Up above see Sarah's signed program. Click for an up close version. We mean up close!
Signatures going clockwise from top left: Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth, and Stephen Schwartz(composer).
Above is Ben singing at Stephen Schwartz's party. He sang "Colors of the Wind" since it is a Stephen Schwartz song.
Ok so our two-day story of Wicked. It was June 7th (Saturday) and we arrived at the theatre with our parents. We sat down in our seats and looked at the set. It was amazing: full of color, elaborate, a true-technical feat (my brother's saying). YOU have to see it for yourself. I (Sarah) had read the book and noticed a few changes before the show started and throughout the show - it's fine and it works. We then read through our programs before the show started. We swear everybody in the cast has been in either Rent, Aida, or Footloose. We also learned that Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth both have CD's. Idina's: Still I Can't Be Still and Kristin's: Let Yourself Go. We bought both and they are very good. Kristin's is produced by Sony Classical and Idina's by Hollywood Records. JUST in case you are ordering them at this very second. Ok back to the show. The lights finally started to dim and we vaguely were listening to one of the usual pre-show announcements. BUT THIS WAS NO ORDINARY ANNOUNCEMENT-my mom poked me to alert me-"Kristin Chenoweth has recently sustained a neck injury"-OH NO she won't be at the show-"but she didn't want to miss the chance to perform for you. Tonight she will be wearing a neck brace. She is not in pain." My brother and I were both so relieved, exchanged looks and said "she's so professional."
Act 1: Finally the show started. Some of the melodies unfortunately didn't catch on as much as they needed to, but a lot of the songs were still very humorous/dramatic/pure amazing in singing talent. My brother was confused about some of the scenery since he hadn't read the book - and some of the scenery confused me too as it wasn't explained for the musical. We liked hearing "The Wizard and I" because of the belting and it was pretty catchy (helped by a reprise). There was a really funny scene with Elphaba acting really strange (you'll recognize the choreography) a few songs before "Popular". "Popular" is the culmination of an already funny scene. It was a very hysterical song and Kristin did it amazingly. This song is sinlge-most standout number of the show. When we saw the show Kristin made perfect use of her cast by joking around with the pain it was causing her in everyday habits. "I'm Not That Girl" was emotional and showed the plot changes throughout the show because there was a reprise of this song as well. The act ended with "Defying Gravity". Let's just say we wanted to bow down to Idina the belting queen as she belted herself into oblivion. Personal note: My brother and I love belting (both actors) and we spent the next day trying to belt that F (our best guess of the note). The only thing that could add to this number was the amazing special effects.
Act 2: We ran into a few of our family friends during intermission-they loved it too. "As Long As You're Mine" was emotional if not a bit crazy-why we liked it. "No Good Deed" was a very emotional song - you go find out why (lots of belting too). Somewhere in here were some more fancy special effects that made us go "OOOH." "For Good" another very good song that made Sarah cry (Ben was close). This act was also full of most of the reprises. After a few more eye poppers and some other good songs the show was over. General notes: Kristin Chenoweth stole Act 1 with a lot of humour, but Act 2 favored Idina because of the emotions of her character. We also liked Norbert Leo Butz (Fiyero) and Michelle Federer (Nessarose) for her singing. We were kind of dissapointed by Robert Morse (Wizard) but he still got rave reviews.
After the Show: We went over to the stage door and waited for the cast. Stephen Schwartz was hanging out on the street talking to people. We were bummed that no one else recognized him but we went over and said hi. Happily we informed him that we were going to his party the following night and he said he was glad to hear that. We complemented him on the score and walked back over to wait for the cast. We saw Carole Shelley, Michelle Federer, and Kirk McDonald come out. We didn't say hi to any of them - our mistake. Idina Menzel came out first and we were one of the first people who got to say hi to her. We both commented on how amazing her perfomance was. She thanked us as she signed our programs.
Sarah (sounding a little too casual) : "How high was that belting note in 'Defying Gravity'?" Idina: Oh I don't know ... and don't tell me because I won't be able to sing it next time.
Ben was too star struck to say anything.
Sarah: How do you get all that green stuff off?
Idina: Oh you know in the shower.
Sarah (noticing Idina's nails) : SO are your nails green for the part?
Idina: Oh maybe green is just this week's color.
We complimented her again. Personal Note: Why didn't we tell her how big of fans we were/our names?
Kristin Cheonweth finally came out much later and we
were really excited because we love her in Charlie Brown etc. We were surprised that she is even shorter when you meet her on the street. GO short people!
Usual compliments here.
Ben: That was brilliant beyond brilliant....
Kristin: Oh thank you sweetie
Sarah: So how do you sing that high? Were you born like that?
Kristin: Oh yeah I guess I was just born like that (bubbly laugh)
She signed our programs and we took a picture with her. She blinked so we are getting a better picture on the 29th. We complimented her again and she made several jokes to her crowd about her boyfriend who was there.
Day 2:
June 8th - the lady that runs musicalschwartz.com was having a party for Stephen Schwartz in honor of his new musical. We were invited and my brother and our family friend were asked to sing (we'll get to that later). It was just a fun experience to meet Stephen Schwartz again and to meet all of the Wicked fans. We went around and all introduced ourselves and why we were there. Mr. Schwartz seemed very down to earth.
Sarah: Hi I'm Sarah from the Bay Area. I can't believe no one has said this - I'm here because I have interest in the show since there are such talented actresses in it. Good show and great music. I was worried about how it would compare to the book but it was ... "good." (lovely choice of words.)
Ben: Hi I'm Ben also from the Bay Area. Also a huge fan of the actresses and to see them performing was UHHHHHHHH (made this out of breath noise as if he was in heaven/hit by a bus) [Laughter]. Great show!
Then Ben sang "Colors of the Wind" which is a Stephen Schwartz song. Our friend Greg sang "This is the Moment" - not Stephen Schwartz, but evidently one of his friends. All of this was in honor of the composer.
From left: Greg, Stephen Schwartz, Sarah, Ben
This is at Stephen Schwartz. Greg is a friend of Ben's. They have done a few shows together.
That's about it. Thanks for listening if you made it this far.
