Wicked Wednesday

I've been called out on my lax postings of late. My apologies to my anxious and curious readers! I'll be making up for it with a few quick posts.

Earlier this week my girlfriend and I had a "play" date. Just the two of us met for dinner and the theater to see the Broadway smash-hit Wicked. Billed as "the untold story of the Witches of Oz", this musical has won so many awards I can't even list them all here, including the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical.

I can't say I had that "I am so excited to see this!" feeling when we found our seats. I was, well, interested but somewhat indifferent. While I had heard everyone rave about the show, I honestly didn't know much about it, assuming only that it was about how the Wicked Witch of the West (named Elphaba) became Wicked. Actually, I think sometimes that's the best attitude to have when seeing a new production -- no expectations to compare with the actuality.

When the curtain rose and the show started, to be honest, I was unsure of how much I was going to like it. It was dark and rather creepy and remember those flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz? Yep, they were crawling all over the stage, too. I wasn't impressed right off the bat.

But then the story began to unfold, and suddenly all our favorite characters from the classic movie were interconnected. Elphaba had the superior, beautiful voice, but Glenda ("Guh-linda" originally) stole the show. By the end, what I was most taken by was not the music or set designs but instead the witty writing and the clever character development. I will never be able to see The Wizard of Oz the same way again. I left with a full understanding of all those beloved characters we found in Oz. I would love to sit here and tell you all how so-and-so became the way he is and why you-know-who did what he did, but it would totally ruin all the wonderful surprises in the play. You'll just have to see it for yourself. Very highly recommend!

And, as a side note (hopefully not a spoiler for you), I just have to comment on my new Oz-ian vocabulary. Love such words as Outuendo, Scandalacious, Hideoteous, Moodified, Discoverate, Disrespectation, Swankified, Thrillifying, Decipherate, Braverism, Horrendible, Confusified, and my favorites -- Congratulotions, Festivate, and Rejoicify. Fun!