There was great excitement (and much handbag whacking) within the editorial team when a handful of tickets landed on our desks for the new Theatre performance of Wicked! at London's Apollo theatre. It stormed Broadway in New York, but will UK audiences appreciate the show? Entertainment editor Clare Spurrell went to find out

I am a die-hard Oz fan. That and Bedknobs and Broomsticks were my two staples as a kid. So although excited, I was also concerned that unless Wicked! proved to be really something special, it would risk sullying the memory of The Wizard of Oz, and therefore ignite the wrath of, well, me.

However, if audiences in the US are anything to go by, I need not worry. Having already grossed an astonishing £1.4 million a week on Broadway, and with the show's album going platinum a year ago - it's little wonder that advance sales have already hit the £5 million mark over here in the UK.

Based on the book Wicked by Gregory Maguire, the story is the precursor to that of The Wizard of Oz, and chronicles the pre-Dorothy days of the Good Witch, Glinda (the white one), and her supposed nemesis, the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (the green one).

Sent to the same school as teenagers, they end up unlikely friends during an era of growing social and political instability. A time where differences such as the colour of your skin (in this case, green) marks you an outcast, where evil propaganda controls the masses and where diversity is quelled and silenced (especially if you also happen to be a goat).

Politics aside, the show is filled with laugh-out-loud humour, catchy songs and some skin tingling solo's from the two leads Kerry Ellis(Elphaba) and Helen Dallimore (Glinda). The sets and costumes are awesome, lavish and impressive (somewhere between Cats and Jean Paul Gautier's designs for The Fifth Element) ensuring that audiences are moved slickly and smoothly from scene to scene. A young and energetic chorus line keep audiences revved up, and numbers such as 'Defying Gravity', 'I'm Not That Girl' and Glinda's 'Popular' are sure to leave you humming all the way home.

With the art deco glamour of the Emerald City, flying monkeys, levitating witches, hilarious one-liners, a touch of romance and the odd tear jerker, Wicked! is set to suit audiences both old and young. And thankfully, despite the occassional reference to the original film, I skipped home in my ruby red slippers with all childhood memories of The Wizard of Oz left intact.

Discover WICKED at the Apollo Theatre in Victoria, London SW1 0870 400 0751. Book tickets here

Picture credits:
2007 London Cast by Tristram Kenton