Poster issued in 2008 advertising the musical Wicked which opened at the Apollo Theatre Victoria, 27 September 2006.

Poster on gloss finish card, with a central photographic image of the green-skinned Elphaba Thropp with scarlet lips, her hat over her eyes, being whispered to by the white witch Galinda on the right of the poster, in profile. With the strap line at the top: 'A GREAT BIG LUSCIOUS BROADWAY EXTRAVAGANZA. This hit musical is just as powerful and subversive as ever. A Fabulous night out.' London Evening Standard.' The title WICKED is at the bottom right, with the name of the theatre and the green witch logo.

Given by Dewynters PLC

Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. The story is based on the best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, a re-imagining of L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz. The Broadway production began previews at the George Gershwin Theatre on October 8, 2003, and officially opened on October 30. The first international production of Wicked previewed on September 7, 2006 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London's West End with an official opening of September 27, 2006. The West End production reunited the show's original creative team with its Tony Award-winning star, Idina Menzel. Other original London cast members included Australian Helen Dallimore as Glinda, Miriam Margolyes as Madame Morrible, Martin Ball as Doctor Dillamond, Adam Garcia as Fiyero, James Gillan as Boq, Katie Rowley Jones as Nessarose and Nigel Planer as the Wizard.

'W LPL Graphics adapted by Dewynters, London. Based on an original concept by Serino Coyne, New York.'

High-quality advertising is a very important marketing tool, especially for the West End theatre. This poster was produced by Dewynters PLC which produces a large percentage of the publicity for West End productions, and aims to produce original and innovative posters which capture the attention of their intended audience. In many cases the images, or part of the images, are intended to act as an instant reminder of the production to people seeing the posters briefly, for example, when they are pasted on buses. Examples of this 'logo' approach to poster design are the eyes that featured in posters for Cats or the mask on the poster for The Phantom of the Opera.

S.151-2008