More than 20 years on Broadway. Two major films. Touring shows. "Wicked" has been an entertainment phenomenon for a generation.
"Wicked’s" producer, Marc Platt, credits his music education at Pikesville High School in Baltimore County for helping to put him on the path to telling stories on the stage and screen.
Outside the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore earlier this week, people were going in to see "Wicked," which wraps up its fifth run in town this weekend.
Cindy O’Leary was seeing it for the third time.
“It’s just an incredible show and I love all the songs,” O’Leary said.
By the time the show closes at the Hippodrome on Sunday, about 325,000 tickets would have been sold during its five runs.
"Wicked" is one of the highest grossing Broadway shows in history. According to Billboard, the movie "Wicked" has grossed more than $750 million worldwide. The second movie, "Wicked: For Good," has made more than $518 million.
About ten miles away from the Hippodrome is where Marc Platt, "Wicked’s" producer, grew up. He is a Pikesville High School graduate, class of 1975. He was in the choir and directed a production of "Bye Bye Birdie" that included both students and faculty.
“Sort of without me realizing it at the time introduced me to skill sets that took advantage of what I love doing which was story telling,” Platt said.
He remembers that music was woven into the curriculum. For instance, his French teacher taught the class some of the language in opera.
Platt said, “To have those opportunities as a student, I would say, was just as an important part of my education as math and science and English and literature that I experienced during those years at Pikesville.”
Platt said his parents got him to performances at the Lyric Baltimore and Baltimore Center Stage and the long-gone Painters Mill Theatre in Owings Mills. He said that kind of collective story telling helps to make us human and we need it in our echo-chambered, fractured world
Platt said, “The imperative that we find the kind of cultural urgency that brings folks together, to have a collective experience to me is more important than ever and it’s part of why I continue to do what I do.”
"Wicked" retells "The Wizard of Oz." But in this version the green-skinned witch Elphaba is a misunderstood outcast. The wizard is an authoritarian fraud. And Elphaba’s friendship with Glinda the Good is, well, complicated.
Platt said "Wicked’s" story of friendship, good versus evil and speaking truth to power, continues to resonate in the show’s third decade.
Platt said, “This was written before social media existed and before the term ‘fake news’ was a term. And yet it still was a story about where’s the truth?”
Near the end of "Wicked," Elphaba and Glinda sing about their friendship. "For Good" has become a staple at graduations, weddings and memorial services.
Platt said, “No one can predict even with the best of intentions and thoughts when something becomes a phenomenon, so I don’t know if I had a vision that 20, 25 years later 'Wicked' would still be speaking to folks and entertaining folks the way it does.”
At the Hippodrome, five-year-old Lily Naumann was ready to be entertained.
Dressed in her green Elphaba nightgown, she was seeing "Wicked" on stage for the first time but she knew the deal because she’s seen the movies.
Lily said, “I like Elphaba because she has the broom and she can read the grimmerie.”
For the uninitiated, the grimmerie is a book of spells.
Platt said, “The warmth of the embrace of our audience, the passion and the protectiveness our audience feels for the characters and for the songs and how much it means to people is certainly the greatest reward that we’ve all encountered through our journey with 'Wicked.'”
