Stage School Australia (formerly Children's Performing Company of Australia - CPCA) is a performing arts training provider for young people based in Melbourne and Brisbane .
169-730: Established in 1984 as the Victorian Children's Theatre, Stage School Australia notably encompasses the Young Australian Broadway Chorus (YABC), the Australian Youth Theatre (AYT: formerly the Victorian Youth Theatre), Beginners OnStage, the Talent Company of Australia (TCA) and The Australian Boys Dance Academy (ABDA). Since its inception, the organisation has expanded to twenty-four locations across
338-584: A "ghastly" hat in "Dancing Through Life", the score reprises a theme from "What Is This Feeling?" a few scenes earlier. Two musical themes in Wicked run throughout the score. Although Schwartz rarely reuses motifs or melodies from earlier works, the first—Elphaba's theme—came from The Survival of St. Joan , on which he worked as musical director . "I always liked this tune a lot and I never could figure out what to do with it," he remarked in an interview in 2004. The chord progression that he first penned in 1971 became
507-557: A Little Christmas", "I Am What I Am", "Mame", "The Best of Times", "Before the Parade Passes By", "Put On Your Sunday Clothes", "It Only Takes a Moment", "Bosom Buddies" and "I Won't Send Roses", recorded by such artists as Louis Armstrong , Eydie Gormé , Barbra Streisand , Petula Clark and Bernadette Peters. Herman's songbook has been the subject of two popular musical revues, Jerry's Girls (Broadway, 1985) and Showtune (off-Broadway, 2003). The musical started to diverge from
676-579: A book musical are its music , lyrics and book . The book or script of a musical refers to the story, character development and dramatic structure, including the spoken dialogue and stage directions, but it can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics together, which are sometimes referred to as the libretto (Italian for "small book"). The music and lyrics together form the score of a musical and include songs, incidental music and musical scenes, which are "theatrical sequence[s] set to music, often combining song with spoken dialogue." The interpretation of
845-563: A brand new production of Wicked opened at the Neue Flora Theatre in Hamburg , produced by Stage Entertainment again, which previously had presented the show in Stuttgart, Oberhausen, and The Hague. Vajèn van den Bosch and Jeannine Wacker were cast as Elphaba and Glinda respectively. An Australian production of the show officially opened on July 12, 2008, with previews commencing June 27 at
1014-517: A chance of holding her own alongside Chenoweth's gloriously, insidiously bubbly Glinda." As a result, the creative team set about making Elphaba "more prominent". In making the Broadway revisions, Schwartz recalled, "It was clear there was work to be done and revisions to be made in the book and the score. The critical community was, frankly, very helpful to us." The citizens of the Land of Oz are celebrating
1183-510: A completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. Now ... everything else was subservient to that play. Now ... came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity." As the Great Depression set in during the post-Broadway national tour of Show Boat , the public turned back to mostly light, escapist song-and-dance entertainment. Audiences on both sides of
1352-565: A different chord and so on, but still it's the first seven notes of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'. Schwartz further obscured the motif's origin by setting it in a minor key in most instances. This also creates contrast in the songs in which it forms a part, for example in "Defying Gravity", which is written primarily in the key of D-flat major . In the song "The Wicked Witch of the East", however, when Elphaba finally uses her powers to let her sister walk,
1521-511: A few exceptions, compared with London runs, until the 1920s. Gilbert and Sullivan were widely pirated and also were imitated in New York by productions such as Reginald De Koven 's Robin Hood (1891) and John Philip Sousa 's El Capitan (1896). A Trip to Coontown (1898) was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed by African Americans on Broadway (largely inspired by the routines of
1690-402: A few players . Rock musicals usually employ a small group of mostly rock instruments, and some musicals may call for only a piano or two instruments. The music in musicals uses a range of "styles and influences including operetta , classical techniques, folk music , jazz [and] local or historical styles [that] are appropriate to the setting." Musicals may begin with an overture played by
1859-641: A five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is less time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length, since a musical usually devotes more time to music than to dialogue. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters and the plot. The material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels ( Wicked and Man of La Mancha ), plays ( Hello, Dolly! and Carousel ), classic legends ( Camelot ), historical events ( Evita and Hamilton ) or films ( The Producers and Billy Elliot ). On
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#17330862862292028-521: A giant clock. Costume designer Susan Hilferty created a "twisted Edwardian " style in building more than 200 costumes, while lighting designer Kenneth Posner used more than 800 lights to give each of the 54 distinct scenes and locations "its own mood". By April 2003, the show was in rehearsals. Following the out-of-town tryout in San Francisco in May and June 2003, which received mixed critical reception,
2197-445: A hierarchical structure wherein students may be promoted to a more advanced group, based on the student's skill level and experience. In 1995, the company established four theatre ensembles with a strong musical theatre focus. In 1999, these groups expanded to become what is now known officially as the Young Australian Broadway Chorus (YABC), the stream which trains students in singing, dancing and acting. The YABC's first performance
2366-512: A love relationship sanctioned and restricted by Protestant ideals of marriage; that a married couple should make a moral home with children away from the city in a suburb or small town; that the woman's function was as homemaker and mother; and that Americans incorporate an independent and pioneering spirit or that their success is self-made. The 1950s were crucial to the development of the American musical. Damon Runyon 's eclectic characters were at
2535-558: A love spell on him but pronounces the incantation wrong and shrinks his heart instead. Elphaba tries to save him but can only transform him into a tin man who does not need a heart to live ("The Wicked Witch of the East"). Boq flees, and Nessarose blames Elphaba. Elphaba returns to the Emerald City to free the Wizard’s monkey servants, but she is discovered by The Wizard. He once again tries to convince Elphaba to work with him, explaining he
2704-483: A major theme of the show's orchestration. By changing the instruments that carry the motif in each instance, Schwartz enables the same melody to convey different moods. In the overture, the tune is carried by the orchestra's brass section , with heavy percussion. The result is, in Schwartz' own words, "like a giant shadow terrorizing you." When played by the piano with some electric bass in " As Long As You're Mine ", however,
2873-502: A musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde 's 1895 hit The Importance of Being Earnest . West Side Story (1957) transported Romeo and Juliet to modern day New York City and converted the feuding Montague and Capulet families into opposing ethnic gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. The book was adapted by Arthur Laurents , with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by newcomer Stephen Sondheim . It
3042-416: A musical generally became more expensive. Shuffle Along (1921), an all-African American show, was a hit on Broadway. A new generation of composers of operettas also emerged in the 1920s, such as Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg , to create a series of popular Broadway hits. In London, writer-stars such as Ivor Novello and Noël Coward became popular, but the primacy of British musical theatre from
3211-497: A musical is the responsibility of its creative team, which includes a director, a musical director, usually a choreographer and sometimes an orchestrator . A musical's production is also creatively characterized by technical aspects, such as set design , costumes , stage properties (props) , lighting and sound . The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the original production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from
3380-462: A musical style more aptly suited to twentieth-century society and its vernacular idiom. It was from America that the more direct style emerged, and in America that it was able to flourish in a developing society less hidebound by nineteenth-century tradition." In France, comédie musicale was written between in the early decades of the century for such stars as Yvonne Printemps . Progressing far beyond
3549-535: A new Broadway record. In Britain, Me and My Girl ran for 1,646 performances. Still, a few creative teams began to build on Show Boat ' s innovations. Of Thee I Sing (1931), a political satire by the Gershwins, was the first musical awarded the Pulitzer Prize . As Thousands Cheer (1933), a revue by Irving Berlin and Moss Hart in which each song or sketch was based on a newspaper headline, marked
