Wicked’s Hong Kong run will include new scenes Broadway and West End didn’t get

The wait is over. Thirteen years after its debut on Broadway, the smash hit musical Wicked is finally arriving in town for a run of almost two months starting from December 8 at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts’ Lyric Theatre in Wan Chai.

The prequel to the 1939 screen classic The Wizard of Oz, Wicked was written by multi-Grammy and Academy Award-winner Stephen Schwartz and is billed as the “untold story” of the film’s two witches – Elphaba, the “wicked witch of the West”, and Galinda, who goes on to become the “good witch”. The musical features popular songs such as Defying Gravity and For Good.

The touring show – which finished its run in Singapore just days ago and will move on to Manila after Hong Kong – is more slickly produced than the original, according to resident director Leigh Constantine. She says nothing has been taken out of the travelling production that audiences could see only on Broadway or in the West End. In fact, there’s added elements, Constantine says, citing flying monkeys and more challenging choreography, arranged by James Lynn Abbott.

The cast can undoubtedly be described as world-class. Constantine says a third of all professional stage performers in Britain applied for the auditions, which means the 30 cast members were picked from more than 3,000 applicants.

The two lead roles – originally played on Broadway by Idina Menzel (best known for her runaway hit Let It Go from the 2013 Disney animation Frozen) and Kristin Chenoweth – went to Jacqueline Hughes (Elphaba) and Carly Anderson (Glinda).

“Elphaba is very misunderstood; she’s humorous, witty and she’s very hot-headed, a bit like myself. But it’s such a beautiful story to tell, the challenges she faces and combats every time,” says Hughes, whose green-faced character rises above discrimination and rejection, and connects with anyone who has ever struggled with being different.