Wonderfully Wicked

On Thursday November 12th, my surrogate father here in the UK took me to see Wicked – the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical based on the best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. Wicked tells the story of Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West and her relationship with Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. Their friendship struggles through their opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, their reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace. The plot is set mostly before Dorothy's arrival from Kansas, and includes several references to well-known scenes and dialogue in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz as a backstory, including just how the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion became who they are.

The show was absolutely fantastic! The set was spectacular, and the music was phenomenal, including songs such as Dancing Through Life, Popular, I’m Not That Girl, and Defying Gravity (which were among my personal favorites). The woman who played Glinda, Dianne Pilkington, did a magnificent job, in my opinion – her comic timing was spot-on, and her voice was very beautiful.

It was especially awesome because I got to see the show from two different viewpoints: first, in our original seats, we were maybe 13 rows from the front and off to the side. These seats were good, as I could see the actors’ expressions quite well, but not great, because some of the things that happened in the corner of our side of the stage I couldn’t quite see. And Kevin was just not having that. At intermission he found his friends who work at the theatre (Kevin used to be in a band and he also played in a lot of shows, so he knows allllll the right people), and they moved us to the balcony. It was pretty cool to see the show from above.

I simply cannot wait to see more shows (since I can actually afford to now)...Sister Act, The Lion King, and Les Miserables are next on the list!  I'll let you know which ends up being my favorite.