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#17330862862293718-460: A number of blockbusters, like Fiddler on the Roof (1964; 3,242 performances), Hello, Dolly! (1964; 2,844 performances), Funny Girl (1964; 1,348 performances) and Man of La Mancha (1965; 2,328 performances), and some more risqué pieces like Cabaret , before ending with the emergence of the rock musical . In Britain, Oliver! (1960) ran for 2,618 performances, but the long-run champion of
3887-517: A river ... with lots of obstacles and mishaps along the way". As transportation improved, poverty in London and New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night, the number of patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays ran longer, leading to better profits and improved production values, and men began to bring their families to the theatre. The first musical theatre piece to exceed 500 consecutive performances
4056-547: A run of 931 performances. Gilbert and Sullivan's influence on later musical theatre was profound, creating examples of how to "integrate" musicals so that the lyrics and dialogue advanced a coherent story. Their works were admired and copied by early authors and composers of musicals in Britain and America. A Trip to Chinatown (1891) was Broadway's long-run champion (until Irene in 1919), running for 657 performances, but New York runs continued to be relatively short, with
4225-540: A series of 2.5D musicals based on popular anime and manga comics has developed in recent decades. Shorter or simplified "junior" versions of many musicals are available for schools and youth groups, and very short works created or adapted for performance by children are sometimes called minimusicals . The antecedents of musical theatre in Europe can be traced back to the theatre of ancient Greece , where music and dance were included in stage comedies and tragedies during
4394-540: A series of successful Broadway shows, including On Your Toes (1936, with Ray Bolger , the first Broadway musical to make dramatic use of classical dance), Babes in Arms (1937) and The Boys from Syracuse (1938). Porter added Du Barry Was a Lady (1939). The longest-running piece of musical theatre of the 1930s in the US was Hellzapoppin (1938), a revue with audience participation, which played for 1,404 performances, setting
4563-743: A spell to try to make Fiyero invincible to any weapon, but presuming him dead, she laments that she will never be seen as good and finally accepts her role as the Wicked Witch of the West (" No Good Deed "). The Citizens of Oz declare war on Elphaba ("March of the Witch Hunters"). Glinda realizes that Morrible summoned the tornado that killed Nessarose, but Morrible informs her there is also blood on her hands as well. Meanwhile, Elphaba has captured Dorothy to try to obtain Nessarose's shoes. Glinda arrives to warn Elphaba of
4732-757: A story-telling device in On Your Toes in 1936, which was followed by Agnes de Mille 's ballet and choreography in Oklahoma! . After Abbott collaborated with Jerome Robbins in On the Town and other shows, Robbins combined the roles of director and choreographer, emphasizing the story-telling power of dance in West Side Story , A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) and Fiddler on
4901-488: A tribute to Harold Arlen , who wrote the score for the 1939 film adaptation , the "Unlimited" melody incorporates the first seven notes of the song " Over the Rainbow ." Schwartz included it as an inside joke: According to copyright law , when you get to the eighth note, then people can come and say, 'Oh you stole our tune.' And of course obviously it's also disguised in that it's completely different rhythmically. And it's also harmonized completely differently.... It's over
5070-549: Is Stage School Australia’s professional talent agency , offering established and up-and-coming actors high-quality representation to secure work in the entertainment industry . Created in 2003, the TCA has built a solid reputation and relationship with leading casting agents both locally and internationally. TCA talent have appeared in TV, film, theatre, commercials and web series. In addition to providing talent management services to students,
5239-409: Is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue , acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos , love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by
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5408-458: Is an ordinary man who became revered by the citizens of Oz ("Wonderful") and voluntarily frees the monkeys. Elphaba is won over until she discovers Dillamond, who has lost the ability to speak, and vows to fight the Wizard. Fiyero helps Elphaba escape and decides to go with her, leaving Glinda heartbroken. She privately laments that Fiyero always loved Elphaba ("I'm Not That Girl (Reprise)"). Glinda tells
5577-541: Is angered when Morrible announces he is engaged to Glinda without his knowledge ("Thank Goodness"). Elphaba visits Nessarose, now the governor of Munchkinland following their father's death. Nessarose has taken away the Munchkin's few rights to prevent Boq from leaving her. Feeling guilty, Elphaba enchants Nessa's silver shoes to give her the ability to walk. Boq takes this as proof that Nessarose no longer needs him and attempts to leave, infuriating Nessarose, who attempts to cast
5746-565: Is attached to the beginning of "Thank Goodness". The music was arranged by Stephen Oremus , who was also the conductor and musical director , and James Lynn Abbott, with orchestrations by William David Brohn . The recording received the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2005 and was certified platinum by the RIAA on November 30, 2006. The album was certified double platinum on November 8, 2010. A fifth-anniversary special edition of
5915-447: Is designed to set the reader thinking about what it really is to be "Wicked", and whether good intentions with bad results are the same as bad intentions with bad results. Schwartz considered how best to condense the novel's dense and complicated plot into a sensible script. To this end, he collaborated with writer Winnie Holzman to develop the outline of the plot over the course of a year, while meeting with producer Marc Platt to refine
6084-451: Is frequently longer than the second. The first act generally introduces nearly all of the characters and most of the music and often ends with the introduction of a dramatic conflict or plot complication while the second act may introduce a few new songs but usually contains reprises of important musical themes and resolves the conflict or complication. A book musical is usually built around four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in
6253-421: Is in danger. Her premonition is correct: a house has fallen out of the sky and crushed her sister to death. Elphaba is distraught and furious that Glinda has given Nessarose's enchanted shoes to the house's occupant, Dorothy Gale , and the two get into a physical fight that is eventually broken up by the Wizard's guards. Fiyero arrives and allows Elphaba to escape but gets captured. At Kiamo Ko castle, Elphaba casts
6422-418: Is mocked at the party for wearing an ugly hat Galinda gave her as a practical joke, Galinda has a change of heart and decides to dance with Elphaba ("Dancing Through Life"). In their room, the girls finally bond ("Popular"). The next day, Dillamond tells the class he is no longer permitted to teach. His human replacement introduces "the cage" which is designed to stop animals from speaking. Elphaba, furious, frees
6591-477: Is often difficult to distinguish among the various kinds of musical theatre, including "musical play", "musical comedy", "operetta" and "light opera". Like opera, the singing in musical theatre is generally accompanied by an instrumental ensemble called a pit orchestra , located in a lowered area in front of the stage. While opera typically uses a conventional symphony orchestra , musicals are generally orchestrated for ensembles ranging from 27 players down to only
6760-407: Is ostracized for her green skin and sardonic personality. The school's headmistress, Madame Morrible, assigns Elphaba to room with the popular Galinda Upland. Recognizing Elphaba's magical potential, Morrible decides to privately tutor Elphaba in sorcery (" The Wizard and I ") making Galinda intensely jealous and the two girls come to loathe each other ("What is this Feeling?"). Meanwhile Dr. Dillamond,
6929-464: Is primarily a singer and only secondarily an actor (and rarely needs to dance), a musical theatre performer is often an actor first but must also be a singer and dancer. Someone who is equally accomplished at all three is referred to as a "triple threat". Composers of music for musicals often consider the vocal demands of roles with musical theatre performers in mind. Today, large theatres that stage musicals generally use microphones and amplification of
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7098-452: Is the Wizard's new press secretary. After being tricked into enchanting the Wizard's monkey servants to painfully sprout wings, Elphaba deduces that the Wizard is behind the suppression of animals and that he is a fraud who uses parlor tricks and lies to stay in power. Elphaba flees his chambers, and while Glinda begs her to apologize, Elphaba refuses and declares that she must do what is right. An empathetic Glinda declines to leave with her, and
7267-550: Is told from the perspective of two witches, Elphaba and Galinda, before and after Dorothy 's arrival in Oz . The story explores the complex friendship between Elphaba (who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West ) and Galinda (who becomes Glinda the Good). Their relationship is tested by their contrasting personalities, conflicting viewpoints, shared love interest, reactions to the corrupt rule of
