Nearly 14 million theatregoers have been swept off to Oz as Wicked celebrates 20 years in London, confirming its place among the most successful productions in West End history.
The musical has made its home at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in Victoria since 2006, and will mark two decades in the capital with a weekend of celebration performances, crowned by a special gala show on Sunday, September 27.
Saturday, September 26 brings a “Pink” matinee dedicated to Glinda and a “Green” evening performance honouring Elphaba, before the anniversary gala takes centre stage the following day.
The figures behind the milestone are remarkable. With more than 7,500 performances under its belt, the production has become the ninth longest-running show the West End has ever seen, packing out the Victoria venue night after night for twenty years.
Emma Kingston, the current Elphaba, puts the show’s staying power down to a story that refuses to age. “I think what makes people come back to this show is that the story is so relevant and relatable,” she said.
Kingston recalled hearing composer Stephen Schwartz make the same point on a podcast recently. “He almost wishes the story wasn’t still so relatable because the world is the way that it is, but it is,” she said.
“When people come and see the show, they get the sheer escapism of the lights and beauty and costumes and amazing songs and story, and yet they go away and it’s thought-provoking,” she added. “They think, ‘oh maybe something I’ve seen is mirroring what is going on in the world today’… I think that is what makes people come back and see the show, and also makes them leave thinking about how they can make their part of the world that little bit better and more accepting.”
Playing the green-skinned witch comes with one of musical theatre’s great thrills. “There is nothing quite like singing Defying Gravity while literally defying gravity — that’s pretty cool,” Kingston said.
For Zizi Strallen, who plays Glinda, the anniversary carries a personal symmetry. “I actually came and saw the show when I was 15 with the original London cast and now I can’t believe I get to be the Glinda that comes down in that bubble on the 20th anniversary,” she said.
“I think it’s incredible that people are still coming to hear these beautiful songs and wonderful story — though it’s no surprise because it’s wonderful.”
Jordan Litz, the longest-serving Fiyero in the production’s history with more than 1,700 performances to his name, said sharing the stage with six different pairings of witches had kept the role fresh throughout his years in Oz.
Adapted from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, Wicked imagines the early lives of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good, tracing an unlikely friendship forged long before Dorothy’s house lands in Oz.
The London staging followed the original Broadway production, which opened in 2003 with Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda — performances that turned both actresses into theatre legends.
The anniversary arrives as theatre etiquette finds itself in the spotlight, after Cate Blanchett urged a National Theatre audience to put their phones away and “be together and be present”.
Wicked’s cultural footprint has grown far beyond the stage thanks to Jon M Chu’s two-part film adaptation, with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Ariana Grande as Glinda, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard. The first film, released in 2024, earned an Academy Award nomination for best picture, while the second instalment, Wicked: For Good, followed in 2025 — arriving as London’s own film scene enjoys a moment in the spotlight with the first TW2 Film Festival in Twickenham.
The show’s pulling power also underlines the West End’s value to the capital’s visitor economy, at a time when City Hall is backing an overnight visitor levy for London hotels.
Twenty years on, the witches of Oz show no sign of loosening their hold on London. As the gala lights rise at the Apollo Victoria on Sunday, thousands more will take their seats — many of them returning, just as Kingston predicted, to see how the story plays out one more time.
