Witches are set to descend on Invercargill this week as fan favourite musical Wicked hits the stage at the Civic Theatre.

Invercargill Musical Theatre (IMT) is behind the production which tells the 'untold story' of the witches from The Wizard of Oz.

IMT vice president Bernadette Gourley said the group jumped at the opportunity to have its annual production be the popular Broadway musical.

She said the group would often plan the annual show up to five years in advance.

"(Wicked) is a product owned by a couple of societies in New Zealand who own the set, the props, the costumes and (we) are able to hire it from them. It is a blockbuster of a show with great production values. The fact that we can bring a production like Wicked to the Civic Theatre was just too good of an opportunity to miss."

Gourley said in terms of size and production value it was on par with previous blockbuster shows they had produced including Phantom of the Opera and Mary Poppins.

Up to 80 people are involved in the production which includes an on-stage cast of 30 as well as a 17-piece orchestra.

Auditions for the show began in February, with rehearsals beginning in April.

"We started with some choreography rehearsals and music rehearsals and then the director became involved and started his rehearsals and that year of course there have been rehearsals virtually every night for the last few weeks," Gourley said. "So it’s a long process. It’s three solid months for the cast."

The majority of the cast are local, with only Christchurch's Rebekah Head, who plays the role of Glinda, and another actor from Dunedin from outside of Southland.

Gourley said the group aimed to help locals pursue their theatre dreams as well as give them the opportunity to perform in large scale productions such as Wicked.

"That’s what our society is about. It’s about giving locals potentially the opportunity to be involved in a production (and) to learn stagecraft. We are an amateur society, although we use the word amateur carefully because the quality of the production is as good as you’ll see on any professional stage and we’ve been given that feedback time and time again. It’s definitely our aim to cast a show entirely locally."

Wicked begins this Friday night at the Invercargill Civic Theatre and will run 12 shows until July 27.

Tickets are available via TicketDirect

• Be in to win a double pass to opening night! Visit the WIN button on your Southland App.