Ariana Grande's Wicked is back in the musical...The original team came to Korea after 13 years
Jul 09, 2025
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'The Most Successful Musical in History" (BBC)," is a huge success by any measure" (The New York Times), "'Wicked' is an ever-growing wonder itself" (Los Angeles Times). Foreign media describe the musical 'Wicked', which is still popular around the world 22 years after its premiere in 2003. Beyond the long run record, the green witch's box office craze, which is still breaking into new box office records, is called 'Blockbuster Musical' in terms of scale and influence.
The first nine consecutive years to top Broadway history, 'Wicked' was called "The Musical Defining Solidarity" (The New York Times) when it premiered. And now, attention is focused on how far the possibility of musical success can be expanded. During Christmas week, the last week of December 2024, it recorded $5.037,392 (about 7.22 billion won), making it the first work in Broadway history to overcome the $5 million barrier. Breaking a fresh $4.3 million set at Christmas Week in 2023, 'Wicked' led the market to a head start, leading Broadway to its best total weekly box office record, which had been contracted in the wake of the pandemic.
Then, in the West End, it set a record for the highest weekly sales in history with 1.71,637 pounds (about 3.2 billion won) in the first week of January 2025. The box office record news, which began at the end of the year 'Wicked', proved its unabated popularity. Currently, more than 70 million people in 16 countries around the world have watched and recorded sales of $6 billion, ranking second in Broadway musical history and fourth in longest-running musical with 7486 performances in April 2023. Of the top five Broadway musicals, 'Wicked' is the only premiere since the 2000s.
It's not just a musical. The 'Wicked' craze, which is expanding its scope to movies, publications, and albums, is called 'Broadway Sensation'. The 2024 film version of the same name starred Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and recorded a worldwide box office hit of $756,224,162 (box office mock count). This is the highest box office record ever made into a movie of a musical.
Gregory Maguire's novel, published in 1995, has sold more than 6 million copies so far, 5.5 million of which are records since the musical's premiere and again topped the New York Times bestseller list in 2024. The musical OST, written and composed by Stephen Schwarz, has sold more than 4 million copies and has been certified as 'Triple Platinum'. A new 'Ojian' (a reference to Wicked's fandom) that is loved by the power of works that enjoy a wide range of popularity regardless of gender or age and comes across various media goes to the venue and is considered one of the most popular performances in the world in name and reality.
It is no exaggeration to say that the box office power that breaks all records and the cultural impact that influences various cultural genres are the best hit content born this century. A performance in Korea, where you can experience the world-famous work Wicked in the original language at the concert hall, will be performed at Blue Square Shinhan Card Hall from the 12th. It is the first performance in Korea in 13 years since its premiere in Korea in 2012, and has been popular and successful every season, and is considered one of this summer's 'number one' musical.
Based on Gregory Maguire's novel that overturned the classic Wicked, which contains a pleasant story and deep philosophy, Wicked is a rare work that has achieved both popularity and artistry by winning more than 100 awards at world-class awards such as the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Grammy Award. You can experience a huge stage mechanism that completes sophisticated and magical fantasy, including a 12.4-meter-long time dragon, flying monkey, and 350 beautiful costumes, as well as Stephen Schwarz's beautiful music such as 'D-file Gravity', 'Popular', and 'Pogut'.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.