7436-510: The Apollo Victoria Theatre on September 7, 2006, with an opening night on September 27. The show celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2016 with a special curtain call featuring former West End cast members. The British production was tailored slightly for a British audience, including minor creative changes to dialogue, choreography and special effects. A majority of them were later incorporated into all productions of Wicked , including
7605-517: The Curran Theatre in San Francisco, after previews began on May 28. The cast included Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Robert Morse as the Wizard, Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero, Michelle Federer as Nessarose, Carole Shelley as Madame Morrible, John Horton as Doctor Dillamond, and Kirk McDonald as Boq . Stephanie J. Block , who originally read the role of Elphaba during
7774-478: The Pantages Theatre . Performances began on February 10, 2007, with an official opening on February 21. The cast included Megan Hilty as Glinda, Eden Espinosa as Elphaba, Carol Kane as Madame Morrible, Timothy Britten Parker as Doctor Dillamond, Jenna Leigh Green as Nessarose, Adam Wylie as Boq, Kristoffer Cusick as Fiyero, and John Rubinstein as the Wizard. The show closed on January 11, 2009 with
7943-571: The Regent Theatre in Melbourne . Amanda Harrison was originally cast as Elphaba , with Lucy Durack as Glinda. The original cast consisted of Rob Mills as Fiyero, Anthony Callea as Boq, Rob Guest as the Wizard, Maggie Kirkpatrick as Madame Morrible, Penny McNamee as Nessarose and Rodney Dobson as Doctor Dillamond. Guest unexpectedly died of a stroke months into the Melbourne season, with
8112-632: The Roaring Twenties , borrowing from vaudeville, music hall and other light entertainments, tended to emphasize big dance routines and popular songs at the expense of plot. Typical of the decade were lighthearted productions like Sally ; Lady, Be Good ; No, No, Nanette ; Oh, Kay! ; and Funny Face . Despite forgettable stories, these musicals featured stars such as Marilyn Miller and Fred Astaire and produced dozens of enduring popular songs by Kern, George and Ira Gershwin , Irving Berlin , Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart . Popular music
8281-636: The Scarecrow , Elphaba's survival at the end, Nessarose using a wheelchair instead of being born without arms, Boq having a continuing love interest for Glinda and eventually becoming the Tin Woodman instead of Nick Chopper, cutting Elphaba's years in the Vinkus, the deletion of Liir's birth, Fiyero not having a wife and children, Doctor Dillamond being fired instead of being murdered, and Madame Morrible going to prison instead of dying. The book , lyrics, and score for
8450-487: The Tudor period that involved music, dancing, singing and acting, often with expensive costumes and a complex stage design . These developed into sung plays that are recognizable as English operas, the first usually being thought of as The Siege of Rhodes (1656). In France, meanwhile, Molière turned several of his farcical comedies into musical entertainments with songs (music provided by Jean-Baptiste Lully ) and dance in
8619-517: The United States and England . YABC and AYT touring groups have performed in a variety of high-profile venues including Disneyland . Disneyworld , Disneyland Paris , Theatre Row , Universal Studios , Smithsonian Institution , Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts , York Theatre Royal , Soho Theatre Pegasus Theatre Oxford to name just a few. Musical theatre Musical theatre
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#17330862862298788-733: The Wonderful Wizard , and ultimately, Elphaba's tragic fall. Produced by Universal Stage Productions with producers Marc Platt , Jon B. Platt, and David Stone , director Joe Mantello and choreographer Wayne Cilento , the original production of Wicked premiered on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre in October 2003, after completing pre-Broadway tryouts at San Francisco's Curran Theatre in May and June of that year. Its original stars included Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Galinda, Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero and Joel Grey as
8957-547: The minstrel shows ), followed by ragtime -tinged shows. Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century, composed of songs written in New York's Tin Pan Alley , including those by George M. Cohan , who worked to create an American style distinct from the Gilbert and Sullivan works. The most successful New York shows were often followed by extensive national tours. Meanwhile, musicals took over
9126-536: The "Golden Age" of American musical theatre. Americana was displayed on Broadway during the "Golden Age", as the wartime cycle of shows began to arrive. An example of this is On the Town (1944), written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green , composed by Leonard Bernstein and choreographed by Jerome Robbins . The story is set during wartime and concerns three sailors who are on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City, during which each falls in love. The show also gives
9295-846: The "Munchkinland Tour") began on 12 March 2009 at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers, Florida . The original cast starred Marcie Dodd as Elphaba, Heléne Yorke as Glinda, Colin Donnell as Fiyero, and Tom McGowan as the Wizard. The production was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed performances on August 3, 2021, with Talia Suskauer as Elphaba, Allison Bailey as Glinda and Curt Hanson as Fiyero. The production celebrated its 5,000th performance on July 30, 2022. The original West End (London) production began previews at
9464-466: The "Unlimited" theme is played in a major key . A cast recording of the original Broadway production was released on December 16, 2003, by Universal Music . All of the songs featured on stage are present on the recording with the exception of "The Wizard and I (Reprise)", "A Sentimental Man (Reprise)" and "The Wicked Witch of the East". The short reprise of "No One Mourns the Wicked" that opens Act II
9633-618: The 1850s to the 1870s and Johann Strauss II in the 1870s and 1880s. Offenbach's fertile melodies, combined with his librettists' witty satire, formed a model for the musical theatre that followed. Adaptations of the French operettas (played in mostly bad, risqué translations), musical burlesques , music hall, pantomime and burletta dominated the London musical stage into the 1870s. In America, mid-19th century musical theatre entertainments included crude variety revue , which eventually developed into vaudeville , minstrel shows , which soon crossed
9802-504: The 1910s, the team of P. G. Wodehouse , Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern , following in the footsteps of Gilbert and Sullivan , created the " Princess Theatre shows" and paved the way for Kern's later work by showing that a musical could combine light, popular entertainment with continuity between its story and songs. Historian Gerald Bordman wrote: These shows built and polished the mold from which almost all later major musical comedies evolved. ... The characters and situations were, within
9971-491: The 19th century through 1920 was gradually replaced by American innovation, especially after World War I, as Kern and other Tin Pan Alley composers began to bring new musical styles such as ragtime and jazz to the theatres, and the Shubert Brothers took control of the Broadway theatres. Musical theatre writer Andrew Lamb notes, "The operatic and theatrical styles of nineteenth-century social structures were replaced by
10140-412: The 19th century, such as music hall , melodrama and burletta , which were popularized partly because most London theatres were licensed only as music halls and not allowed to present plays without music. Colonial America did not have a significant theatre presence until 1752, when London entrepreneur William Hallam sent a company of actors to the colonies managed by his brother Lewis . In New York in
10309-810: The 5th century BCE. The music from the ancient forms is lost, however, and they had little influence on later development of musical theatre. In the 12th and 13th centuries, religious dramas taught the liturgy . Groups of actors would use outdoor Pageant wagons (stages on wheels) to tell each part of the story. Poetic forms sometimes alternated with the prose dialogues, and liturgical chants gave way to new melodies. The European Renaissance saw older forms evolve into two antecedents of musical theatre: commedia dell'arte , where raucous clowns improvised familiar stories, and later, opera buffa . In England, Elizabethan and Jacobean plays frequently included music, and short musical plays began to be included in an evenings' dramatic entertainments. Court masques developed during
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#173308628622910478-1007: The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , Oliver! , Rags , Salad Days , Wizard of Oz , Spring Awakening , Seussical TYA , Conference of the Birds , Disney Alice in Wonderland Jr , Disney Aladdin Jr , BABE the Sheep-Pig , Disney The Little Mermaid Jr , The Secret Garden ~ Spring Version , Disney Beauty and the Beast Jr , Honk! Jr , Shrek Jr , Wicked , Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr , and Les Miserables . Since 1996, Stage School Australia has conducted many tours in Australia and internationally. Stage School Australia have toured to countries including; France , Germany , Greece , Singapore , Italy ,
