Gina Beck and Alison Luff are the witches of Oz in Wicked, returning to Tulsa this month. Photo by Joan Marcus, courtesy Celebrity Attractions.
Gina Beck and Alison Luff are the witches of Oz in Wicked, returning to Tulsa this month. Photo by Joan Marcus, courtesy Celebrity Attractions.

Opens Wednesday, June 18

There’s something about a show that drums up big excitement even after it has played town more than a few times. Of course, not all musicals are truly Wicked.

The 2003 hit Broadway production that starred Broken Arrow sweetheart Kristin Chenoweth along with Frozen’s Idina Menzel in its original cast has toured the world a few times over and made its way to Oklahoma several times, but when it returns for a three-week engagement this month, it will be as if it was the first.

Celebrity Attractions brings the sparkling fantasy musical Wicked back to the Tulsa Performing Arts Center’s Chapman Music Hall.

Based on the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, Wicked the musical tells a different side of Frank L. Baum’s classic The Wizard of Oz of how two unlikely friends, Elphaba and Galinda, grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. While Elphaba is spirited and fiercely independent, Glinda is bubbly and popular. A love triangle drives a wedge between them, but it takes the political underpinnings of Oz to make them enemies. But there’s more to good and evil in this tale of friendship, power, loyalty and love.

Wicked reveals more about the characters of Oz and interjects the story with humor, lavish costumes, effects and sets along with the outstanding original music and lyrics by award-winning composer Stephen Schwartz.

Wicked plays the Tulsa PAC, 101 E. Third St., Tulsa, June 18-July 6. Tickets are $35-$175 at www.celebrityattractions.com. Visit the site to learn about Celebrity Attractions’ next season of shows headed for Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

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