WICKED Broadway and West End differences | how the musical differs in London and New York

West End Nessa here!! First, so cool to hear about all the differences between us and Broadway, I had no idea! But on the Witch’s Father being the same performer as Doctor Dillamond, here’s a little Wicked London trivia! Ordinarily Doctor Dillamnd is played by the incredible Simeon Truby, but his 1st cover is Harry Mills, who day to day plays Frex. As these roles don’t overlap, when Harry is playing Dillamond (as he was when you came), he plays both characters! 💚

Playbills are free? I always wondered how Americans manage to pay for a program at every show. The fact that they're free blew my mind!

Oh, I am so excited for this video! Edit: Avaric's horse is the Sawhorse, a character from the second Oz book The Marvelous Land of Oz who goes on to become the official mount of Oz's ruler, Princess Ozma, for the rest of the series. Wicked's version of him is a design directly taken from the book illustrations (but made into a bicycle) as an easter egg book cameo.

My time has come! 😂 the extra characters listed in the playbills but not the UK programmes ARE listed on the cast boards at the Apollo Victoria entrances. I hadn't realised they were not in the programmes, but I take a picture of the cast board every time I go (18 and counting!) The Dillamond cover is also the witch's father, but the principal Dillamond does not play the witch's father. He IS in the ensemble at the start, though, he comes down the steps on the left. What is fun is that if necessary, because of certain people being off, Dillamond (who is also the Wizard cover) will play a split track as both Dillamond AND Wizard. And it's an ensemble member who comes on under the blanket as Dillamond when Elphaba gets the Wizard to release the monkeys in Act 2. I've never seen it when I go, but it does happen occasionally.

The Playbill is required reading before the show starts and during intermission. I learned that when my sister and I went to see Fiddler on the Roof back in 1989 when a national touring company was in Chicago. We were both flipping through our Playbills at intermission, when my sister excitedly told me to turn to a certain page. One of our high school classmates was a featured dancer in the cast! Michael Berresse has since gone on to great success on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination for a revival of Kiss Me Kate and starring in The Light in the Piazza.

Given that I saw the Broadway version when I was sixteen (was on a school trip to New York at the time) and didn't see the West End version until more than a decade later, I honestly wouldn't have been able to remember differences so thank you MickeyJo for this video

The two differences my friends and I always bring up is Glinda's 'uni' comment, and Nessa's cute little gesture she makes in Dancing Through Life when she sings 'this Munchkin boy'. I always found that a funny little moment I've never seen in the UK - though I haven't seen a US version of the show in years, no idea if the actors still make that movement

Another profound difference between the two long-running productions is that the West End orchestration is played by 17, a reduction from the original. Broadway maintains the original Bill Brohn charts, served by 24!

A lot of the set and effect differences that West End has from Broadway match up with the North American tour (the monkeys, the broom, the trapdoor, the bridge, Fiyero's cart, etc). I'm from California and have seen the tour a handful of times but just recently saw it for the first time at the Gershwin and GASPED when the monkeys flew over the audience. The tour is nothing short of magical, but it definitely felt a little extra special seeing it in its home. I love seeing the little ways shows evolve and adapt to each new space and audience. And with Wicked, it's so exciting to be surprised after seeing it so many times. This is such a fascinating subject. Excellent video!

There are some other line differences: On Broadway Morrible continiously refers to the rooming as "room assignments" and in London its "room allocations". Something that is kind of the same, but when Glinda says "out paths did cross..." on Broadway she says "...at school", whereas in London she says "...as students". Another one from the top of my head is in de wizards chamber after Fiyero and Elphaba flee away together and the Wizard and Morrible try and find ways to 'smoke her out'. Morrible on Broadway says "Elphaba is too smart" with the Wizard repeating this line. In London she says "Elphaba is too clever" and the Wizard again repeats this.

11:32 THAT explains why when I saw "Wicked" in the US, I distinctly remember the "Maybe the driver saw green and thought it meant Go" scene, but later, I watched slime tutorials of the OBC and noticed that they did not have that scene. Originally, in the Broadway production, the first time Fiyero sees Elphaba is when she shows up at the Ozdust ballroom wearing the hat.

I have only seen it on Broadway, but it is good to know about all of the differences. I could definitely see Madame Morrible as a full blown British character

Tiny correction for 2:50 - the first non-replica Wickeds actually happened as early as the early 2010s... ;) I was traumatised (and became a life-long musical fan) as a child by the 2010 Helsinki, Finland production where the Wizard was literally Stalin XD

My theory about the “Thank Goodness” bridge: During the San Francisco try-outs, after Dillamond was removed from his position, there was a lengthy scene where it’s explained that he is assumed to have died (Elphaba says that he would have “jumped from Suicide Bridge” and that all that was found of him was a pair of glasses). The citizens then hold a funeral for him, where Glinda announces her name change as part of her eulogy to him. Of course this was all cut and the glass gasket for Dillamond (now useless) was moved into the Gershwin lobby to host some theatre props from past productions. Perhaps the bridge needed to be a functioning one as part of the staging for all of that - but by the time the show was opening in London, they knew that it didn’t need to be functional for that production?

Fun fact, the Broadway production has the most different blocking and theatre build. Broadway is the only production with Elphaba and Glinda entering the attic through a trapdoor in the orchestra pit. All the other productions have them entering from the left wing. Official replica productions all over the world follow a “one size fits all” when it comes to blocking due to the different theatres. Sit-down productions though try to implement elements from the Broadway production such as entering from below the stage. Touring productions though don’t have the option to enter from below the stage because rehearsal periods are not long enough to memorize the entire layout of the theatre to get the cues in time, and they are all built different so new set pieces take place of certain doors and trapdoors. Some props and set pieces are also omitted from touring productions to make it easier to load in and out constantly from theatre to theatre.

13:15 THE WOODEN SAWHORSE! It’s from the second Oz book, “The Marvelous Land of Oz”, where the Queen of Oz (Ozma) is rediscovered and the sawhorse is her pet.

I love all the book fans like myself screaming about the sawhorse :) It really seems like most of the West End changes are small cuts/direction changes that mimic what is seen on the tour version. Just a few set pieces here & there that don't make too much an impact but would be a mess to travel with/take extra room. As well as not having the trap door/extended stage to do a few extra tricks on.

I've seen many American casts for Wicked, and M. Morrible usually has a slightly British affectation, maybe more of a Mid-Atlantic accent like those used by Americans during the Golden Age of Hollywood. I think my favorite was Rue McClanahan ... she was a VIPER. She seethed hatred and was truly nasty. Very much fits how M. Morrible is portrayed in the novel.

I always liked the slightly more serious Glinda in the West End- I think in the US they tend to laugh off some very important scenes for Glinda's character's development but maybe it's just me.

The "animal" pulling the cart is the Saw Horse. An animated wooden horse from The Land of Oz book.