The national touring Broadway production of “Wicked” is returning to Iowa for a three-week run for the first time in more than a decade and it’s a homecoming for the man who’s in charge of it all.
Company manager Steve Quinn is a Des Moines native who grew up in Cedar Rapids and is a University of Iowa graduate. Quinn oversees the show’s day-to-day operations, the advertising, the box office, the local labor, and all of the actors and crew.
“We have 65 company members that travel across the country,” Quinn says. “My associate and I handle all the travel, all the accommodation. We make sure that they have gyms to go to, doctors to see, dentists, any type of emergency that comes up, that they’re well prepared if something happens. You become a den mother, really.”
In addition to the people, the full-scale New York-based production travels with 13 tractor trailers packed with all of the sets, props, costumes and everything that brings Wicked to life on stage. Even after more than two decades in the job, Quinn says there are nightly challenges.
“The one thing that always slows us down, of course, is weather, especially in the winter when you’re going from Cleveland to Buffalo in January,” Quinn says. “Highways get shut down, blizzards happen, and so you have to make contingency plans or make sure that the trucks get there.”
Quinn was hired as company manager for Wicked’s very first national tour in 2005 and has remained in that same position for 21 years, and counting. That longevity is incredibly rare in an industry known for its volatility and he says part of what keeps him going is a love of travel, and a love of the theatre.
“People may not be able to afford to go into New York City and to be able to see Wicked, a great production of Wicked in your own backyard at the Civic Center. It’s a great facility,” Quinn says. “Plus, it’s nice to be able to show my company Iowa and Midwest friendly and all the things that we’re known for.”
In addition to the challenges of winter weather, there’s also severe storms — and he notes great irony in the times when the Wicked cast and audience have had to evacuate to a basement for, wait for it, a tornado warning. Even with many years of experience and planning, things still go wrong.
“My sister saw the show a few years ago in Omaha and we had a malfunction,” Quinn says, “and unfortunately the witch didn’t fly and she said, ‘I’ve never seen that before,’ and I thought, well, this is what live theater is all about.”
Wicked is the first of the accompanying pieces to the classic film, “The Wizard of Oz,” and Quinn says the show is clever, extremely funny, and has an amazing score — which keeps people coming back time after time.
“We have different generations coming to the show and I’m a prime example. In 2008, I brought my brother’s boys to see the show. Now they’re bringing their kids to the show and they’re sharing the experience of what it felt like when they saw Wicked or they went to theater for the first time,” Quinn says. “I think it’s an incredibly special show in that respect.”
Wicked opens at the Des Moines Civic Center on Wednesday and runs through September 20th.
Hear Matt Kelley’s full interview with Steve Quinn below: