Which Witch is a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 written by Norwegian singers/composers Benedicte Adrian

Benedicte Adrian

Benedicte Christine Adrian Mouton is a Norwegian singer and artist. She has released material on her own, but is best known for her collaboration with Ingrid Bjørnov in the pop duo Dollie de Luxe...

 and Ingrid Bjørnov

Ingrid Bjørnov

Ingrid Bjørnov is a Norwegian singer, songwriter, keyboard player, composer and text writer. Her debut album Første Akt from 1980 with the duo Dollie was awarded Spellemannprisen, and the duo represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1984. She spent seven years with the musical Which...

.

The storyline for Which Witch was derived from the witch finder

Witch-hunt

A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...

's manual Malleus Maleficarum

Malleus Maleficarum

The Malleus Maleficarum is an infamous treatise on witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, an Inquisitor of the Catholic Church, and was first published in Germany in 1487...

, and the original script was written by Adrian and Bjørnov's manager Ole A. Sørli

Ole A. Sørli

Ole A. Sørli was a Norwegian musician and writer as well as a music industry manager and record producer.-Career:He first gained fame as a musician and leader of the band The Cool Cats and worked throughout the rest of his life producing and managing western music.In 1967 he was employed by Arne...

. The lyrics of the early concert versions were written by Helen Hampton and Roger Avenstrup, in collaboration with Adrian, Bjørnov and Sørli.

The first performance was in Grieghallen, Bergen

Bergen

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

 on May 27, 1987, with Adrian playing the female lead, and Bjørnov as musical director. The material was constantly developed throughout a period of eight years, resulting in several national and international tours presenting continuously updated concert versions of the musical.

The "Operamusical" Which Witch opened at the Piccadilly Theatre

Piccadilly Theatre

The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at 16 Denman Street, behind Piccadilly Circus and adjacent to the Regent Palace Hotel, in the City of Westminster, England.-Early years:Built by Bertie Crewe and Edward A...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on October 22, 1992 and ran for 76 performances, after a critical savaging. It has been described as "the second worst West End musical

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 of all time", a "bizarre musical", and "a dire rock opera".

The London version was followed by a rather more successful Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 tour, and further performances of a Norwegian version in Holmenkollen

Holmenkollen

Holmenkollen is a neighborhood in the Vestre Aker borough of Oslo, Norway. In addition to being a residential area, the area has been a ski recreation area since the late 19th century, with its famous, eponymous, ski jump arena hosting competitions since 1892...

, Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 during the summer of 1994.

Which Witch has, since its premiere in May 1987, been performed a total of 142 times in concert version in the following countries: Norway, Canada, USA, the Netherlands, England, Spain, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. The total attendance figure is approx. 276,000.

Recordings

• Which Witch- the original studio album (released 1987).
• Which Witch på Slottsfjellet live concert double album (released 1990).
• Which Witch - London Cast Album (released 1993).

Total record sales are in excess of 110,000 units. Licenced productions have been staged in several European countries.