10647-545: The Angry Inch and other shows in recent decades. Parade is a sensitive exploration of both anti-Semitism and historical American racism, and Ragtime similarly explores the experience of immigrants and minorities in America. After the success of Hair , rock musicals flourished in the 1970s, with Jesus Christ Superstar , Godspell , The Rocky Horror Show , Evita and Two Gentlemen of Verona . Some of those began as " concept albums " which were then adapted to
10816-666: The Atlantic had little money to spend on entertainment, and only a few stage shows anywhere exceeded a run of 500 performances during the decade. The revue The Band Wagon (1931) starred dancing partners Fred Astaire and his sister Adele , while Porter's Anything Goes (1934) confirmed Ethel Merman 's position as the First Lady of musical theatre, a title she maintained for many years. Coward and Novello continued to deliver old fashioned, sentimental musicals, such as The Dancing Years , while Rodgers and Hart returned from Hollywood to create
10985-425: The Atlantic to Britain, and Victorian burlesque, first popularized in the US by British troupes. A hugely successful musical entertainment that premiered in New York in 1866, The Black Crook , combined dance and some original music that helped to tell the story. The spectacular production, famous for its skimpy costumes, ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and
11154-457: The Broadway production and the two US national tours. The London production reunited the show's original creative team. Original London cast members included the return of Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Helen Dallimore as Glinda, Miriam Margolyes as Madame Morrible, Adam Garcia as Fiyero, Martin Ball as Doctor Dillamond, James Gillan as Boq, Katie Rowley Jones as Nessarose and Nigel Planer as
11323-738: The English-speaking stage by competition from the ubiquitous Edwardian musical comedies, operettas returned to London and Broadway in 1907 with The Merry Widow , and adaptations of continental operettas became direct competitors with musicals. Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus composed new operettas that were popular in English until World War I. In America, Victor Herbert produced a string of enduring operettas including The Fortune Teller (1898), Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906) and Naughty Marietta (1910). In
11492-689: The German production of Wicked began previews on November 1, 2007, and opened on November 15, at the Palladium Theater in Stuttgart . Willemijn Verkaik played Elphaba and Lucy Scherer Glinda. The show was produced by Stage Entertainment and closed on January 29, 2010, transferring to Oberhausen where previews began at the Metronom Theater on March 5, 2010, with an opening night of March 8. The show closed on September 2, 2011. On September 5, 2021,
11661-468: The Golden Age, automotive companies and other large corporations began to hire Broadway talent to write corporate musicals , private shows only seen by their employees or customers. The 1950s ended with Rodgers and Hammerstein 's last hit, The Sound of Music , which also became another hit for Mary Martin. It ran for 1,443 performances and shared the Tony Award for Best Musical. Together with its extremely successful 1965 film version , it has become one of
11830-410: The Good . The story is divided into five scenes, based on the locations where Elphaba lives during her life; it presents events, characters, and situations adapted from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and its 1939 film adaptation . The novel treats some serious and dark adult themes, including sexual assault, political unrest, infidelity, racism and the role of religion in society. It
11999-420: The London stage in the Gay Nineties , led by producer George Edwardes , who perceived that audiences wanted a new alternative to the Savoy -style comic operas and their intellectual, political, absurdist satire. He experimented with a modern-dress, family-friendly musical theatre style, with breezy, popular songs, snappy, romantic banter, and stylish spectacle at the Gaiety and his other theatres. These drew on
12168-551: The Mountains (1,352 performances) and especially Chu Chin Chow . Its run of 2,238 performances was more than twice as long as any previous musical, setting a record that stood for nearly forty years. Even a revival of The Beggar's Opera held the stage for 1,463 performances. Revues like The Bing Boys Are Here in Britain, and those of Florenz Ziegfeld and his imitators in America, were also extraordinarily popular. The musicals of
12337-647: The Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy." In 1874, Evangeline or The Belle of Arcadia , by Edward E. Rice and J. Cheever Goodwin , based loosely on Longfellow’s Evangeline , with an original American story and music, opened successfully in New York and was revived in Boston, New York, and in repeated tours. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 ( The Mulligan Guard Picnic ) and 1885. These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from
12506-575: The Roof (1964). Bob Fosse choreographed for Abbott in The Pajama Game (1956) and Damn Yankees (1957), injecting playful sexuality into those hits. He was later the director-choreographer for Sweet Charity (1968), Pippin (1972) and Chicago (1975). Other notable director-choreographers have included Gower Champion , Tommy Tune , Michael Bennett , Gillian Lynne and Susan Stroman . Prominent directors have included Hal Prince , who also got his start with Abbott, and Trevor Nunn . During
12675-512: The Shrew for Kiss Me, Kate (1948, 1,077 performances). The American musicals overwhelmed the old-fashioned British Coward/Novello-style shows, one of the last big successes of which was Novello's Perchance to Dream (1945, 1,021 performances). The formula for the Golden Age musicals reflected one or more of four widely held perceptions of the "American dream": That stability and worth derives from
12844-412: The Stuttgart production was released on December 7, 2007, featuring a track listing and arrangements identical to those of the Broadway recording. The Japanese cast recording was released on July 23, 2008, featuring the original Tokyo cast. It is notable for being the first (and so far the only) Cast Album of the show that includes Glinda's Finale dialogue. Wicked officially opened on June 10, 2003, at
13013-401: The TCA provides skill-building workshops throughout the year. Stage School Australia also operates as a performing arts company and have been producing multiple stage productions bi-annually for two decades. Stage School Australia have done seasons of original plays and musicals as well as many theatre classics including; The Conference of the Birds , Godspell , Man of La Mancha , Joseph and
13182-491: The Times Square area until the 1920s and 1930s. New York runs lagged far behind those in London, but Laura Keene 's "musical burletta" Seven Sisters (1860) shattered previous New York musical theatre record, with a run of 253 performances. Around 1850, the French composer Hervé was experimenting with a form of comic musical theatre he called opérette . The best known composers of operetta were Jacques Offenbach from
13351-908: The UK and Ireland before concluding the run in Salford on July 25, 2015. A second UK/Ireland tour began in December 2017, opening at the Theater 11 in Zurich , then making it first official UK/Ireland Tour stop in January 2018 at the Bristol Hippodrome . The tour ended at the Palace Theatre in Manchester in January 2019. The cast included Amy Ross as Elphaba, Helen Woolf as Glinda, Aaron Sidwell as Fiyero, and Steven Pinder as
13520-470: The United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada and Latin America. Since the 20th century, the "book musical" has been defined as a musical play where songs and dances are fully integrated into a well-made story with serious dramatic goals and which is able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter. The three main components of
13689-400: The Victorian Children's Theatre. While trading as the Victorian Children's Theatre, the course focused largely on improvised drama , but eventually the curriculum was expanded to include script work and acting for the camera. As of 2022, AYT classes are held in 4 locations across Brisbane. Beginners OnStage was established in 2008 as a program for students aged 5 to 7 years as a gateway into
13858-481: The West End in the 21st century have been presented in one act. Moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, "when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing; when it becomes too strong for song, you dance." In a book musical, a song is ideally crafted to suit the character (or characters) and their situation within the story; although there have been times in
14027-472: The Wicked Witch is dead before reluctantly joining Oz in celebrating ("Finale"). The score of Wicked is heavily thematic , bearing in some senses more resemblance to an opera than a traditional musical score. While many musical scores employ new motifs and melodies for each song with little overlap, Schwartz integrated a handful of leitmotifs throughout the production. Some of these motifs indicate irony—for example, when Glinda presents Elphaba with
14196-504: The Wicked Witch of the West while on vacation and saw its potential for a dramatic adaptation. However, Maguire had released the rights to Universal Pictures , which had planned to develop a live-action feature film. In 1998, Schwartz persuaded Maguire to release the rights to a stage production while also making what Schwartz himself called an "impassioned plea" to Universal producer Marc Platt to realize Schwartz's own intended adaptation. Persuaded, Platt signed on as joint producer of
