human.