SOUTHAMPTON shall be spellbound once more as the sensational West End and Broadway phenomenon Wicked flies back into the city next year.

The spectacular, multi record-breaking and critically acclaimed touring production will return to Mayflower Theatre for four weeks only from Wednesday 3 to Saturday 27 October 2018. Tickets go on sale from Friday 29 September at 10.30am.

One of the most successful productions in the venue’s history, Wicked was previously seen by over 65,000 people - equivalent to 1 in 4 people in Southampton - during its celebrated engagement in October/November 2014.

Executive Producer Michael McCabe said: “We were overwhelmed by the incredible response from audiences and critics alike when we first brought Wicked to Southampton in 2014 and we’re really delighted to return to this prestigious venue.”

Mayflower Theatre’s Chief Executive, Michael Ockwell said: “I am very pleased that one of our most successful musicals, Wicked returns next year just after we open our newly refurbished auditorium. Our audiences took the show to their hearts in 2014 and I am sure they will defy gravity to return to Oz and see Wicked again next October”.

Acclaimed as “one of the greatest musicals of our time” (Daily Mail), “the hit musical with brains, heart and courage” (The Sunday Telegraph) and “a magical adventure that casts its spell on young and old” (Metro), Wicked tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two sorcery students and their extraordinary adventures in Oz, which will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West. Based on the acclaimed, best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire that ingeniously re-imagines the stories and characters originally created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, Wicked has become a global phenomenon featuring astounding technical wizardry, stunning costumes, a compelling ‘untold’ story and show-stopping songs, including the incredible ‘Defying Gravity’.

A three-time winner of the theatregoer-voted WhatsOnStage Award for ‘Best West End Show’ and a two-time winner of the Olivier Audience Award, Wicked played a fifteen-city tour of the UK & Ireland from September 2013 - July 2015, winning five-star rave reviews at every venue. It resumed touring in July 2016 to embark on a major international tour including engagements in Singapore, Hong Kong, Manila, Shanghai and Beijing. This spectacular production will also play an engagement in Zurich immediately prior to its return to the UK & Ireland.

Wicked is already the 16th longest running show in West End theatre history and is currently celebrating 11 remarkable years at London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre, where it continues an open-ended run. Around the world, Wicked has now been seen by over 53 million people in 15 countries, and won over 100 major awards.

Wicked has music and lyrics by multi Grammy and Academy Award-winner Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Disney’s Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Enchanted and, for DreamWorks, The Prince of Egypt) and is based on the novel ‘Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’ by Gregory Maguire and adapted for the stage by Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life). Musical staging is by Tony Award-winner Wayne Cilento and the production is directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello.

Wicked is produced around the world by Marc Platt, Universal Stage Productions, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone. Executive Producer (UK & Ireland) Michael McCabe.

Casting for the 2018 UK & Ireland Tour is to be announced in the coming weeks.