14365-434: The Wizard and Madame Morrible a way they can capture Elphaba – spreading a rumor that Nessarose is in trouble, so she will be forced to show herself to save her. Unknown to Glinda, Morrible and the Wizard decide a mere rumor would not fool Elphaba, and Morrible proposes "a change in the weather". Hidden in the forest, Elphaba and Fiyero confess their love for each other (" As Long As You’re Mine ") when Elphaba senses Nessarose
14534-470: The Wizard with the elixir, which he recognizes as his own: he was the man Elphaba's mother had an affair with, thus her biological father, and the elixir was the cause of her green skin. Glinda banishes the Wizard from Oz and arrests Morrible. Meanwhile, Fiyero (now a Scarecrow as the result of Elphaba's spell) arrives at Kiamo Ko Castle, where Elphaba emerges from a trap door, having faked her death. The couple depart Oz together, as Glinda informs everyone that
14703-496: The Wizard. The original Broadway production won a total of three Tony Awards and seven Drama Desk Awards , while its original cast album received a Grammy Award . The success of the Broadway production has spawned many productions worldwide, including a long-running West End production. Wicked has broken box-office records around the world, holding weekly-gross-takings records in Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, and London. In
14872-410: The Wizard. After her limited engagement, which ended on December 30, 2006, Menzel was succeeded on January 1, 2007 by Kerry Ellis , who became the first British actress to play Elphaba. The production suspended performances on March 16, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It resumed performances on September 15, 2021, in time for the production's 15th anniversary. Sophie Evans reopened the show in
15041-574: The Wizard. The tour concluded at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles on March 15, 2015 after 4,160 performances, with Jennifer DiNoia as Elphaba and Chandra Lee Schwartz as Glinda. Following a limited engagement of the first national tour from April 29 to June 2005, a sit-down production of Wicked opened at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago immediately following the tour, using the original set of
15210-891: The Wizard/Doctor Dillamond. A third UK/Ireland tour began on 7 December 2023 at the Edinburgh Playhouse , in Edinburgh where it played to 14 January 2024. It then toured the UK and Ireland before ending its run at the Palace Theatre in Manchester in January 2025. Laura Pick returned to lead the tour as Elphaba with Sarah O'Connor as Glinda and Carl Man as Fiyero. Simeon Truby played the Wizard/Dillamond with Donna Berlin as Madame Morrible, Jed Berry as Boq and Megan Gardiner as Nessarose. In 2013, for Wicked 10th anniversary,
15379-507: The actors' singing voices in a way that would generally be disapproved of in an operatic context. Some works, including those by George Gershwin , Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim , have been made into both musical theatre and operatic productions. Similarly, some older operettas or light operas (such as The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan ) have been produced in modern adaptations that treat them as musicals. For some works, production styles are almost as important as
15548-447: The book were rewritten, while several songs underwent minor changes. "Which Way is the Party?", the introductory song to the character Fiyero, was replaced by "Dancing Through Life". Concern existed that Menzel's Elphaba "got a little overshadowed" by Chenoweth's Glinda, with San Francisco Chronicle critic Robert Hurwitt writing, "Menzel's brightly intense Elphaba the Wicked Witch [needs]
15717-466: The characters express their ideas. It defied musical conventions by raising its first act curtain not on a bevy of chorus girls, but rather on a woman churning butter, with an off-stage voice singing the opening lines of Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' unaccompanied. It drew rave reviews, set off a box-office frenzy and received a Pulitzer Prize . Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times that
15886-546: The comparatively frivolous musicals and sentimental operettas of the decade, Broadway's Show Boat (1927) represented an even more complete integration of book and score than the Princess Theatre musicals, with dramatic themes told through the music, dialogue, setting and movement. This was accomplished by combining the lyricism of Kern's music with the skillful libretto of Oscar Hammerstein II . One historian wrote, "Here we come to
16055-503: The continent, singspiel , comédie en vaudeville , opéra comique , zarzuela and other forms of light musical entertainment were emerging. The Beggar's Opera was the first recorded long-running play of any kind, running for 62 successive performances in 1728. It would take almost a century afterwards before any play broke 100 performances, but the record soon reached 150 in the late 1820s. Other musical theatre forms developed in England by
16224-452: The controversy surrounding it, ran for 108 performances. Rodgers and Hart's I'd Rather Be Right (1937) was a political satire with George M. Cohan as President Franklin D. Roosevelt , and Kurt Weill 's Knickerbocker Holiday depicted New York City's early history while good-naturedly satirizing Roosevelt's good intentions. The motion picture mounted a challenge to the stage. Silent films had presented only limited competition, but by
16393-543: The core of Frank Loesser 's and Abe Burrows ' Guys and Dolls , (1950, 1,200 performances); and the Gold Rush was the setting for Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe 's Paint Your Wagon (1951). The relatively brief seven-month run of that show did not discourage Lerner and Loewe from collaborating again, this time on My Fair Lady (1956), an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw 's Pygmalion starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews , which at 2,717 performances held
16562-420: The creative team made extensive changes before its transfer to Broadway. Holzman recalled: Stephen [Schwartz] wisely had insisted on having three months to rewrite in-between the time we closed in San Francisco and when we were to go back into rehearsals in New York. That was crucial; that was the thing that made the biggest difference in the life of the show. That time is what made the show work. Elements of
16731-422: The danger she is in, and Elphaba softens when she receives a letter from a monkey servant. Elphaba accepts that she must surrender and the two friends embrace for the last time before sharing a tearful goodbye ("For Good"). Glinda watches from the shadows as Dorothy throws a bucket of water on Elphaba, melting her and leaving only her hat and a bottle of Green Elixir that had belonged to her mother. Glinda confronts
16900-559: The death of the Wicked Witch of the West . Glinda the Good appears and reminisces about their past, beginning with the troubled childhood of the Witch (born Elphaba Thropp ) after her mother had an affair and her father, Governor of Munchkinland , disowned her when she was born with bright green skin ("No One Mourns the Wicked"). Flashing back many years earlier, Elphaba arrives at Shiz University with her younger paraplegic sister Nessarose, where she
17069-494: The decade was The Black and White Minstrel Show (1962), which played for 4,344 performances. Two men had considerable impact on musical theatre history beginning in this decade: Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman . The first project for which Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962, 964 performances), with a book based on the works of Plautus by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart , starring Zero Mostel . Sondheim moved
17238-403: The earlier musical forms of comic opera and operetta. The Geisha (1896) was one of the most successful in the 1890s, running for more than two years and achieving great international success. The Belle of New York (1898) became the first American musical to run for over a year in London. The British musical comedy Florodora (1899) was a popular success on both sides of the Atlantic, as
17407-463: The end of the 1920s, films like The Jazz Singer could be presented with synchronized sound. "Talkie" films at low prices effectively killed off vaudeville by the early 1930s. Despite the economic woes of the 1930s and the competition from film, the musical survived. In fact, it continued to evolve thematically beyond the gags and showgirls musicals of the Gay Nineties and Roaring Twenties and
17576-533: The end of the Golden Age, several shows tackled Jewish subjects and issues, such as Fiddler on the Roof , Milk and Honey , Blitz! and later Rags . The original concept that became West Side Story was set in the Lower East Side during Easter-Passover celebrations; the rival gangs were to be Jewish and Italian Catholic . The creative team later decided that the Polish (white) vs. Puerto Rican conflict
17745-539: The equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals . Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the light opera works of Jacques Offenbach in France, Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and
17914-409: The everyday life of New York's lower classes. They starred high quality singers ( Lillian Russell , Vivienne Segal and Fay Templeton ) instead of the ladies of questionable repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. In 1879, The Brook by Nate Salsbury was another national success with contemporary American dance styles and an American story about "members of an acting company taking a trip down
