LITTLE ROCK — Central Arkansas will finally get a chance to get Wicked.
The biggest theatrical touring production ever to visit Little Rock will take over the Robinson Center Music Hall stage for the better part of two weeks, Wednesday-Nov. 14, opening Celebrity Attractions’ 2010-11 Broadway Season.
Performances:
7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Nov. 9-11
2 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday
8 p.m. Friday and Nov. 12
2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and Nov. 13
2 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7 and 14
Though not officially billed as such, the company considers theWednesday and Thursday shows as shakedown shows, standard operating procedure on Broadway and in large tours.
It’s a chance for the cast and crew to get accustomed to a new stage and to work in the 10 or so local musicians (mostly woodwind and brassplayers) who will join a touring orchestra core of three keyboard players, a guitarist and a drummer. (A review of the show will wait for Friday’s official opening night and will appear in Saturday’s paper.)
Tickets are $32-$137, and Celebrity Attractions says it has sold roughly two-thirds of the available seats. Call (501) 244-8800 or (800) 982-ARTS (2787) or visit the website, Ticketmaster.com/wicked(click on “National Tour - Other Cities”).
For those who are finding the printed ticket price a little steep, Celebrity Attractions will hold a day-of-performance lottery for a limited number of $25 orchestra seats each day through the run.
Show up at the Robinson Center box office two hours before curtain time and put your name in a lottery drum; the drawing will be 30 minuteslater. There’s a limit of two tickets per person.
Wicked (music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Winnie Holzman, based on the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire) won a Grammy and three Tony awards.
The musical is not quite a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, though much of it is set in Oz a few years before the1939 movie.
It details how young Elphaba (Vicki Noon) who has faced a lifetime of discrimination because she has been born with green skin, and pretty, popular, blond, ambitious and slightly air-headed Galinda (Natalie Daradich) become friends, and how through a series of choices and public relations, they become, respectively, the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.
There are currently seven productions of Wicked worldwide, including two North American tours and the Broadway production, plus productions in London and Australia (currently in Brisbane) and Japanese- and German-language productions. A Dutch production is to open in 2011.
For more information, visit the website, wickedthemusi cal.com.
Style, Pages 57 on 10/31/2010