The much ballyhooed sit-down production of "Wicked" that arrives at the Pantages Feb. 10 has its Wizard of Oz. He will be John Rubinstein of "Children of a Lesser God" and "Counsellor-at-Law" fame who was most recently seen in the Interact Theatre Co.'s production of "Urinetown" at the Matrix.

He joines previously announced Eden Espinosa (as green skinned Wicked Witch Elphaba), Megan Hilty (Glinda), Carol Kane (Madame Morrible), Kristoffer Cusick (Fiyero), Jenna Leigh Green (Nessarose) and Adam Wylie (Boq). Kane and Green were both with the national tour of "Wicked" that played the Pantages.

This production will be my third. I first saw "Wicked" back in the fall of 2003 (w/ Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Robert Morse, Norbert Leo Butz) during its pre Broadway run at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. Before it opened, it was the show over which every single female musical theatre performer I interviewed was slobbering.

Then it opened, and it was the audiences who went nuts.

Go figure.