As of October 30, 2025 — the show’s 22nd anniversary — Wicked had played 8,559 Broadway performances and counting. That’s how many times Glinda has made her spectacular entrance in a bubble and cheekily asked, “It’s good to see me, isn’t it?” It is.

Wicked now stands as the fourth-longest-running show in Broadway history. The now-closed The Phantom of the Opera holds the top spot with 13,981 performances. The currently running Chicago and The Lion King follow, each with over 11,000.

Across the pond, Wicked is the ninth-longest-running show in London’s West End, where it's run since 2006.

Over 15 million people have seen Wicked on Broadway since it began performances in the fall of 2003. Beyond the Gershwin Theatre, the count worldwide soars up to 72 million.

Wicked has captivated audiences in 16 countries around the world, including Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, The Philippines, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K. The musical has also been translated into a half-dozen languages for international productions.

That goes to show, Wicked's universal themes of friendship, identity, and courage resonate globally. And no matter how you say it, Elphaba’s Act 1 closer, “Defying Gravity,” electrifies.

Following a pre-Broadway run at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre in May 2003, Wicked began NYC performances on October 8 at the Gershwin Theatre, where it's played ever since. It's the longest-running show in that venue's history. (Hey, when you find a great place in NYC, you don't move!)

Shuttered alongside the rest of Broadway during the pandemic, the Gershwin reopened in 2021 after 18 months with a welcome-back speech from Chenoweth: “There’s no place like home.”

Twenty years after plans for a Wicked film were first announced, director Jon M. Chu's two-part movie musical finally flew into theatres. Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (2025) star Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda. The films expanded the story and songs, earning strong acclaim and seven Oscar nominations (so far) for performances, design, and original music.

Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel’s names flew above the title in the original Playbill (no bubble or broom required, just ink), signaling star power and equality in their respective roles of Glinda and Elphaba.

The pair led a cast of over 30 performers, and both were nominated for the Best Leading Actress Tony Award (Menzel won). Since then, there have been 26 more full-time Elphabas and 20 more Glindas on Broadway, plus many more understudies and standbys who've stepped into the roles.

On June 6, 2024, Wicked went into Radio City Music Hall with 10 Tony Award nominations and left with 3 wins. Menzel won for Best Leading Actress (over Chenoweth and others), and the show also won for its lavish set by Eugene Lee and costumes by Susan Hilferty.

It’s good to hear it, isn’t it? Wicked won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2004, besting Assassins, Avenue Q, The Boy from Oz, and Wonderful Town.

In 2026, the Wicked movie musical is up for four Grammys: Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (for Erivo and Grande's "Defying Gravity"), and Best Instrumental Composition (for "Train to Emerald City").

Wicked on Broadway features 21 songs, including reprises. “Defying Gravity,” Elphaba's Act 1 showstopper; “Popular,” Glinda’s catchy “makeover” number; and “For Good,” an emotional Act 2 duet, are a few favorites.

Additionally, Stephen Schwartz wrote two new songs for Wicked: For Good: “No Place Like Home,” performed by Erivo as Elphaba, and “The Girl in the Bubble,” sung by Grande as Glinda.

L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900, which means the story of displaced Kansas girl Dorothy Gale and the witches of Oz has been flying around for more than a century.

The book inspired the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie starring Judy Garland and, later, Gregory Maguire’s 1995 bestselling book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The book ingeniously imagines events in Oz before Dorothy crash-landed there, and it's the basis for the Wicked musical.

On stage, costumes visually reinforce character and theme. Glinda’s sparkling, pastel gowns reflect charm and social grace, and her bubble dress is adorned with 68,200 sequins.

In contrast, Elphaba’s dark, structured, and dramatic outfits emphasize her strength and outsider status. Her skirt alone uses 290 yards of bias-cut ruffles in 37 fabrics.

Wicked immerses audiences in Oz with invented words spoken by the Ozians, enriching its fantastical world. The Grimmerie, Wicked’s official companion book, lists nearly three dozen such terms from the Broadway script, like "thrillifying" (super exciting), "rejoicify" (celebrate), and "degreenify" (remove something green).

Maybe it is easy being green. On Broadway, every actress who plays Elphaba applies the same base shade of green body paint — MAC Chromacake in Landscape Green — to ensure consistency under stage lighting. Secondary makeup hues vary by each actress and her skin tone.

Everyone deserves the chance to fly, and even a wicked witch needs a leg up to achieve liftoff on Broadway. The staging of "Defying Gravity" uses a hydraulic launch system (or “cherry-picker” lift) under a false skirt attached to Elphaba’s costume to achieve the illusion of flight. Poof!