Ben Cohen Goes Wicked

In honor of National Coming Out Day, Wicked is hosting a special event performance Oct. 11 with former rugby superstar Ben Cohen and gay columnist Dan Savage. Cohen, founder of the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation, and Savage, co-founder of the It Gets Better Project, will participate in a post-show forum on anti-bullying efforts with members of the Wicked cast.

Based on out novelist Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the hit musical currently stars Jackie Burns as misunderstood green girl Elphaba, Broadway's most popular outcast. As YouTube celebrity and theater expert Randy Rainbow once explained to The Advocate, "Every time Elphaba is catapulted into the skies of Oz during 'Defying Gravity,' she's soaring for all homos who ever wished they could tower over gym class bullies or rise above a dinner table full of family who didn't understand them to proclaim, 'Everyone deserves the chance to fly!' It's a therapeutic moment."

Buy tickets to the Oct. 11 event here through Sept. 30 — a portion of the ticket price will benefit the It Gets Better Project and the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation — and check out Wicked's official "It Gets Better" video below.

via Gay.net