Wicked Announces Lottery for $25 Seats
July 20, 2007
Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz
Performances Begin July 25 at The Academy of Music
A day-of-performance lottery for a limited number of seats will be held daily for WICKED, which will be performing from July 25 - September 9 at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music. Each day, 2.5 hours prior to show time up to 20 people who present themselves at the Academy of Music box office (Broad & Locust Streets) will have their names placed in a lottery drum and then thirty minutes later, names will be drawn for a limited number of seats at $25 each, cash only. This lottery is available only in-person at the box office, with a limit of two tickets per person. A limited number of regular price tickets are also available for all performances of WICKED. WICKED is part of the Cadillac Broadway Series.
WICKED begins performances at the Academy of Music July 25 and runs through September 9. When WICKED played Philadelphia last year, its three-week run sold out and broke house records.
WICKED is a new musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Academy Award winner for Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt) and book by Winnie Holzman ("My So Called Life," "Once And Again" and "thirtysomething") based on the 1995 best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire. The musical is directed by 2003 and 2004 Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Take Me Out, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Glengarry Glen Ross) and features musical staging by Tony Award winner Wayne Cilento (Aida, The Who’s Tommy, How To Succeed...). WICKED, the untold story of the witches of Oz, is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone.
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.
WICKED features set design by Eugene Lee (Ragtime, Show Boat, Tony Award winner for Candide and Sweeney Todd), costume design by Susan Hilferty (Tony nominated for the recent Into the Woods), lighting design by Kenneth Posner (Tony nominated for Hairspray) and sound design by Tony Meola (The Lion King and the recent Man of La Mancha). Stephen Oremus is the show’s music director. Orchestrations are by William David Brohn, with dance arrangements by James Lynn Abbott.
The national tour of WICKED has "cast quite a spell" (Washington Post) throughout North America. It opened at Toronto’s Canon Theatre on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 and sold out a seven-week run. WICKED has continued to break box office records and sell out multiple-week engagements in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Boston to name a few.
WICKED, "Broadway’s biggest blockbuster" (The New York Times), began performances in New York on Wednesday, October 8, 2003 at The Gershwin Theatre and continues to be the top-grossing show on Broadway. WICKED is "good enough to run for a decade or two," proclaims The Wall Street Journal. It’s "a cultural phenomenon," exclaims Variety. "If every musical had the brain, the heart and the courage of WICKED, Broadway really would be a magical place," states Time Magazine.
The Chicago company of WICKED took the stage on Friday, June 24, 2005 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, and the Los Angeles production of WICKED started performances at the Pantages Theatre on February 10, 2007.
WICKED just announced that it is set to open at Melbourne's Regent Theatre in July 2008. This will be the fourth international production of WICKED. A London production opened in September 2006 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, and most recently, a production opened in Tokyo in June 2007. This November, WICKED is scheduled to begin performances in Stuttgart, Germany.
Ticket prices range from $30 to $90. Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-731-3333, online at www.kimmelcenter.org/broadway, at the Kimmel Center box office, Broad & Spruce Streets (open daily 10am to 6pm), or the Academy of Music box office, Broad & Locust Streets (during performances only). Groups of 20 or more will receive discounts for select performances by calling 215-790-5883. Performances include: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7:30pm; Friday and Saturday eavenings at 8pm; and Sunday evenings at 6:30pm. Matinee performances are Saturday afternoons at 2pm, Sunday afternoons at 1pm, and a weekday matinee on Thursday, July 26 at 2pm.
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