“Local restaurants and local hotels will benefit,” Hamburger said. “If you look at ‘Wicked’, it was here two weeks last summer and had a huge economic impact, and based on the success they had here, they decided to come back for four weeks. That’s a huge boost for the economy — that continued economic impact is really beneficial for our state right now.”

Other big-name shows for the Wharton Center’s upcoming season include “Mama Mia” in September, “The Color Purple” in February, and the return of “The Lion King” for five weeks in the spring.

“Hotels and restaurants as well as shopping downtown (will prosper) because people will make a day of it, and see all of the things this area has to offer,” Hamburger said.

Joe McMahon, manager of Dublin Square Irish Pub, 327 Abbot Road, said that business benefits every time a Broadway show comes to town.

“It generates a lot of revenue for us and the other local businesses,” McMahon said. “It is kind of like a dinner and a show type of thing — the majority of the people that go to the show go out to dinner too.”

Katie Fletcher, front office associate at the Marriott Hotel, 300 M.A.C. Ave., said the hotel’s close location to campus is a major benefit when events like “Wicked” come to East Lansing.

“We are always excited to have events in town because that means we are going to have a high occupancy,” Fletcher said. “When any one of those shows come into the Wharton Center we see a significant uptake.”

Economics professor Leslie Papke said that the Wharton Center is making a wise business decision when it brings in shows for a second time.

“Wharton makes more money when they bring in shows that have large general appeal,” Papke said. “So when they find out after the first run that they have a lot of excess demand for the show they realize they still have a market out there.”

Civil engineering senior David Stringer said that he was hoping to catch a peek at “Wicked” while he was working at Wharton Center.

He said that he felt the show would be an economic success, but it would be even more successful if it were playing in a different season.

“The big Broadway shows like ‘Wicked’ and ‘The Lion King,’ I definitely think that they bring in a lot of revenue when they are here,” Stringer said. “I think the timing of ‘Wicked’ isn’t as good because people are out of town. I think that if a show was in town in say, the fall, it would do better economically just because more people will be in town.”

Social work junior Yolanda Hines said that she has been to a few Wharton Center performances, and has done some local shopping in the past with friends in anticipation of the event.

“We did go out and buy outfits,” Hines said, “Most girls go out and buy outfits if they are going to do something nice.”