Thanks to my fairy godmother Melanie, I got a ticket to see 'Wicked' at the Oriental Theater for my birthday. It was a girls night out, with Fata, Claud, Chariya, Kimmy, Mel and I in attendance.

First things first - if you go to see the show, you have to get out of the mentality that you're going to see the book. I had a hard time in the first 15 minutes because I was thinking things like, 'No, that's not the way it was!' or 'What? That's not right!' or 'Um, I don't think that happened in the book.' Once I told myself to look at this production with fresh eyes, and separate it from the book I loved, it became enjoyable to me. This isn't the book, it's a bit like it, but not completely, with some changes that make it into a completely different story.

I was surprised to see Ana Gasteyer as the name of the woman who would be playing Elphaba, the lead character. Does the name sound familiar? She used to be on Saturday Night Live, best known for playing Bobbie Moughan-Culp, the music teacher who sang with Will Farrell, as well as the lady who did the NPR talk show. I had no idea that she REALLY knew how to sing. I was a bit skeptical.

But as soon as I heard her sing, I was floored. She was amazing, her voice was clear, strong and beautiful. She was a great Elphaba, even though some people had thought that she was too old for the role. Green does wonders for making you look younger!

Kristen Reinders was excellent as Glinda. I wasn't sure if anyone could get that high, clear, cartoony voice that Kristin Chenoweth has (the original Glinda), but Kristin was great. She had the spunk, her comedic timing was excellent, and her voice and Ana's were excellent together.

The rest of the cast was great, though not many had solo songs. The stage set looked amazing, which you can see in one of my pictures. I was so excited to see the dragon clock, it looked so huge! However, it didn't play the part in the show that I had expected.

Overall, the songs were good. Not at Miss Saigon levels, where pretty much every song is something memorable, but there were still several that I would take the time to put into my 'greatest Musical numbers' mix tape. I'll still be buying the sountrack, I'd love to compare with how the original cast sounds.

The story line was excellent. This has a sort of prequel feeling to this, much like the latest 'Star Wars' movie. You get enough information here to get a good understanding of the state of things when 'The Wizard of Oz' starts. It's a little too perfect how everything turns out for my tastes, but it was so entertaining. Once I started accepting the show, then I was in my own world.

As I said, this show isn't the book. It's not even half as dark and the show changes several major story lines and character relationships. The change in Glinda is hardly evident here, and I began to realize that if all the material was covered in the book, we'd be watching a REALLY long show.

But in this case, change is good. They made enough changes to make this an enjoyable and memorable experience.

If you ever have the chance, come out to Chicago and see it!

Here's my pics:

Outside the theater

Chariya, Melanie and Kim take a picture

Sisters!

No photography allowed. Yeah right, as if THAT'S going to stop me from sneaking in a pic before the show!

Posted by Yano at July 8, 2005 02:33 AM

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