He succeeds Kevin Kern, who played his final performance at the Gershwin Theatre Jan. 31.

Karl joins a cast that includes Dee Roscioli as Elphaba, Katie Rose Clarke as Glinda, Tony Award winner Rondi Reed as Madame Morrible, P.J. Benjamin as The Wizard, Alex Brightman as Boq, Jenny Fellner as Nessarose and Timothy Britten Parker as Dr. Dillamond.

Karl has also been seen on Broadway in Legally Blonde, The Wedding Singer and Saturday Night Fever and Off-Broadway in Altar Boyz, Slut and Saturday Night. He also appeared in the world premiere of Disney's On the Record as well as in the national tour of Cats and was seen as The Fonz in Happy Days The Musical. Karl is also part of the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.

Based on Gregory Maguire's novel, which turned every Oz myth inside out, Wicked explores the early life of the witches of Oz: Glinda and Elphaba. The two main characters meet at Shiz, a school where both hope to take up sorcery. Glinda is madly popular and Elphaba is, well, green. By a misunderstanding, they wind up roommates and, after an initial period of mutual loathing, begin to learn something about each other. Their life paths continue to intersect through a shared love, entry into the Emerald City and interaction with the Wizard himself. Eventually, their choices and convictions take them on widely different journeys.

Wicked features a score by Schwartz, a book by Holzman, direction by Joe Mantello and musical staging by Wayne Cilento. The creative team also includes scenic design by Eugene Lee, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kenneth Posner, sound design by Tony Meola, projections by Elaine J. McCarthy, wig and hair design by Tom Watson, music supervision and arrangements by Stephen Oremus, orchestrations by William David Brohn and dance arrangements by James Lynn Abbott. For more information visit wickedthemusical.com.