Wicked named as next Rockhampton Regional Council musical

Published on 28 June 2016

After its record-breaking production of Mary Poppins earlier this year, Rockhampton Regional Council will produce the worldwide hit musical Wicked at the Pilbeam Theatre in 2017, Cr Rose Swadling, Chair of Rockhampton Regional Council’s Community Services Committee, has announced.

Awe inspiring and spectacular, Wicked is the untold story of the witches of Oz. It premiered in San Francisco in 2003 and has since become a worldwide hit.

“Mary Poppins was a spectacular musical and it was great to see the support the community gave our talented local performers,” Cr Swadling said.

“I am very excited to be able to announce that director Wayne Scott Kermond and choreographer Katie Kermond will return to head the creative team of Wicked at the Pilbeam Theatre in 2017.”

Long before Dorothy dropped in to the land of Oz, two other girls met. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked tells the enthralling story of two unlikely friends and how they became the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

Director Wayne Scott Kermond, who will play the Wizard in the Riverside Theatre Sydney production of Wicked in July-August this year, said that the musical has been described as being a collision of Legally Blonde and Harry Potter— with more music and less menace!

“Wicked weaves very intricate story lines that explain how certain aspects of The Wizard of Oz that we have taken for granted actually came to be and shows us that things might not always be as they seem,” Wayne said.

Wicked was created by Academy Award-winning American lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz whose credits include Godspell and Pippin.

Wicked will open at the Pilbeam Theatre on 7 April, 2017.

Auditions will be held from Sunday 11 to Wednesday 14 September, 2016.