Wicked | Song List | Cast List | Production | On Tour

Director : Joe Mantello

Joe Mantello is currently directing Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the revival comedy The Odd Couple at the Brooks Atkinson Theater on Broadway.

Directing credits:
Glengarry Glen Ross, Assassins (Tony Award), Wicked, Take Me Out (Tony Award), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, A Man of No Importance, Design for Living, Terrence McNally and Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking for the San Francisco Opera, The Vagina Monologues, Another American: Asking and Telling, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Proposals, The Mineola Twins, Corpus Christi, Mizlansky/Zilinsly or “Shmucks,” Blue Window, God’s Heart, The Santaland Diaries, Lillian, Snakebit, Three Hotels and Imagining Brad. Film: Love! Valour! Compassion!

Acting credits:
Angels in America (Tony nomination) and The Baltimore Waltz. He is the recipient of Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Clarence Derwent, Obieand Joe A. Callaway Awards.

Music & Lyrics : Stephen Schwartz

Stephen Schwartz was born in New York City on March 6, 1948. He studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School of Music while in high school and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 with a B.F.A. in Drama. Upon coming back to live in New York City, he went to work as a producer for RCA Records, but shortly thereafter began to work in the Broadway theatre.

His first major credit was the title song for the play BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE; the song was eventually used in the movie version as well.

In 1971, he wrote the music and new lyrics for GODSPELL, for which he won several awards including two Grammys. This was followed by the English texts, in collaboration with Leonard Bernstein, for Bernstein's MASS, which opened the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The following year, he wrote the music and lyrics for PIPPIN and two years later, THE MAGIC SHOW. At one point, GODSPELL, PIPPIN, and THE MAGIC SHOW were all running on Broadway simultaneously.

He next wrote the music and lyrics for THE BAKER'S WIFE, followed by a musical version of Studs Terkel's WORKING, to which he contributed four songs, and which he also adapted and directed, winning the Drama Desk Award as best director. He also co-directed the television production, which was presented as part of the PBS "American Playhouse" series.

Next came songs for a one-act musical for children, CAPTAIN LOUIE, and a children's book, THE PERFECT PEACH. He then wrote music for three of the songs in the Off-Broadway revue, PERSONALS, lyrics to Charles Strouse's music for RAGS, and music and lyrics for CHILDREN OF EDEN.

He then began working in film, collaborating with composer Alan Menken on the scores for the Disney animated features POCAHONTAS, for which he received two Academy Awards and another Grammy, and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. He also provided songs for DreamWorks' first animated feature, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, for which he won another Academy Award for the song "When You Believe".

Mr. Schwartz provided music and lyrics for the original television musical, GEPPETTO, seen on The Wonderful World of Disney. Recently, he released two CDs on which he sings new songs, entitled RELUCTANT PILGRIM and UNCHARTED TERRITORY.

Mr. Schwartz's most recent musical, WICKED, opened in the fall of 2003 and is currently running on Broadway at the Gershwin Theater.

Under the auspices of the ASCAP Foundation, he runs musical theatre workshops in New York and Los Angeles, and serves on the ASCAP board; he is also a member of the Council of the Dramatists' Guild.

Script : Winnie Holzman

Winnie Holzman was born in New York City and raised on Long Island. She attended Princeton University where she majored in English & creative writing. She received numerous poetry awards, including the Academy of American Poets Prize and the Ward Prize. After college, Winnie moved to New York City, studied acting and collaborated on several plays. Later the executive producer of Thirtysomething liked the script she submitted and immediately hired her.

Stephen Schwartz explained the rest of her story in a newsletter in 2000: "I am writing music and lyrics for WICKED and Winnie Holzman is writing the book. Winnie began her career by writing book and lyrics for an off-Broadway musical called BIRDS OF PARADISE, but shortly thereafter moved to Los Angeles with her husband, actor Paul Dooley. Since then, she has mostly written for television, and what made me think of her for this project is a wonderful television series she created and wrote called MY SO-CALLED LIFE. ...Winnie is particularly good at writing female characters who are funny, real and believable, and that seemed to me to be particularly apt for a show like WICKED."--Stephen Schwartz

Reviewer Pat Craig wrote of the San Francisco production of Wicked, "...the attitude of Holzman's script has the sort of comic edginess that could make the show appeal to a wider audience, one which may not necessarily be in the thrall of classic Broadway musicals. In short, it ain't all June and moon here." (Contra Costa Times)

Gregory Maguire : Author

In 1995 acclaimed children’s author Gregory Maguire created an instant modern classic with the publication of his debut adult novel Wicked, a richly woven tale that took readers to the other, darker side of the rainbow. In it Maguire told the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and her odyssey through the complex Land of Oz—where Animals, creatures with voices, souls and minds, are persecuted and threatened with exile; where the Wizard’s secret police maintain order and quash dissent; and where people call you wicked if you tell the truth.

Ten years later, the book remains a huge hit with well over one million copies in print.

A PREQUEL?

Although Maguire based his tale on L. Frank Baum's books, he does not consider his book a prequel to The Wizard of Oz movie or book. He said, "It's not a retelling of The Wizard of Oz and it's not really a prequel. It's another story of another life." (June 29, New York Times)

A SEQUEL: Son of a Witch

Now Maguire returns to Oz in the long anticipated sequel to the beloved and hugely successful bestseller that also served as the basis for Broadway’s current #1 smash musical.

When a Witch dies—not as a crone, withered and incapable, but as a woman in her prime, at the height of her passion and prowess—too much is left unsaid. What might have happened had Elphaba lived? Of her campaigns in defense of the Animals, of her appetite for justice, of her talent for magic itself, what good might have come? If every death is a tragedy, the death of a woman in her prime keenly bereaves the whole world.

Stephen Oremus : Musical director

Credits:
Music directed/arranged/orchestrated Avenue Q on Broadway and Jonathan Larson's tick.tick.BOOM! (Assoc. Producer, Original Cast Recording) Off-Broadway, the national tour, and in Seoul, Korea. He was vocal arranger and music supervisor for Signed, Sealed, Delivered - The Music of Stevie Wonder (w/ Chaka Khan, Melissa Manchester, and Peabo Bryson) at the Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas. He served as music director for Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party at Manhattan Theatre Club (original cast recording) and was music director of the national tour of Rent. Regionally: Into the Woods (Ordway); Dorian (World Premiere, Goodspeed); A Little Night Music; Jesus Christ Superstar (w/ Billy Porter and Emily Skinner); Nite Club Confidential (w/ Barbara Eden); The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular in Myrtle Beach and Nashville. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music, Boston.