There’s probably never a bad time to stage the musical Wicked - 65 million people worldwide have seen it since its Broadway debit in 2003, and a few of them were back humming along while wearing Kermit green tonight - but the scheduling of its third season in Sydney felt particularly opportune.

Wicked is, after all, a musical that boasts strong female leads and a story celebrating the durability of female friendship, at a time when Barbie, Taylor Swift and the Matildas have put those at the forefront of the culture.