Curtain Draws on 'Wicked'

By Tim State in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 25, 2009 4:17PM

After today’s sold-out matinee, “Wicked” will close after its 3-1/2 year run and 1,500 performances. The show has been seen by more than 2.9 million people here in Chicago, and has earned more than $210 million in box office revenue.

" 'Wicked' has had an incredibly positive effect on how Chicago is viewed as a long-run town," said Lou Raizin, president of Broadway in Chicago. "It is a huge show that has had to operate at a very high gross to keep going. And it continued to run all these years with very full, often sold-out houses, doing incredibly strong business despite the economic downturn. It was so successful, in fact, that we had to keep a number of other shows in a holding pattern because we just didn't have the theater real estate for them to land here."

“Wicked” is being celebrated by show producers for helping to define Chicago as a serious theatre market, proving that the investment in renewing the Loop’s theatre district was worth the return. [S-T]