Wicked

In 2003 Stephen Schwartz created a stage version of Wicked, a book written by Gregory Maguire. The musical has gained a huge amount of success. It has attained $1 billion dollars in profits and made stars of the original cast.

The story is based on The Wizard Of Oz. However, it focuses on events from the point of view of the Wicked Witch. The musical suggests that she was not evil and simply driven to do bad things by those around her.

Many well known characters from the original story make cameo appearances. The so called “good” figures such as the Wizard are portrayed as being the real villains.

Idina Menzel

Idina Menzel was the first actress to take on the lead role for Wicked. Her electric performance helped to make the show so popular. She was particularly lauded for her rendition of the song, Defying Gravity.

Thanks to her success in Wicked, Menzel has now had a highly lucrative career. She continued to work on the stage before voicing Elsa in the animated film, Frozen. Her song Let It Go went on to be one of the biggest hits of 2013.