WICKED Announces Lottery for $25 Seats
Performances begin November 14, 2007 at The Bushnell in Hartford
A day-of-performance lottery for a select number of orchestra seats per performance will be held daily for WICKED, which will be performing from November 14 through December 9. The 2005 engagement of WICKED was a sellout and broke box office records. Each day, 2½ hours prior to show times – 5:00 p.m. Monday -Thursday and Sunday evenings; 5:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday evenings; at 10:30 a.m. prior to the Thursday, November 15 matinee; and at 12:00 p.m., two hours prior to Saturday and Sunday matinees -- people who present themselves at The Bushnell box office will have their names placed in a lottery drum and then thirty minutes later, names will be drawn for a select number of orchestra seats at $25 each, cash only. Participants must be present at the time of the drawing. This lottery is available only in-person at the box office, with a limit of two tickets per person.
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 WICKED is scheduled to begin performances in June in Tokyo, Japan and in November in Stuttgart, Germany.
WICKED begins performances on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 and runs through Sunday, December 9, 2007. Tickets for WICKED are on sale now and can be purchased by visiting The Bushnell Box Office at 166 Capitol Avenue in Hartford or by calling (860) 987-5900. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.bushnell.org. Groups of 10 or more should call (860) 987-5959. Tickets prices range from $84.00 to $39.00. Curtain times for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evening performances are at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m; and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. There will be a 1:00 p.m. matinee on Thursday, November 15 and a 7:30 p.m. performance on Monday, November 19.