18083-438: The first Broadway show in which an African-American, Ethel Waters , starred alongside white actors. Waters' numbers included " Supper Time ", a woman's lament for her husband who has been lynched. The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (1935) featured an all African-American cast and blended operatic, folk and jazz idioms. The Cradle Will Rock (1937), directed by Orson Welles , was a highly political pro- union piece that, despite
18252-491: The first Spanish adaptation of the show was announced to open in Mexico City , with book and lyrics fully translated by Marco Villafán, titled Wicked, la historia jamas contada de las brujas de Oz . Ana Cecilia Anzaldúa and Danna Paola were alternating in the role of Elphaba with Cecilia de la Cueva as Glinda. Danna Paola made her stage debut becoming the youngest actress to ever portray Elphaba, at just 18 years old. The show
18421-515: The founding of the state of Israel, and continuing with the blockbuster hits Hello, Dolly! (1964, 2,844 performances), Mame (1966, 1,508 performances), and La Cage aux Folles (1983, 1,761 performances). Even his less successful shows like Dear World (1969) and Mack and Mabel (1974) have had memorable scores ( Mack and Mabel was later reworked into a London hit). Writing both words and music, many of Herman's show tunes have become popular standards, including " Hello, Dolly! ", "We Need
18590-406: The greater Melbourne area to become one of the largest performing arts tuition providers in the state of Victoria. In 2022, Stage School Australia expanded to Brisbane with classes in 4 locations; Jindalee, Mount Gravatt, The Gap, and South Bank. Stage School offers several streams of training which, depending on the age of the student, can be conducted separately or concurrently. Most streams have
18759-472: The history of the musical (e.g. from the 1890s to the 1920s) when this integration between music and story has been tenuous. As The New York Times critic Ben Brantley described the ideal of song in theatre when reviewing the 2008 revival of Gypsy : "There is no separation at all between song and character, which is what happens in those uncommon moments when musicals reach upward to achieve their ideal reasons to be." Typically, many fewer words are sung in
18928-518: The impression of a country with an uncertain future, as the sailors and their women also have. Irving Berlin used sharpshooter Annie Oakley 's career as a basis for his Annie Get Your Gun (1946, 1,147 performances); Burton Lane , E. Y. Harburg and Fred Saidy combined political satire with Irish whimsy for their fantasy Finian's Rainbow (1947, 725 performances); and Cole Porter found inspiration in William Shakespeare 's The Taming of
19097-447: The interplay of lyrics and music in his shows. Some of Sondheim's notable innovations include a show presented in reverse ( Merrily We Roll Along ) and the above-mentioned Anyone Can Whistle , in which the first act ends with the cast informing the audience that they are mad. Jerry Herman played a significant role in American musical theatre, beginning with his first Broadway production, Milk and Honey (1961, 563 performances), about
19266-548: The late 17th century. These influenced a brief period of English opera by composers such as John Blow and Henry Purcell . From the 18th century, the most popular forms of musical theatre in Britain were ballad operas , like John Gay 's The Beggar's Opera , that included lyrics written to the tunes of popular songs of the day (often spoofing opera), and later pantomime , which developed from commedia dell'arte, and comic opera with mostly romantic plot lines, like Michael Balfe 's The Bohemian Girl (1845). Meanwhile, on
19435-402: The limitations of musical comedy license, believable and the humor came from the situations or the nature of the characters. Kern's exquisitely flowing melodies were employed to further the action or develop characterization. ... [Edwardian] musical comedy was often guilty of inserting songs in a hit-or-miss fashion. The Princess Theatre musicals brought about a change in approach. P. G. Wodehouse,
19604-588: The lion cub imprisoned within it and escapes with Fiyero. They share a private moment, but Elphaba laments that Fiyero could never love her ("I'm Not That Girl"). Morrible tells Elphaba that the Wizard of Oz wants to meet her, and she goes with Galinda, who renames herself Glinda in solidarity with Dillamond, to the Emerald City ("One Short Day"). The two meet the Wizard and are surprised to discover his mortal nature ("A Sentimental Man"). Morrible appears and announces she
19773-500: The long-run record for many years. Popular Hollywood films were made of all of these musicals. Two hits by British creators in this decade were The Boy Friend (1954), which ran for 2,078 performances in London and marked Andrews' American debut, and Salad Days (1954), which broke the British long-run record with a run of 2,283 performances. Another record was set by The Threepenny Opera , which ran for 2,707 performances, becoming
19942-531: The longest-running off-Broadway musical until The Fantasticks . The production also broke ground by showing that musicals could be profitable off-Broadway in a small-scale, small orchestra format. This was confirmed in 1959 when a revival of Jerome Kern and P. G. Wodehouse 's Leave It to Jane ran for more than two years. The 1959–1960 off-Broadway season included a dozen musicals and revues including Little Mary Sunshine , The Fantasticks and Ernest in Love ,
20111-815: The most famous musicals through the decades that followed include My Fair Lady (1956), The Fantasticks (1960), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), Les Misérables (1985), The Phantom of the Opera (1986), Rent (1996), Wicked (2003) and Hamilton (2015). Musicals are performed around the world. They may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller venues, such as off-Broadway , off-off-Broadway , regional theatre , fringe theatre , or community theatre productions, or on tour . Musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to
20280-445: The most observant, literate and witty lyricist of his day, and the team of Bolton, Wodehouse and Kern had an influence felt to this day. The theatre-going public needed escapist entertainment during the dark times of World War I , and they flocked to the theatre. The 1919 hit musical Irene ran for 670 performances, a Broadway record that held until 1938. The British theatre public supported far longer runs like that of The Maid of
20449-567: The most popular musicals in history. In 1960, The Fantasticks was first produced off-Broadway. This intimate allegorical show would quietly run for over 40 years at the Sullivan Street Theatre in Greenwich Village , becoming by far the longest-running musical in history. Its authors produced other innovative works in the 1960s, such as Celebration and I Do! I Do! , the first two-character Broadway musical. The 1960s would see
20618-423: The music for a story about Rose Thompson Hovick , the mother of the titular stripper Gypsy Rose Lee . Although directors and choreographers have had a major influence on musical theatre style since at least the 19th century, George Abbott and his collaborators and successors took a central role in integrating movement and dance fully into musical theatre productions in the Golden Age. Abbott introduced ballet as
20787-480: The musical beyond its concentration on the romantic plots typical of earlier eras; his work tended to be darker, exploring the grittier sides of life both present and past. Other early Sondheim works include Anyone Can Whistle (1964, which ran only nine performances, despite having stars Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury ), and the successful Company (1970), Follies (1971) and A Little Night Music (1973). Later, Sondheim found inspiration in unlikely sources:
20956-402: The musical were developed through a series of readings. In these developmental workshops, Kristin Chenoweth , the actress whom Schwartz had in mind while composing the music for the character, joined the project as Glinda. Stephanie J. Block played Elphaba in the workshops (she played Elphaba in the first national tour and later as a Broadway cast replacement) before Idina Menzel was cast in
21125-418: The necessary encouragement for other gifted writers to create musical plays of their own". The two collaborators created an extraordinary collection of some of musical theatre's best loved and most enduring classics, including Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951) and The Sound of Music (1959). Some of these musicals treat more serious subject matter than most earlier shows:
21294-592: The only Broadway shows to do so. In 2017, Wicked surpassed The Phantom of the Opera as Broadway's second-highest grossing musical, trailing only The Lion King . A two-part film adaptation was directed by Jon M. Chu and starred Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Ariana Grande as Galinda, and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. The first part was released on November 22, 2024 and was a critical and commercial success. The second part will premiere on November 21, 2025. Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz discovered Gregory Maguire 's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of
21463-526: The only animal professor at Shiz, informs Elphaba of a conspiracy to stop all animals from speaking ("Something Bad"). A roguish prince, Fiyero, begins attending Shiz and arranges a party for his fellow students. Galinda becomes immediately enamored with him, and convinces her admirer, the Munchkin Boq, to take Nessarose to the party instead so that she can go with Fiyero. At Nessarose's urging, Elphaba asks Morrible to begin teaching Galinda sorcery. When Elphaba
