Wicked Easter Sunday

Yesterday, as it turns out, wasn't as bad as I had initially thought. My husband and I had a reasonable talk on the way to our friend/co-worker's party. The rest of our day went quite well, actually.

The friend, Jim, had a little friendly get-together revolving around the geekiest of Geek: Star Trek's First Contact. It was a most enjoyable time. It was nice to be in a room where I wasn't the only female who liked or had heard of Star Trek. One of our other co-workers was very witty, and it was a good time for all.

The theater handed these out to guests.

Later, JJ and I made our way to the Stranahan theater for the evening's performance of Wicked. We had never been to a show of this magnitude together before, so it was a new experience for us as a couple. (Strange to think that we've been together for five years and haven't seen a stage production together before. My inner drama student is weeping.) We were a little nervous because we'd bought the tickets from another co-worker (did I mention they love us at work?), and they were the type that one purchases online. Despite our apprehension (mostly at where to go and who to talk to), the evening went smoothly.

The impressive stage set up.
The dragon's eyes lit up, and it blew smoke out of
its nostrils!

The production was amazing. The detail of the set was so intricate and elaborate! The set design was like a cross between what I would expect of vintage fairy tales and a steampunk adventure. The costumes were amazing, and the singing was superb. The Emerald City scenes were just wonderful. There was so much to enjoy about the whole thing! Our Elphaba, Marcie Dodd, was performing her last show with this cast because she was taking a break. What a fabulous show to end on! It went really fantastically well!

Green is Good bag which held our souvenirs.

My only critique comes from what the actual musical itself does with the original work. The book is very different. It's like the first half follows the book and the second half makes everything up because it would be too difficult to stay true to the plot of the book. It's disappointing, but I can see how it might be difficult to parlay the real story into a stage production. Nessarose, Elphaba's sister, sort of gets the short end of the stick in the stage production, as she is transformed into a whiny, heart-sick, bitter little thing. Fiyero's life is completely changed because he's not actually married, but rather he's in a relationship with Glinda. Not only that, but Elphaba and Fiyero live at the end, which is totally different from their fate in the book. I will admit, though, that I really loved Glinda being portrayed as kind of ditsy and self-centered. The actress in our production, Natalie Daradich, was wonderful!

Front and back of my awesome new water bottle!
This is how the Platzs' go green! :)

JJ bought me some souvenirs after the show so that we'd have something to remember it by. He bought me a metal water bottle and the soundtrack. It was a great experience. We finished our night off by having a quiet dinner in a nearly empty Big Boy. All in all, not a bad way to celebrate our distinctly secular Easter Sunday.

I had to have the soundtrack!