My girlfriend and I saw WICKED yesterday and we both walked away agreeing it was the best show we've ever seen.  What was unexpected was how the story was about the real characters and how they got to be what The Wizard of OZ portrayed them to be.  Both of us immediately saw the correlation to our own situation where good and decent people are portrayed as wicked by power hungry, powerful people who's only consideration was their own advancement.

But it was funny too.  Very funny!  Anyone who has a chance to see it, should.  You'll walk away a convert.  I snubbed my nose at it for 3-1/2 years because it seemed too commercialized.  I now know it's so popular because it deserves to be.

Julie

Hi Julie,

Thanks for the review, I must admit I had been avoiding the show for similar reasons...

...will have to see what seats are available, but I had promised to take my SO to "Dirty Dancing" first 

Chrissty

Quote from: Chrissty on January 23, 2009, 03:41:00 PM
Hi Julie,

Thanks for the review, I must admit I had been avoiding the show for similar reasons...

...will have to see what seats are available, but I had promised to take my SO to "Dirty Dancing" first 

Chrissty

Chrissty,

We saw Dirty Dancing a few weeks prior.  I'm one of those insane fans of the movie.  I've seen it dozens of times and own both the standard and limited edition DVDs of the movie.  I make people sick with my love for the movie.  The play stays very true to the movie and both Baby and Penny were spitting images of the characters in the movie (in the Chicago version).  At the end of the play I almost got up and started dancing until I realized I wasn't at home.   And it took all I had to hold back the tears several times throughout the show.  Yeah, I'm pathetic!

About a quarter the way into WICKED I thought "this is good but can't compare to DD".  By the end of the first half I was blown away!  At the end of the play I realized DD, for as much as I liked it, just couldn't compete with WICKED.  It was that good.

After you've seen both I'd love to hear your feelings.  You can't lose going to either though.

Julie

Quote from: Julie Marie on January 23, 2009, 04:09:29 PM
After you've seen both I'd love to hear your feelings.  You can't lose going to either though.

Will do Julie... but don't hold your breath as it will probably take a couple of months to get seats and arrangements sorted for both

...and my SO is now talking about wanting to see the "Blue Man Group" tour too!...



Chrissty

*turns green with envy*

the book, Wicked, by Gregory Maguire, is also quite good. after i read it, i got hooked on that author, and started reading everything by him that i could get my hands on.

and (and) some of his other books are even better than Wicked.

-ell

As a christmas present my Grandma took our entire extended family out to see the show. We took up a whole row in the theatre! My god it was such a fantastic play. I love when those BRIGHT emerald city lights come on and everyone in the audience gasps! Plus my sister came all gothed up and dark like Alphaba (that's probably spelled completely wrong) and I came all frilly and pink like Glinda.

Did you cry? I did, but then I cried at the Rugrats movie (Chucky didn't have a Mom!!!) so that's not out of the ordinary. 

-Birdie

I'll admit it, I ugly cried at the end of Wicked.  It's so much more touching than any musical has a right to be, more emotional, like one would expect from opera.  I don't know about transgender women attracted to other women, but for me, growing up as a "boy" attracted to other boys, the song about not being "that girl" penetrated DEEP.

Lia

I absolutely loved the book along with it's sequel Son of a Witch. And I've wanted to see the play since I first saw previews of it.

Well I finally made it to the London production of the show on Thursday last week...

...Yes.... I cried several times...

..Yes.... I can so identify with doing good deeds that are both unrecognised, and used by others for their own gain.... *feeling a little green*

Overall an excellent show that can be appreciated on many levels. I'm sure a lot of people miss the possible alternative interpretations of what is going on, and a lot of people just enjoy the spectacle and the music missing the story completely. Interesting that they did not feel the need to make any of the songs suitable for release as a promotional "hook".

I can now see why there is so much fuss about the vocal challenge in the "Elphaba" role.

The only criticism I have of the London show, was the voice levels during speech were a little low at times, and the auditoruim (which looked like it was at capacity) was rather hot, but otherwise 10/10.

Defying gravity? ...I'm working on it! 

Chrissty

Thank you for your review Julie,

I have been humming and haring about seeing this play for a while now. Its been on London for quite some time. I kept putting it off, and now I may actually go and watch it. I went to see We Will Rock you last August and wow it was amazing. I love Queen, and always throught that no one could ever put a patch on Freddie Mercury (God bless his soul) and actually the actor who "played" him was very good.

The one will defiantly have to go on my "to watch" list.

Jay