Friday, April 1, 2011

Wicked


Having been a huge fan of The Wizard of Oz since I can remember, and also being somewhat of a closet opera/musical nerd I have been wanting to see Wicked since it opened...

Although I don't remember the first time I saw the movie, since I don't ever remember not loving it, I can remember being 7 or 8 and sitting in my small twin bed with my fisher price cassette player listening to a taped copy of the movie The Wizard of Oz. Not only was I listening, but I was fiercely transcribing every word in my notebook so I could recite the show from heart. My ultimate goal was to convince my very small, very private. very Christian school that we needed to produce this amazing work of art. Needless to say that was never going to happen, but I was very much a dreamer at that age.

I had wanted to see the show when it was in Los Angeles back in 2008-2009, but it seemed like everyone I knew had already seen it and didn't care to fork over the dough to see it again. This is still a mystery to me as I would pay to see it several times over, but as I admitted earlier I am a music nerd and apparently my friends are not (insert side note to get new friends). But to my surprise, ok not surprise because I always seem to find these things out, I got my very own tickets to see Wicked for my birthday a few months back.

I was off a 12 hour turn around trip to Vegas and hadn't slept in 30 hours and counting but I wasn't going to let that detour me...as tired as I was I loved every minute of the show. The comedy was cheesy, the music was amazing, and the story was incredible just as it should be. Multiple times I found myself smiling and crying as it was truly one of the best shows I've ever seen live. I'm no stranger to musicals and operas and while I usually like most of them I can rarely say I wasn't ready for it to be over.  After all 3 hours is a long time to be sitting.  

But not this one.  It is as good, if not better than all the hype. 
This is not your typical Rogers and Hammerstein, and it wasn't written in a time where you have to use words like Bequeath and Henceforth to understand the plot. I mean come on...spoiled rich girl gets stuck rooming with the green weird girl, people floating around in bubbles, a love triangle where the typical girl doesn't get the boy, flying monkeys, talking goats, magic spells awry, good is evil, evil is good...What's not to love?

Because I knew you...I have been changed for good 


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