Wicked

Excuse me while I fangirl over Wicked.  I know I’m not the first or the last but last night was my moment to figure out what all the hype was about and I must gush.  Because it is very gushable.

Where to start?  Oh my.

I suppose I should say explain that I knew nothing about this play.  The only thing I knew is that it was about the witches of Wizard of Oz.  And I had my doubts.  Witches and spells and all that aren’t my thing.  I don’t like to see it encouraged and glorified.  I mean, the name of it is Wicked.  Could I really like this?  I know those of you that have seen it must be shaking your head.  No!  It’s not like that!  And indeed, it’s not.  In fact, it’s about a lot of other things that wickedness and witches.

It’s about beauty of character.  Friendships.  Love.  Misconceptions.  Judgments.  Selfishness and selflessness.  Being yourself.  It truly was a beautiful story.  Yes, there’s witches and spells but at the end of the day the point of it was becoming a better person.  When you walk away from a musical and you want to be a better person, it is indeed a beautiful story.

I love what Scott said to the girls this morning when the girls talked about the eviilll green witch,  “She just wanted her sister’s shoes backkk!!!”  It’s just amazing how they pulled the Wizard of Oz into the story. I adored the line. “There’s no place like home”.  And I loved how the Tin Man came about.

I loved the comedy.  Elphaba’s parody of Glinda was hilarious.  Glinda well, Glinda was just hilarious with all her kicking and what not.

I loved that they threw in a love triangle.  I love that they went with the expected but unwanted pairing and that he gave it all up for Elphaba.  I especially love that they got their happy ending.

I think most of all, I loved the character development in this story.  Because it’s not your typical character development.  Part of what’s so interesting is it’s almost working backwards.  We knew how the story, and specifically, the characters ended.  We knew who they were supposed to be.  So the whole first act is almost an undoing of their characters.  Who these people really were versus what we knew.  But then the second act is understanding how they go from those characters to the ones we knew they were.  And the whole time they’re really neither who we thought or who we were introduced to but a wonderful blend of the two.

The talent was out of this world.  Their voices and music were perfection.  At times, it filled the auditorium (and my heart) to the brim where I thought it might explode.

I can’t do a review and not talk about the set and even the logistics of the play.  I loved the sets and how (seemingly) simple they transitioned from one to another.  There was never an awkward pause or a mistake or a stagehand you had to block out in order to continue enjoying it.   Even the mechanics of the show were outstanding.

And lastly, I have to confess that I had NO CLUE that the original Elphaba and Glinda were Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth who have guest starred on Glee.   I have to admit that I did not appreciate their appearances nearly as much as I should have and I’m going to have to go back and rewatch their performances.  I only wish I could have seen the original cast perform Wicked.

I’m sure I haven’t even begun to properly review Wicked but it’s a start.  Bottom line is this is by far my favorite Broadway show and it’s a must see.