IT'S EASY BEING GREEN MARC PLATT BRINGS WICKED' BACK HOME.

Byline: Evan Henerson

Theater Writer

The merchandise-laden shelf in the office of Marc Platt Productions is half pink, half green.

The pink relates to all things "Legally Blonde," the hit 2001 Reese Witherspoon film -- and its 2003 sequel -- produced by Platt. Somewhat ironically, a musical version of the film will open on Broadway in April, although without Platt's involvement.

The green side is for keepsakes tied to "Wicked," the behemoth Broadway musical written by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman and also produced by Platt. "Wicked," which played its first Los Angeles engagement in the summer of 2005, is returning to L.A. where an open- ended production bows tonight at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre.

This is not exactly what anybody would label a quiet arrival.

You have perhaps heard of this engagement via radio ads or the enormous green billboards peppering the city. Perhaps during that sweaty summer of '05, you were among those who snagged prime $25 seats at the nightly "Wicked" lottery (which is also back). Or maybe you munched green or pink cupcakes, or tried your vocal cords at show-tune karaoke during the "Wicked" kickoff event a few months back at Universal CityWalk.

The CityWalk event -- and, for that matter, the "Wicked" billboard affixed to a Universal soundstage -- is no coincidence. As Platt notes, the musical is to some extent a home-grown product.

Universal Pictures is one of "Wicked's" producers. Platt and producing partner David Stone can point out the rehearsal room on the lot where, in 2001, composer Schwartz, book writer Holzman and a group of L.A. actors hashed out an early version of what went down in Oz between good witch Glinda and wicked witch Elphaba before the events of "The Wizard of Oz."

"Twelve to 14 actors sitting on platforms, maybe 50 people in the room, friends and colleagues from Universal," recalls Platt, "and the response so far exceeded anything we had thought, and was far more profound than we had imagined.

Something clicked

"It was a very flawed piece -- and very long," he continues, "but there was clearly something that people were clicking into."

The clicking continues. Now in its third year on Broadway, "Wicked" continues to be the Great White Way's top-selling attraction, sometimes bringing in as much as $1.5 million per week at the Gershwin Theatre. The Broadway production recouped its entire $14 million investment in just over a year. The soundtrack album has gone platinum.

Resident sit-down companies in London and Chicago do brisk business. When the tour passed through the Pantages during the summer of 2005, it sold out the entire seven-week run.

The aim was to transfer the Chicago company to L.A., but with audiences still steady in the Windy City, the producers elected to build a fresh new "Wicked" for L.A. It will be the first lengthy run of a big-budget musical since "The Producers" moved out of the Pantages at the beginning of 2004.

No place like home -- really

"For us, it feels like we're coming home," says Platt who hopes "Wicked" will stick for a year at minimum. "And like they always say, 'There's no place like home.' "

It's a well-worn, corny line that the producer has used before, but it more than acknowledges the pop-cultural debt the "Wicked" team -- and author Gregory Maguire, upon whose novel the musical is based -- owe to "The Wizard of Oz."

Audiences have a thing for Oz, says Platt. "There seems to be, in our entire culture, a kind of ownership of those characters," Platt says, "especially here in L.A."

"We've had an extremely successful merchandising," he continues. "While I think they did a great job, I don't think it's because our T-shirts are any more terrific than anybody else's T-shirts. People want to own a piece of the show and take it with them."

Platt's career in theater began shortly after college. He produced an off-off-Broadway showcase for Actors Equity, but passed on producing a work in a larger venue because, at the time, "my knowledge of how to navigate those waters in that business was not substantial enough."

He ended up going to law school with the aim of becoming an entertainment lawyer and producing for the stage. Platt served as in-house attorney to Sam Cohn at International Creative Management for the likes of clients Meryl Streep, Woody Allen, Bob Fosse and Mike Nichols.

Offered a job at Orion Studios, Platt moved to Los Angeles and eventually became president of production. Over the course of running the studios at Orion, TriStar and Universal, Platt guided such films as "Dances With Wolves," "The Silence of the Lambs," "Philadelphia" and "Sleepless in Seattle."

"I was successful, and I was satisfied," Platt says, "but I was always looking over my shoulder to see what was going on in the theater world in New York. I was anxious some day to get back to it."

Through his company's theatrical division, Platt produced Julia Roberts' Broadway debut in "Three Days of Rain" last spring as well as the Matthew Bourne-directed dance piece "Edward Scissorhands," which played the Ahmanson Theatre over the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Next up is a revival of the Rodgers and Hart musical "Pal Joey."

"He has taste and a great sense of responsibility," Universal President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Meyer says of Platt. "Like a good producer, he went and convinced the studio that ('Wicked') was going to be good for everyone."

Evan Henerson, [phone]

[e-mail]

WICKED

Where: Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $32.50 to $85.50. [phone].

www.wickedthemusical.com.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Eden Espinosa is Elphaba in the L.A. production of "Wicked."

(2) PLATT