21632-746: The opening of Japan to Western trade for Pacific Overtures (1976), a legendary murderous barber seeking revenge in the Industrial Age of London for Sweeney Todd (1979), the paintings of Georges Seurat for Sunday in the Park with George (1984), fairy tales for Into the Woods (1987), and a collection of presidential assassins in Assassins (1990). While some critics have argued that some of Sondheim's musicals lack commercial appeal, others have praised their lyrical sophistication and musical complexity, as well as
21801-498: The orchestra that "weav[es] together excerpts of the score's famous melodies." There are various Eastern traditions of theatre that include music, such as Chinese opera , Taiwanese opera , Japanese Noh and Indian musical theatre , including Sanskrit drama , Indian classical dance , Parsi theatre and Yakshagana . India has, since the 20th century, produced numerous musical films, referred to as " Bollywood " musicals, and in Japan
21970-508: The original Broadway cast recording was released on October 28, 2008, with a bonus CD including tracks from the Japanese and German cast recordings, "Making Good"—a song later replaced by "The Wizard and I"—sung by Stephanie J. Block with Schwartz at the piano, "I'm Not That Girl" by Kerry Ellis (featuring Brian May on guitar), Menzel's dance mix of "Defying Gravity" and "For Good" sung by LeAnn Rimes and Delta Goodrem . A German recording of
22139-459: The original production, for example, Bob Fosse 's choreography in Chicago . There is no fixed length for a musical. While it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length (or even a multi-evening presentation), most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one short intermission , and the first act
22308-643: The other hand, many successful musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films , such as West Side Story , My Fair Lady , The Sound of Music , Oliver! and Chicago . Musical theatre is closely related to the theatrical form of opera, but the two are usually distinguished by weighing a number of factors. First, musicals generally have a greater focus on spoken dialogue. Some musicals, however, are entirely accompanied and sung-through, while some operas, such as Die Zauberflöte , and most operettas , have some unaccompanied dialogue. Second, musicals usually include more dancing as an essential part of
22477-455: The project with Universal and David Stone. The novel, described as a political, social, and ethical commentary on the nature of good and evil, takes place in the Land of Oz , in the years surrounding Dorothy 's arrival. The story centers on Elphaba , a misunderstood, smart, and fiery girl with emerald-green skin, who grows up to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Galinda, the beautiful, blonde, popular girl who grows up to become Glinda
22646-758: The relatively narrow confines of the 1950s. Rock music would be used in several Broadway musicals, beginning with Hair , which featured not only rock music but also nudity and controversial opinions about the Vietnam War , race relations and other social issues. After Show Boat and Porgy and Bess , and as the struggle in America and elsewhere for minorities' civil rights progressed, Hammerstein, Harold Arlen , Yip Harburg and others were emboldened to write more musicals and operas that aimed to normalize societal toleration of minorities and urged racial harmony. Early Golden Age works that focused on racial tolerance included Finian's Rainbow and South Pacific . Towards
22815-451: The revolution begun by Show Boat , by tightly integrating all the aspects of musical theatre, with a cohesive plot, songs that furthered the action of the story, and featured dream ballets and other dances that advanced the plot and developed the characters, rather than using dance as an excuse to parade scantily clad women across the stage. Rodgers and Hammerstein hired ballet choreographer Agnes de Mille , who used everyday motions to help
22984-459: The role being taken up by Bert Newton . Closing in Melbourne August 9, 2009, the show transferred to Sydney 's Capitol Theatre . Previews began on September 5, 2009, with the official opening on September 12. Shortly into the run, Harrison was forced to leave the role of Elphaba due to an illness, so current standby Jemma Rix and Australian theatre veteran Pippa Grandison began to share
23153-415: The role in late 2002. Earlier that year, the creators recruited New York producer Stone, who began planning the Broadway production. Joe Mantello was engaged as director and Wayne Cilento as choreographer, while designer Eugene Lee created the set and visual style for the production inspired by W. W. Denslow 's original illustrations for Baum's novels and Maguire's concept of the story being told through
23322-404: The role of Glinda and left when the cast changed on January 30, 2022. Helen Woolf returned from maternity leave then and Lucie Jones took over as Elphaba. The musical became the 10th longest-running show in West End history during its 6,762nd performance on April 24, 2024. Wicked began its first UK/Ireland tour on September 12, 2013, at the Palace Theatre in Manchester . It then toured
23491-399: The same chord progression becomes the basis for a romantic duet. And with new lyrics and an altered bridge , the theme forms the core of the song "No One Mourns the Wicked" and its reprises. Schwartz uses the "Unlimited" theme as the second major motif running through the score. Although not included as a titled song, the theme appears as an interlude in several of the musical numbers. In
23660-612: The same leads, after 791 performances and 12 previews. A San Francisco production of Wicked officially opened February 6, 2009, at SHN's Orpheum Theatre . The cast included Teal Wicks as Elphaba, Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda, Nicolas Dromard as Fiyero, Carol Kane as Madame Morrible, David Garrison as the Wizard, Deedee Magno Hall as Nessarose, Tom Flynn as Doctor Dillamond, and Eddy Rioseco as Boq. The production closed on September 5, 2010, with Marcie Dodd as Elphaba and Alli Mauzey as Glinda, after 660 performances and 12 previews. The second national tour of Wicked (called
23829-478: The same time, Stephen Sondheim found success with some of his musicals, as mentioned above. Wicked (musical) Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman . It is a loose adaptation of the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , which in turn is based on L. Frank Baum 's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation . The musical
23998-415: The sentimental romance of operetta, adding technical expertise and the fast-paced staging and naturalistic dialogue style led by director George Abbott . The 1940s began with more hits from Porter, Irving Berlin , Rodgers and Hart, Weill and Gershwin, some with runs over 500 performances as the economy rebounded, but artistic change was in the air. Rodgers and Hammerstein 's Oklahoma! (1943) completed
24167-420: The show's opening number changed the history of musical theatre: "After a verse like that, sung to a buoyant melody, the banalities of the old musical stage became intolerable." It was the first "blockbuster" Broadway show, running a total of 2,212 performances, and was made into a hit film. It remains one of the most frequently produced of the team's projects. William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird wrote that this
24336-458: The show's workshop stage, was Menzel's standby during tryouts, but left before the show moved to Broadway. She would then lead the 1st National Tour opposite Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda. The tryout closed on June 29, 2003, and after extensive retooling, the musical began previews on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre on October 8, 2003, and made its official premiere on October 30. Most of the original production team and cast members remained with
24505-407: The show, although it sometimes consists of a series of songs not directly musically related. Spoken dialogue is generally interspersed between musical numbers, although "sung dialogue" or recitative may be used, especially in so-called " sung-through " musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar , Falsettos , Les Misérables , Evita and Hamilton . Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in
24674-566: The show. On 31 March 2005, the first national tour of Wicked (called the "Emerald City Tour" by the producers) started in Toronto, Ontario , and went on to visit numerous cities throughout the United States and Canada . The original touring cast included Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda, Stephanie J. Block as Elphaba, Derrick Williams as Fiyero, Jenna Leigh Green as Nessarose, Carol Kane as Madame Morrible, Timothy Britten Parker as Doctor Dillamond, Logan Lipton as Boq, and David Garrison as
24843-470: The show. Principal casting changes included Joel Grey as the Wizard, William Youmans as Doctor Dillamond and Christopher Fitzgerald as Boq. On March 12, 2020, the show temporarily suspended production due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Performances resumed on September 14, 2021, with Lindsay Pearce as Elphaba and Ginna Claire Mason as Glinda. Chenoweth made a pre-curtain speech before the grand reopening of
25012-476: The stage, most notably Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita . Others had no dialogue or were otherwise reminiscent of opera, with dramatic, emotional themes; these sometimes started as concept albums and were referred to as rock operas . Shows like Raisin , Dreamgirls , Purlie and The Wiz brought a significant African-American influence to Broadway. More varied musical genres and styles were incorporated into musicals both on and especially off-Broadway. At
