The Stage

Wicked smashes ticket sales records

Published Thursday 9 March 2006 at 11:55 by Nuala Calvi

Forthcoming West End musical Wicked has broken London box office records to sell £100,000 of tickets in its first hour, with theatregoers queuing from 6.30am in the morning to secure a purchase.

The Broadway show, which opens at London’s Apollo Victoria on September 27, tells the tale of what happened to the Wicked Witch of the West before the story of The Wizard of Oz began.

David Ian, global theatrical chairman for Live Nation, which owns the Apollo, said: “We haven’t had experience of that amount of tickets being sold in one hour before. There has been no star casting announced, just the title - so for box office records to be broken already it’s a phenomenal reaction.”

Since ticket sales opened on March 5, the show has sold over £1.8 million worth.

Executive producer Michael McCabe said: “In over 20 years I have never seen such an incredible reaction as this from day one.”