IMHO: Wicked

The In My Honest Opinion Series (IMHO) is a series of posts for the purpose of declaring my opinion on certain subjects.  My honest opinion.  (Yes, thank you, Mary.)  These posts will be my totally unbiased, totally unaltered-on-any-grounds opinion.  Each and every one of my readers are entitled to the right to comment below with their own opinion and an argument, if they so desire.  Let us begin.

(Behold.  The first IMHO post!  Seems fitting that a series that has been in my mind so long should start with my now-tied-for-second-favorite musical, Wicked.  C :)

The synopsis of Wicked could probably be very (very, very) summarized by saying that it's about what happened Before Dorothy Dropped In.

Wicked is the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and G(a)linda, the Good Witch of the North, and how they became friends.  They start out simply loathing each other and taking things that don't belong to them, then ending up both being changed for good.  (Brownie points for everyone who knows how many quotes I just quoted!)

I had never seen Wicked before seeing it on Broadway (which is the best place to see a musical for the first time, btdubs!!), but I'd heard a few of the songs.  Namely because of Ally.  C :  Anyway, when I heard that I was going to be able to see a musical on Broadway (then wheedled my way into seeing two, muahahaha...), I first thought of Wicked.

Before seeing it, the only things I knew about it were a) it had been running on Broadway since 2003, peeps, b) the two (give or take) songs I'd listened to from it were astonishing (excuse the quote from another musical), c) my friend saw it when she was in NYC yeeeears ago and said it was good, and d) many people who had seen it or listened to it that I knew and respected (*cough*Ally*cough*) absolutely loved it.

So I thought, 'Heyyyy....  Might as well, deeds!'  (Okay, enough quoting from things other than Wicked!)

Now we come to the IMHO part.

I LOVED IT.

From the opening notes (y'all know what I'm talking about) to the closing of the curtain after the bows, I was totally enraptured in all of it.

I loved a great many things about this musical.  First of all, I LOVED my cast.  Lindsay Mendez (GRACIOUS SAKES....  she had SUCH a powerful voice!), Tiffany Haas (who was an understudy, by the way, and I won't go into my theory in understudies and just say that, nine times out of ten, I've observed they play the part better than the person who is actually cast for the role!), Derek Klena (WOW....  Let me just say.... his "Let the green girl go!" was allllllmost as good as Aaron's!), Carol Kane (as Madame Morrible....  Don't recognize her name?  Does "Humperdink, Humperdink, Humperdink!" ring a bell???) and allll the rest....  I was literally just BLOWN AWAY.

During the intermission, my dad and I stepped out to get a drink (non-alcoholic....), my dad looked at me and said, "Wow....  That was actually.... pretty good."  That made me really surprised, cuz, HELLO, this is the guy who watches most of the movies I love and hold dear to my heart and says they're "cute."

I won't go through all of the songs and tell you which were my favorite (I'll just list the ones I really like - No One Mourns the Wicked through Finale: For Good (Reprise)!), I'll just say that I loved all of them.  C :  The one I sing the most, howevs, is probably The Wizard and I.  Just cuz.  C :

Now for the extremely biased part.

I hope you guys agree with me about how amazing this was after seeing all of these videos.  If not, feel free to start a comment war.  I have my caps lock ON.)

Lindsay Mendez singing 'The Wizard and I'

 

 

 

Derek Klena and Lindsay Mendez singing 'As Long As You're Mine'

 

 

 

Lindsay Mendez singing 'No Good Deed'

(Hey...  I really love her voice....)

 

 

Tiffany Haas singing 'Popular' (with Anne Brummel)

 

 

 

Derek Klena singing 'Along the Way'

(Not from Wicked, obviously, but it gives you a glimpse of what a great voice he has!)

 (I can't post this video here....  : (((((  Just click the link.  Click it.  Do it.)

 

 Tiffany Haas and Lindsay Mendez singing 'What Is This Feeling?'

(The picture is of the best cast EVAH)

I wishwishwiiiiish there was a video of them singing this....  They played off each other soooo well!!!

 

 And here are some pictures to make y'all completely and totally jealous.  C :

The usual cast....

Plus one of the sweetest ladies on the planet!

The wall was painted with the map of Oz.
And everything in the theater was green, which, if any of you really know me, you'll know it's my favorite color.
So I was literally in heaven.  C :

The staaaage....

 

 

Okay, this is too cool to be in a caption.  We were right on the edge of the balcony, front Mezz left, and we had a reeeeally good view of practically everything.  The rope hanging from the ceiling on the far right was where the first personal flying monkey (sorry.... couldn't resist!) came down, the black shape on the stage to the right of it is a small trap door, and the ramp on the right of the stage leads down to another trap door which the cast uses frequently.  When I took the picture, I was like, "It's a TRAPDOOR, DAD!  This is going to be AWESOME!!!"

 

Meeting the Cast.  C :

 

(If you're already turning green [heehee.... green....], you can just stop now.  Cuz it'll only get worse.)

Me and Catherine Charlebois, who played Nessarose.  So good!

Me and Derek Klena, who played Fiyero.  (Stop gushing, KarMarie....)

Me and Tiffany Haas, who played G(a)linda.  She was so sweet!  She stayed and talked with my dad and I for the longest.  : )

 

Me and Lindsay Mendez, who played the green girl herself!

 

The stuffs I got.  C :

My autographed Playbill.  (Which is an ACTUAL Playbill, by the way!!)

My autographed Playbill, cont'd.

 

The cup that is ONLY sold at the Gershwin.

I use it every day.  No joke.

Well, that's Wicked.  IMHO.

Care to comment?

~Eowyn~