25181-402: The standard for what was considered a successful show. These shows were designed for family audiences, a marked contrast from the risqué burlesques, bawdy music hall shows and French operettas that sometimes drew a crowd seeking less wholesome entertainment. Only a few 19th-century musical pieces exceeded the run of The Mikado , such as Dorothy , which opened in 1886 and set a new record with
25350-515: The storytelling, particularly by the principal performers as well as the chorus. Third, musicals often use various genres of popular music or at least popular singing and musical styles. Finally, musicals usually avoid certain operatic conventions. In particular, a musical is almost always performed in the language of its audience. Musicals produced on Broadway or in the West End, for instance, are invariably sung in English, even if they were originally written in another language. While an opera singer
25519-486: The structural outline of the show, creating an original stage piece rather than a strict adaptation of Maguire's work. While the draft followed Maguire's idea of retelling the story of the 1939 film from the perspective of its main villain, the storyline of the stage adaptation "goes far afield" from the novel. Holzman observed in an interview with Playbill that: "It was [Maguire's] brilliant idea to take this hated figure and tell things from her point of view, and to have
25688-623: The summer of 1753, they performed ballad-operas, such as The Beggar's Opera , and ballad-farces. By the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. Other early musical theatre in America consisted of British forms, such as burletta and pantomime, but what a piece was called did not necessarily define what it was. The 1852 Broadway extravaganza The Magic Deer advertised itself as "A Serio Comico Tragico Operatical Historical Extravaganzical Burletical Tale of Enchantment." Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown from around 1850 and did not arrive in
25857-440: The tour. The cast included Ana Gasteyer as Elphaba, Kate Reinders as Glinda, Rondi Reed as Madame Morrible, Kristoffer Cusick as Fiyero, Telly Leung as Boq, Heidi Kettenring as Nessarose and Gene Weygandt as the Wizard. The production closed on January 25, 2009 after 1,500 performances with Dee Roscioli as Elphaba and Annaleigh Ashford as Glinda. An open-ended production also appeared in Los Angeles , California, at
26026-674: The traditions of comic opera and used elements of burlesque and of the Harrigan and Hart pieces. He replaced the bawdy women of burlesque with his "respectable" corps of Gaiety Girls to complete the musical and visual fun. The success of the first of these, In Town (1892) and A Gaiety Girl (1893) set the style for the next three decades. The plots were generally light, romantic "poor maiden loves aristocrat and wins him against all odds" shows, with music by Ivan Caryll , Sidney Jones and Lionel Monckton . These shows were immediately widely copied in America, and Edwardian musical comedy swept away
26195-406: The two friends bid farewell before Elphaba enchants a broom to fly away from the Emerald City ("Defying Gravity"). Sometime later, Elphaba's opposition to the Wizard's regime has earned her the title "The Wicked Witch of the West," while Glinda has been positioned by Madame Morrible as his lead spokesperson. Fiyero becomes Captain of the Wizard's Guard (a position he hopes to use to find Elphaba) but
26364-447: The two witches be roommates in college, but the way in which their friendship develops—and really the whole plot—is different onstage." Schwartz justified the deviation, saying: "Primarily we were interested in the relationship between Galinda—who becomes Glinda—and Elphaba... the friendship of these two women and how their characters lead them to completely different destinies." Other major plot modifications include Fiyero's appearance as
26533-449: The villain in Oklahoma! is a suspected murderer and psychopath; Carousel deals with spousal abuse, thievery, suicide and the afterlife; South Pacific explores miscegenation even more thoroughly than Show Boat ; the hero of The King and I dies onstage; and the backdrop of The Sound of Music is the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938 . The show's creativity stimulated Rodgers and Hammerstein's contemporaries and ushered in
26702-413: The week ending January 2, 2011, the London, Broadway, and both North American touring productions simultaneously broke their respective records for the highest weekly gross. In the final week of 2013, the Broadway production broke this record again, earning $ 3.2 million. In 2016, Wicked surpassed $ 1 billion in total Broadway revenue, joining The Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King as
26871-464: The work's musical or dramatic content in defining into which art form the piece falls. Sondheim said, "I really think that when something plays Broadway it's a musical, and when it plays in an opera house it's opera. That's it. It's the terrain, the countryside, the expectations of the audience that make it one thing or another." There remains an overlap in form between lighter operatic forms and more musically complex or ambitious musicals. In practice, it
27040-504: The works of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by Edwardian musical comedies , which emerged in Britain, and the musical theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan at the turn of the 20th century. The Princess Theatre musicals (1915–1918) were artistic steps forward beyond the revues and other frothy entertainments of the early 20th century and led to such groundbreaking works as Show Boat (1927), Of Thee I Sing (1931) and Oklahoma! (1943). Some of
27209-502: The world of performing. In Melbourne, classes now run for 3 and 4 year olds where they learn the foundations of performing arts . As of 2022, Beginners OnStage classes are held in 4 locations across Brisbane. The Australian Boys Dance Academy (ABDA) was established in 2014 in Melbourne as a safe and supportive environment for boys aged 6 to 18 to learn an array of dance styles. ABDA teaches students Hip-hop , Jazz , Tap , Contemporary , and more. The Talent Company of Australia (TCA)
27378-420: Was A Chinese Honeymoon (1901), which ran for a record-setting 1,074 performances in London and 376 in New York. After the turn of the 20th century, Seymour Hicks joined forces with Edwardes and American producer Charles Frohman to create another decade of popular shows. Other enduring Edwardian musical comedy hits included The Arcadians (1909) and The Quaker Girl (1910). Virtually eliminated from
27547-420: Was a "show, that, like Show Boat , became a milestone, so that later historians writing about important moments in twentieth-century theatre would begin to identify eras according to their relationship to Oklahoma! ". "After Oklahoma! , Rodgers and Hammerstein were the most important contributors to the musical-play form... The examples they set in creating vital plays, often rich with social thought, provided
27716-468: Was dominated by musical theatre standards, such as " Fascinating Rhythm ", " Tea for Two " and " Someone to Watch Over Me ". Many shows were revues , series of sketches and songs with little or no connection between them. The best-known of these were the annual Ziegfeld Follies , spectacular song-and-dance revues on Broadway featuring extravagant sets, elaborate costumes and beautiful chorus girls. These spectacles also raised production values, and mounting
27885-577: Was fresher. Tolerance as an important theme in musicals has continued in recent decades. The final expression of West Side Story left a message of racial tolerance. By the end of the 1960s, musicals became racially integrated, with black and white cast members even covering each other's roles, as they did in Hair . Homosexuality has also been explored in musicals, starting with Hair , and even more overtly in La Cage aux Folles , Falsettos , Rent , Hedwig and
28054-511: Was held in 1999 at the National Theatre in St Kilda - a gala performance much simpler than the more extravagant shows that are put on in the same theatre by YABC students today. As of 2022, YABC classes are held in 4 locations across Brisbane. The Australian Youth Theatre (AYT) is the drama branch of Stage School's performing arts training activities which originally traded in the 1980s as
28223-504: Was praised by critics for its innovations in music and choreography but was less commercially successful than the same year's The Music Man , written and composed by Meredith Willson , which won the Tony Award for Best Musical that year. West Side Story would get a film adaptation in 1961, which proved successful both critically and commercially. Laurents and Sondheim teamed up again for Gypsy (1959), with Jule Styne providing
28392-546: Was produced by OCESA Teatro , and opened on 17 October 2013 at the Teatro Telcel, closing in January 2015. In late August 2024, with the release of the new Wicked movie, it was announced that Danna Paola and Cecilia de la Cueva will dub the voices and singing of Elphaba and Glinda respectively, in Spanish, reprising the roles they both played on stage in 2013. Renamed Wicked: Die Hexen von Oz ( Wicked: The Witches of Oz ),
28561-425: Was the French operetta The Chimes of Normandy in 1878 (705 performances). English comic opera adopted many of the successful ideas of European operetta, none more successfully than the series of more than a dozen long-running Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and The Mikado (1885). These were sensations on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australia and helped to raise
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