Wicked!

And not just any production of Wicked: the DUTCH! YAY 🙂

Already was confirmed that Stage Entertainment/Joop van den Ende Theaterproducties was planning on creating a Dutch production of Wicked, but as they’ve produced all major musicals in Holland, that didn’t came as a surprise.

Immediately rumours started about the cast. Auditions weren’t until November 2010, but every Dutch musical fan had their favourites for Elphaba, G(a)linda and Fiyero 🙂

Recently was confirmed that Willemijn Verkaik will play Elphaba for the first four months – I guess they count on her to attract the public – after which she will step down and another actress will take over.

Willemijn is *sigh* so good! She was cast as Elphaba in the original German production, which opened in Stuttgart in 2007. She went on to play the part in Oberhausen (Germany) when it opened there in March 2010. She has an amazing voice and – from what I can tell, as German isn’t my first language, but still… – she speaks German like the Germans and her Elphaba is great! In November 2010, she was chosen as the ‘Favorite current Elphaba‘ in a poll where 16.500 people voted.
We have tried to see her in Germany, but it wasn’t to be. Now I can look forward to seeing her in Holland though! *does happy dance*

Yesterday was announced that Jim Bakkum will play Fiyero. After being runner up in Idols (2003) he released several records and was mostly known as popsinger. He spread his wings and did some TV work and then was cast as Danny Zuko in Grease, followed by Nick Piazza in Fame and Link Larkin in Hairspray.
And now he’ll be Fiyero. Good choice IMHO. He certainly has the looks and I’m confident that the voice will be there too.

Wicked will play in the Circustheater in Scheveningen, where Mary Poppins currently is running. MP is an ‘open end’ production, the show will stay on until ticket sales drop down, so there isn’t a confirmed date for Wicked yet. But, knowing how much needs to be arranged before opening night, I’m sure there is a date known ‘somewhere’. I’ll get back to you on that one 🙂

Here’s a short video of the German Wicked with Willemijn as Elphaba