Long before the story even begins, you're already aware of how it will end. The girl with the green skin becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, and the pretty, popular girl transforms into Glinda the Good. Once the closest of friends, they find themselves on opposite sides of a war. You'll know all of this from the start.
And yet, for over twenty years, Wicked has continued to draw audiences into theatres in a way that few musicals can match. Over 65 million people across 130 cities in 16 countries have experienced its magic. When a story keeps enticing people back despite knowing its ending, it is worth asking what it is actually about.
"Regardless of whether someone knows the ending of any story, each time you watch, don't you sit with it and pray it changes?" asks Rebekah Lowings, who plays Elphaba in the production arriving at NMACC this March. "Every actor brings a significant difference to playing these characters. We truly root them within our own character, so you'll be surprised with the drama and route in which we take these witches."
Eve Shanu-Wilson, who plays Glinda, sees the dramatic tension differently. "The amazing thing about starting at the end is that the audience is hungry for knowledge. How did they end up how they are? Why did it happen? And then, as the story unfolds, the audience begins to see the cracks in the official narrative. I think it makes people reflect on real-life situations, especially in the political narratives present today."
What Wicked is actually about, beneath the spectacle and the soaring Stephen Schwartz score, is a friendship. A specific kind of friendship that sits in the uncomfortable space between love and competition, between loyalty and ambition. For an audience of Indian women who have navigated their own versions of this dynamic, the discomfort the show provokes is unlikely to feel distant.
"I think friendships on stage and screen can be quite superficial," says Shanu-Wilson. "Seeing two women hurt and love each other in equal measure might bring up self-reflections that can be normally avoided."
Lowings is more direct about what makes audiences flinch. "It's that overpowering guilt you feel when you know you've done something that could potentially hurt your friend but there's no way out of it. Everyone's done it, felt it, had it happen to them. It's so incredibly relatable. It's hard for people to watch because it's like looking into a mirror."
The production landing in Mumbai is, by any measure, an event. Over 350 costumes, a full live orchestra, a cast and crew of more than 100. Designer Morgan Large built Lowings' costumes from scratch, fitted specifically to her body. "This really doesn't happen in many productions nowadays," she says. "When I saw the set for the first time, I audibly gasped. It's huge, all-encompassing, and wild to know little old me was going to be on this stage."
For Shanu-Wilson, the revelation came earlier and, fittingly, was more Glinda. "This is very Glinda of me to say, but it was when I got to try my Act Two ballgown on for the first time. It is utterly breathtaking, and I knew that if one dress was this intricately designed, the rest of the production would be incredible. And I was right: it is."
Both women speak about the particular electricity of performing in a room as ambitious as NMACC, a venue that has made a compelling case for Mumbai as a destination for world-class live performance. "Working with a venue like the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre is genuinely exciting as a performer," says Lowings. "When a space is built with the ambition to host world-class productions in a city like Mumbai, it raises the bar for everyone involved." Shanu-Wilson puts it simply: "I know we all feel very privileged to be invited to perform here."
Both performers speak of feeling their audiences in real time, adjusting to what a room gives them. "I absolutely rely on the audience every night," says Shanu-Wilson. "I consider it part of my job to gauge each audience and respond in kind." Lowings agrees, noting that cultural context changes a performance in ways that are difficult to fully anticipate until you are in the room. She cannot wait, she says, to experience what the Mumbai audience has to offer.
What they want an Indian audience to carry out with them when it is over is telling. Lowings wants them thinking about how art imitates life, and whether they might be able to make a difference in the world. Shanu-Wilson wants something quieter: for people to come together, to recognise the joy that connection and acceptance can bring.
For a show that has been described a hundred different ways in a hundred different cities, that feels like exactly the right thing to leave a Mumbai audience with.
Wicked runs at The Grand Theatre, Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, from March 12 to March 29, 2026. Showtimes are at 14:00, 19:00, and 19:30. Duration is 2 hours 50 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission.