"Wicked," the musical story of the good and bad witches of "The Wizard of Oz" before they met Dorothy will make its Hawaii debut at the Blaisdell Concert Hall during the 2012 holiday season.

The Tony Award-winning show will run for eight weeks, from Nov. 24 to Jan. 16, 2013, with tickets initially available only for groups of 20 or more, starting Dec. 19.

The highly sought musical, which remains a hot ticket on Broadway where it is in its ninth season, showcases the Wicked Witch of the West (the green-faced Elphaba) and Good Witch of the North (Glinda) as college friends with polar personalities. Most of the original show’s bells and whistles — elaborate sets, astonishing costumes and flying monkeys — will be part of the tour.

"Patrons have been asking about ‘Wicked’ for years," said Bruce Branath, marketing chief for the show, in a prepared statement from Broadway in Hawaii, the group that also is staging "Riverdance" in its Honolulu debut through tonight and "Beauty and the Beast" and "Cats" at Blaisdell last year. "It is a great honor to be able to host the national tour of ‘Wicked’ and introduce Hawaii to this musical phenomenon."

One of the musical’s producers, David Stone, 45, still gets emotional when he reflects on his first brush with the show in its development stages at a 2000 reading in Los Angeles two years before it was mounted in New York.

"When I went to the reading, I was told what to expect," not imagining the impact it would have, said Stone in a long-distance chat from New York. "It was delightful, surprising, and fun — with great music — how the ‘Wizard of Oz’ story came together."

The show, based on a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, features music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (of past stage hits "Godspell" and "Pippin") and book by Winnie Holzman (of the well-regarded television series "My So-Called Life," "Once and Again" and "thirtysomething").

"Wicked," playing at the Gershwin Theatre on the Great White Way, has amassed 35 major awards, including three Tony Awards and a Grammy.

Stone said it’s a vehicle that touches the heart, a key reason for his involvement.

"Toward the end, there’s a song, ‘For Good,’ about how someone can change your life. It was unexpected; I started sobbing," he recalled. "I had to be part of it."

He said the heart-tugs, not the commercial potential, were at the core of his faith in "Wicked."

"The art of the (theater) business is hard," said Stone, whose producing partners include Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, the Araca Group, and Jon B. Platt. "Surviving it, and having a life, is not easy."

He’s been involved in some aspect of theater since graduating from college 23 years ago. He initially did some acting, but transitioned to producing shows at age 27.

"I was younger than you can imagine," he said of a business that traditionally is engineered by more seasoned, older behind-the-scenes entrepreneurs. "You don’t realize what a risk this is, so you charge ahead. It’s one of the scariest things I’ve done. And that’s what’s great."

Even if "Wicked" is handily a triumph on Broadway, Stone said the show still takes up most of his day. He is involved in all the American tours and the British production.

He said the show is often updated on tour "with little changes … the things we wanted to try but couldn’t earlier. It’s a lot of time, a lot of money to put in changes, but it’s worth it — perceptible largely to us than most viewers."

Consequently, tours may downsize a bit, but usually have the latest model due to production tweaks.

The show continues its hot global streak, with seven companies including two national tours, plus anchor shows in New York and London. "The Australian company is going to Singapore, a German company is in Amsterdam; I was at the Holland opening a few weeks back," Stone said.

To date, more than 30 million have seen the show worldwide. The Broadway show has broken the house record at the Gershwin 20 times, usually generating grosses in excess of $1.7 million weekly.The show’s combined gross is $1.8 billion for the North American companies, $2.5 billion when the international tally is added.

And "Wicked," now the 14th longest-running show in New York, maintains an unprecedented $22 million in advance sales — an impressive level for a show approaching its 10-year mark.

Stone is grateful his mother took him to see a play when he was 5, jump-starting his interest.

"It’s a very full experience, going to the theater. There’s nothing parents can do better than to raise children in all the arts and especially give (kids) exposure to theater," he said. "That’s how you build audiences for the future."

"Wicked" is directed by Tony Award-winning Joe Mantello and choreographed by Tony winner Wayne Cilento.

Along with Broadway in Hawaii, it is being presented in Hawaii by Magic-Space Entertainment.