Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Wicked!

Yes, we saw it! No, we didn't forget our tickets at home, or lose ourselves in the terrifying city of Hollywood, or arrive too late to see the whole show. Our experience went something like this...

We drove the long drive to the San Fernando Valley to have lunch with my grandparents to celebrate my sister's eighth grade graduation. ("Yeah... isn't it lame?" quoth my sister, regarding her "graduation") Then we drove to my father's parents' house to leave him, Noah, and the baby. We visited for a while. I made sure everyone was clear on the "Watch Zoe like a hawk" thing. ;) Not that I don't trust them or anything.

From their house, my mom and sisters and I practically flew to Hollywood - there was NO traffic! And Hollywood is a huge, scary, dirty city, but it's got a lot of character.

So... we were standing around waiting for the doors of the theater to open, and people were lining up, milling about, checking to see if they had their tickets, et cetera, and my mother (who had made us dress up a little bit) said, "Well, I'm sorry. I guess people don't dress up to go to the theater anymore." Desirae groaned. She hates wearing skirts. But then inside, mum said, "See? Now that we're inside aren't you glad you dressed up?" Because it was really really gorgeous in there. And then, when you get into the actual theater, well... wow. I mean, it looks like part of a set. "It's so art deco," my mother remarked several times.

As always, it seemed like we were waiting in our seats forever. I began to pity my sister because she was sitting right next to my other sister and her best friend - they're 11 and 12. And you know... at that age, girls are sort of giggly.

And THEN...

The first notes of the musical.

And the dragon above the stage started moving. Those first notes of Wicked always excite me, every time I put the soundtrack on.

But as much as I'd like to go through the whole show scene by scene, song by song, I can't. So I'll just sum it up: It was excellent. Very well done, well performed, and I really enjoyed seeing it with my mom. Now for the finer details, with some nitpicking:

Costumes: My absotively-posolutely FAVORITE part of the show! ... possibly. ;) The Ozzian's costumes were sort of like... Les Miserables meets colorful-fantasy-world (sort of), perfect for this darker depiction of Oz. Glinda's dresses were rather astonishing: glittering all over, full skirts. Even when she was a schoolgirl at Shiz, her dresses were lovely. Elphaba's "Wicked Witch" dress was so subtly magnificent.

Singing and Acting: Erin Mackey, who played Glinda, was my favorite, acting-wise. She had a good voice as well. Although Kristin Chenoweth, Broadway's original Glinda, has a much better and more experienced voice, her performance seems kind of flat after Erin Mackey's totally insane, immature energy. See the video below. Teal Wicks, Elphaba, was pretty great - I loved how you could see all her energy, even when she was just walking across the stage. At first it was a more suppressed energy, but it became more and more apparent throughout the play. Everyone did really well, actually, and I don't really have any complaints... (Sorry, Aly. ;) ) The Dresser from Beauty and the Beast played Madame Morrible. Haha!
The show was REALLY fun, no matter how... skewed, the story is. They threw in some nods at lines from the movie ("What's in the punch?" "Lemons and melons and pears" "Oh my!" (Nessarose and Boq) and an ironic "There's no place like home" from Elphaba). A fan of the book will start rambling at intermission about all the changes, and have a nitpickers' field day when the show is over (I shared quite a few of my complaints with my family, I didn't pick the story completely apart) but a fan of the movie will come out tickled pink. And I consider myself a fan both of the book(s) and the movie (well... I was a fan of it when I was four years old...)


This is Erin Mackey performing Popular.



I'm not even going to try to find a video of Defying Gravity for you. YouTube videos simply do not do it justice. Neither does the song on the soundtrack, come to think of it.

It's added a whole new chunk of quotes to my and my sister's supply, and we didn't get home until 2 that night (which is pretty funny, since the show ended at 9 something... Honestly, how did that happen? I guess we watched the Olympics at my grandparents' house for longer than I thought...)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know how unbelievably jealous I am of you, Delaney? I'm 15 and NEVER seen a real, real, real musical (meaning w/ pros). Great you had an awesome time! :D

The last sentence of your 3rd sentence made me crack up. ;) And your mom totally sounds like my mom, w/ the whole dressing up thing. ;)

Anonymous said...

HA! I thought my mum was the only one who believed in wearing formal clothes for theatre productions. :P

*laughs* If I was at all an Oz fan I'd throw a fit over Wicked, but IMAO the original books NEED realism and all that, so... :P (Apart from the whole bad-is-really- just-misunderstood thing, you know.)

Anyhow--sounds awesome, I'm so glad you liked it! *smites selfishness* So glad you liked it. So glad you liked it. ;)

Melissa Cecilia said...

At which theater did you see it? I can't keep track of the plays because there are so many venues.

Anonymous said...

I love the song. :) I wonder how people successfully *smuggle* cameras into the theater...