Millions of theatre fans from around the world are celebrating today as the day the musical WICKED premiered on Broadway.
30 October will officially become National Wicked Day in honor of the musical’s debut at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre on 30 October2003.
This is the first time that a Broadway musical will have its own official day in the National Day Calendar, joining other National Day celebrations such as National Barbie Day (9 March), National Star Trek Day (8 September) and National Acne Positivity Day (1 September).
Wasn’t sure why this musical specifically was getting a day. There have been other, more long-running shows that don’t have a day as far as I know. Then I read the article.
WICKED is seen by more people each week than any other show, making it Broadway’s most popular musical, partially due to the fact that the Gershwin Theatre is the biggest theatre on Broadway. The theatre is a full city block with 1,926 seats!
If they don’t mean just the most popular musical running now, but the most popular musical period, yeah, makes sense this one is getting a day.
Yeah, the Gershwin is pretty big (especially by Broadway standards). It's also one of the few Broadway theatres that has a decent sized foyer!
Both Chicago and The Lion King have been running longer than Wicked, but maybe it just came down to which show's publicity department had the idea and reached out to National Day Calendar people?