THERE’s applause from the rehearsal audience, silence, then backstage is filled with a swell of people and voices: “Beard me up!” “Is she going to come out in the bubble?” “I need more resin - it’s slippery out there.” “Shhhh!”

Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz has hit Tamworth.

The show has been working its magic on audiences for a week since its gala opening night on October 28, but cast, crew and musicians still have seven shows to left to bring it before closing night on November 12.

Wicked has been one of the biggest productions to hit the West End, Broadway, and other international stages.

In February it became one of the longest-running shows on Broadway, with titles such as The Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Les Misèrables ahead of it on the list - and Grease, My Fair Lady and Rent behind it.

Director Stephen Carter says Tamworth Musical Society had chosen to stage Rock of Ages but plans had changed.

“They suddenly released the amateur rights to Wicked. We hadn’t even heard it was on the cards, it popped up out of the blue - but we got onto it quick-smart.”

Rock of Ages is now next on the list, but how could the musical society pass up the opportunity to wow audiences with Wicked’s intriguing ‘origins’ story - partly foreshadowing and partly retconning the Wizard of Oz; its always clever and sometimes seriously moving songs; its humour and its lavish fantasy sets and costumes?

The story is a flashback to the pre-Wizard of Oz lives of Galinda, who becomes Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, and Elphaba, who becomes known as the Wicked Witch of the West.

When they meet at university, they initially feel a mutual ‘unadulterated loathing’, but they come to see the better side of each other and become best friends.

However, their different backgrounds and values - and their diverging public images not entirely of their own making - send them in vastly different directions by the time Dorothy Gale enters their lives.

About 40 cast members, numerous crew, 18 musicians, 200 costumes, several wigs - it’s a regional show, but the effort and commitment is world-class.

The cast rehearsed twice a week from the end of June, the orchestra about once a week, and the wardrobe department ran up the miles on sewing machines for months – and that’s not even counting auditions, planning, designing, budgeting, the intensified two-week rehearsal period before opening night, and the in-run, on-the-fly directing tweaks, costume repairs and continued practice. 

Phew. It’s a dedication bordering on obsession.

Jessica Cooper-White (Elphaba) is a high school English teacher, so has been rehearsing around classes, preparation, marking and other work responsibilities.  

She’s been involved in theatre since she was a child, and when asked why on Earth someone would sign up - unpaid - for such a lengthy undertaking, she laughs.

“Every show I try to answer this question. I can’t quite understand why I enjoy it so much. Ever since I was little, I’ve liked pretending to be other people: it’s easier to do that than be yourself - you get told what to say and don’t have to make it up yourself!”

On a more serious note, Jessica says: “When you perform with the right people and get chemistry between two or three people, it just works; it’s a nice feeling.”

Brookie Gillett (Galinda) has been with the musical and dramatic societies for about 15 years, initially for the fun and social aspects - in fact, she met her husband Daniel during Into the Woods in 2011.

These days, she still loves the “friendship bonds that last forever” and sinking her teeth into a great role, but as a part-time music teacher and mum of a toddler, she has to be “a bit more no-nonsense” to fit it all in.

Jessica says the show, while set in a fantasy world, has themes very relevant to ours.

Elphaba is just as complex as any individual in Wicked, but her image is skewed purposefully by some and believed unquestioningly by others until she becomes known as the wicked witch.

“This looks at how some details can become so easily misconstrued and how we can just entirely misinterpret details or deliberately warp what's happened,” she says. “Seeing how closely it mirrors society is pretty alarming - just how easily people can be led astray by a charismatic individual.”

A nerve-wracking revelation is that the actors almost never have understudies in any show: it’s just too big an ask for someone to spend so much unpaid time rehearsing a role with the possibility of never playing it.

“We proceed with blind faith,” Stephen says. “We have had instances of people losing their voices [and] somebody broke their ankle during the run of one show … I know as a director I’ve had to stand in for people a few times.”

Costume designer and wardrobe mistress Natalie Creighton claims she couldn’t even sew four years ago when she started “just helping out” with TMS costumes.

She has scoured op shops for anything green she could unpick, reconstruct and “bling up” for the Oz scenes, and outsourced the making of the monkeys’ unitards, which she airbrushed. She’s raided Etsy, eBay and the TMS shed in Taminda for other suitable clothes, patterns and fabrics. Construction has consumed her “spare” time for months.

But some believe they’ve been getting a little help from treasured wardrobe mistress Ruth Batty, who made thousands of outfits for the group before her death in 2011.

“There have been times we haven’t been able to find the right coloured cotton and [we] come back and it’s sitting on top of the machine … there’s definitely ‘something’ at the shed,” Natalie says.