People thought that Grease, Fiddler on the Roof and Cats wouldn't ever be released for high school, college or community theatre, but they have, and let's face it, the authors are rich because of it. Schwartz, McGuire, et al stand to earn more of a fortune once this show is released for wide production. They'd be fools to burn all the material and
not release the rights, not to mention that there would be a lot of illegal productions if they did.
I suspect that Music Theater International will have persual scripts availabe sometime in the next five years and if it goes on as long as Les Miz did, they'll even release rights before it closes.
Not having been able to get tickets in NY, Minneapolis or Chicago, I suspect I won't see the show myself for years, but I've read the book twice, and I'm reading my class The Wizard of Oz right now, so I suspect I'll read Wicked again afterwards.
They should consider making Mirror, Mirror, Gregory McGuire's revision of Snow White for musical adaptation. That's a better idea for a musical than Legally Blonde!
NYC Visitor and Broadway Fan