WICKED

Oh my goodness . . . OK, so guess what my new favorite musical is? WICKED! Elliot’s sister Bethany has been talking about Wicked . . . let me rephrase that, Bethany has been SINGING about WICKED for over a year now! The musical is in town at ASU and she’s had tickets for a year. They asked me to go just a week ago and even though I had been sort of looking forward to seeing it, I wasn’t terribly excited. IT WAS WICKED AWESOME! We watched it on Thursday.

Beth couldn’t sit down when we got there (and even had a hard time tinkling before the show). She quickly purchased a Wicked shirt and asked her Dad every 4 minutes “What time is it?” Finally it started and although I hardly heard a peep out of her the whole night besides the fact that she was the first to clap after every song, she could be found being so moved by the songs that she thought she was directing the orchestra. What an honor it is to sit next to someone who appreciates something so completely! Beth is wicked awesome!


Here is the brief synopsis from a website:

"Long before Dorothy dropped in, two other girls meet in the Land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. How these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch makes for the most spellbinding new musical in years."

You know how Glinda the Good Witch in Wizard of Oz is kind of freaky and ugly? Well, Glinda IS SO FUNNY! I kept thinking that if Lindsay was there, she’d just jump up on stage and play with them. Lindsay could play the part of Glinda on Broadway! Seriously, now I know how Beth feels because I love it, but can’t really describe how fantastic it really was! So now my little post on Wicked has turned into just rambling with nothing getting accomplished as to how WICKEDLY AWESOME this musical is! I wanted to sit right back down after the last song and watch it AGAIN!


I can't find any pictures of the actually people that were in the musical we watched because their websites are under construction, but here are some other pictures from the WICKED website from Beth's blog.


















My favorite song was "Popular" when Glinda is trying to teach Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West) how to become popular. It's so funny. I was also really impressed with their range as they sang. One second they'd be holding a high note and then all of the sudden they were singing 20 octaves lower (not possible, but still a great range). I couldn't really understand the song "Defying Gravity," which is the name of Beth's blog (look at my links), but I've heard it again after I found the CD Beth made for me a year ago that I hadn't listened to until this day. Here are a few lines from the song when Elphaba decides that she can't follow the old rules anymore(also on Beth's blog):


"Something has changed within me Something is not the same I'm through with playing by the rules Of someone else's game Too late for second-guessing Too late to go back to sleep It's time to trust my instincts Close my eyes: and leap! It's time to try Defying gravity I think I'll try Defying gravity And you can't pull me down!"

I really, really loved it! It's a nice story that gives a huge little twist on why The Wicked Witch of the West is WICKED! Aren't we all?