When the Stephen Schwartz-Winnie Holzman musical, based on Gregory Maguire's novel retelling the L. Frank Baum tale of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the South, opened at the Gershwin Theatre (Wicked is the longest-running show ever to play that house), the critics gave it mixed reviews. But then the public had its say, and it's been saying it ever since.

The Broadway production of Wicked has broken the house record at the Gershwin Theatre 18 times during the course of its run. It has played to more than 3.75 million people, and it will play to many more: current advance sales sit at an amazing $30 million-plus. The four North American companies have grossed nearly $975 million. Throw in the four international companies and the cumulative gross is more than $1.2 billion, with more than 15 million people seeing it worldwide. The current economic downtown has apparently affected the franchise's fortune not a jot.

"I did have a sense that it would work," said producer David Stone, "but that it would be as successful as it is, not in a million years." Stone — whose pre-Wicked Broadway producing credits include What's Wrong With This Picture?, the 1997 revival of The Diary of Anne Frank and the 2002 revival of Man of La Mancha — said that attending to Wicked's various incarnations continues to take up much of his time. "We sell about nine and a half million dollars worth of tickets every week, so that's a lot of people to talk to," he said. He is also involved with the casting of all of the North American productions.