ABC Plots a Return to Oz

When Michael Ausiello from TVLine tells you that Salma Hayek is bringing a wicked new project to ABC, he means that quite literally.

Sources confirm that the actress-producer is teaming with ABC to develop an eight-hour miniseries adaptation of" Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West," the Gregory Maguire bestseller that spawned the Broadway phenom.

The insider stresses that it would be based on the novel and not the musical. As a result, this Wicked would be less of a prequel and more of a parallel story to The Wizard of Oz. (Universal, as you may know, is currently developing a Wicked film, and that would be based on the musical.)

ABC Studios will produce along with Hayek and Jose Tamez through the duo’s Ventanarosa Productions. The ex-Ugly Betty producer may also play a supporting role in the project, which is being penned by Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers).

Oh, and some juicy background: Two years ago, ABC — under then-president Steve McPherson — passed on a Wicked mini. But his successor, former ABC Family boss Paul Lee, resurrected it soon after taking the reins last summer.

Thoughts? Excited to see ABC getting back in the miniseries business? Got casting suggestions for Elphaba and Galinda? Michael Ausiello is for Glee‘s go-to airhead, Heather Morris, as the Good Witch and Raising Hope‘s Shannon Woodward as the green one. I would go with Glee's Lea Michele as Elphaba and maybe Christina Aguilera as GA-Linda!

Wicked Wows Broadway Again and Becomes First Show to Break $2.1 Million

Smash-hit musical Wicked rang in the New Year with a new Broadway record - by becoming the first production to break $2.1 million in weekly ticket sales.

Just a week after the spectacular broke its own Thanksgiving weekend gross record, it did it again for the week ending 3 January.

Last week was the third time in just six weeks the Broadway hit grossed over $2 million for one week of performances.

Additionally, the show's three other North American productions broke house records in San Francisco, Providence and Schenectady last week, bringing the musical's one-week North American box office gross to a whopping $7 million.

Wicked Christmas as New York Musical Breaks Its Own Record

Hit musical Wicked is all good over holiday weekends in America - the stageshow smashed its own Thanksgiving record to score the highest-grossing week in Broadway history again over Christmas.

The Wizard of Oz prequel took in $2.09 million (GBP1.3 million) over the Christmas holiday.

The show has become a massive hit worldwide and there are currently eight productions of Wicked onstage, including one in London and Japanese-language and German-language productions.

A Dutch-language production of the musical is scheduled to open in 2011.

Wicked Star Idina Menzel Not Coming to Glee, Yet!

Gleeks have been geeking out over the possibility of Broadway star Idina Menzel sweeping her way onto the hit FOX show Glee, but don’t get your broomsticks out just yet.

“I don’t know what I’m doing with Idina yet,” show creator Ryan Murphy said at a Hollywood Radio and Television Society panel on Wednesday. “I just met with her once. It sort of got leaked, but I haven’t plotted it out yet.”

Menzel, who originated the role of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West in the hit Broadway musical Wicked, and Lea Michele, the actress who plays Rachel Berry on Glee and sang Wicked’s signature number “Defying Gravity,” look a lot alike, a fact not lost on Menzel nor her husband, Private Practice star Taye Diggs, who recently said, “We knew that [resemblance] existed far, far before the TV world did.” That resemblance has some hoping the Tony-winner will play the biological mother of Rachel, who is the proud daughter of two gay dads.

While fans will have to wait to see what, if anything, Murphy comes up with, Glee will ease on down the road for Kristin Chenoweth, who played Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked. Chenoweth will return as former McKinley High glee club star April Rhodes in the spring.

“I know Kristin has a huge episode,” Murphy said. “She’s coming back because we write that for her, but there are some other people coming that I can’t say, but they are big music people, so I’m very excited!”

Wicked’s Idina Menzel Would ‘Love’ to be on Glee

Following a guest stint by her Broadway costar Kristin Chenoweth and Glee club captain Rachel’s (Lea Michele) show-stopping rendition of “Defying Gravity” (from the hit musical Wicked), it seems Broadway’s original green witch, Idina Menzel, may pay a visit to McKinley High.

“I know that she would love [to guest star on Glee],” Menzel’s husband, Private Practice star Taye Diggs told Fancast of the Gleek community’s desire to see the Tony-winner play the biological mother of Rachel, who is the proud daughter of two gay dads.

Adding that Michele — who originated the role of Wendla in the Broadway play Spring Awakening — and Menzel are “fans of each other,” Diggs acknowledged the pair’s uncanny resemblance, saying “We knew that existed far, far before the TV world did.”

A Broadway vet himself, having starred in Rent opposite his future wife, Diggs praised the caliber of Glee’s singing and dancing cast, saying he and his wife TiVo the show every week, and “are just so happy to see a lot of these theater kids get the opportunity to do some television work.”

Adam Lambert Had a 'Wicked,' Pre-'Idol' Stage Life

Before American Idol took over Adam Lambert's life, there was Wicked, not to mention The Ten Commandments — yes, a musical version of the sand-and-sandals biblical epic.

The 27-year-old favorite to take the Idol crown next Wednesday had a professional musical-theater background before he ever sang for Simon, Paula and the rest of the show's judges.

Lambert did two stints in Wicked, the mammoth musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz — joining the touring company in March 2005 and staying for six months, then opening in the extended Los Angeles production in February 2007 and remaining with the show until October 2008. For both engagements, he was a member of the ensemble and understudied the role of Fieryo, the show's love interest.

Says casting guru, Bernard Telsey, who auditioned Lambert for Wicked: "Adam was a theater guy. He came in and had that amazing voice or as I like to say 'instrument' because he has this incredible range.

"I literally remember saying, 'Oh my God, this guy has the highest range,'" said Telsey, who has cast such hit Broadway musicals as Rent, Hairspray and the current revival of South Pacific.

"And you are always looking for ensemble people who have a huge vocal range and vocal power," he said. "In an ensemble of only a handful of voices, you want that kind of a sound. It makes a show feel like there are 20 people in the ensemble as opposed to 10."

At the time, Lambert didn't look David Bowie-esque, Telsey said.

"He didn't look like a rock star. He looked like a normal kid with long hair, wearing jeans and a T-shirt and who had a big rock voice."

What Lisa Leguillou remembers best about Lambert was his fearlessness.

As the associate director of Wicked — in charge of keeping the show true to director Joe Mantello's original vision — she said, "I always got a sense that Adam was clear about what he wanted to do.


"He talked about his music a lot with me and what he wanted to do with it in the future. He was clear about that — doing his own stuff, which was rock. And now he's doing it."

And Lambert's singing is effortless, according to Leguillou. "That's what is so shocking. He just opens up his mouth. You never have to worry about him when he is on stage."

In 2004, Lambert made a splash — or at least emerged unscathed — from The Ten Commandments, a pop-rock opera (starring Val Kilmer as Moses) that had a brief run at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

Reviews for the show were not kind. The New York Times called it "bland, static, overproduced and underdirected." The Los Angeles Times sniffed, "The Ten Commandments has the power to leave an epiphany-seeking theatergoer speechless."

Yet Lambert, portraying the slave Joshua, was favorably noticed by both papers, with the New York reviewer even saying the performer was the show's "most consistent crowd-wower."