“Wicked” just broke a big record.
The 10th-longest running production in Broadway history has officially earned more than $1 billion at the box-office, making it the third-ever show to do so. “The Lion King” and “The Phantom of the Opera” have both passed the benchmark, but “Wicked” accomplished this feat in record-breaking time.
It took “The Lion King” 16 years to gross $1 billion, and “The Phantom of the Opera” 27 years. This milestone comes after 12-and-a-half years for “Wicked,” which opened in 2003 at the Gershwin Theatre.
The “Wizard of Oz” prequel tells the origin story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. “Wicked” debuted to less than stellar reviews, but the musical became a hit thanks to its predominantly female audience. As the Boston Globe notes, “Anyone who has ever attended a performance of ‘Wicked’ knows how much this show matters to girls, and to their mothers and aunts, too.”
Winnie Holzman, the creator of “My So-Called Life,” adapted “Wicked” for the stage. She wrote the book for the musical based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel of the same name.
More than 50 million people have seen the show. The original cast included breakouts Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth.
[via The Hollywood Reporter]
