Wicked

We had a chance to see the Broadway hit Wicked at the Orange County Performing Arts Center this afternoon. I'm not much for musical theater, but my wife loves the stuff, and this was her birthday present.

Wicked was only in town for two weeks, and all 50,000 tickets sold out in a matter of hours. Thanks to some good work by HolyCoast Dad we ended up in the second row, center - the splash zone. Most of the time the actors were no more than 10 feet or so from where we sat. I've never been that close to a production like this, so it was pretty interesting. My neck is a little stiff from looking up at the stage, but they were great seats.

A former music pastor at a church we attended in Irvine was playing keyboards for the performance, and our second row seats allowed us to say hi during the intermission. He went out to dinner with my parents following the performance.

When we found our seats the three folks directly to my left were all....well, fat. They oozed over the seats like a mudflow over a Louisiana levee. I'm a pretty big guy, too, so I had a bit of a battle keeping the lardo to my left out of my space (I won).

We were a little disappointed to see that both the lead roles were going to be played by understudies for this matinee performance, however, I'm not sure how much better the show's stars could have been. Both lead players were outstanding and well suited to their roles. The gal that played the ditzy blonde Glinda reminded me of a young Goldie Hawn, and the actress who played Elphelba (the green) played the role in such a way to make the audience sympathize with her and take her side. They were both excellent.

The staging is big and extravagant with interesting sets and features, and the show moves along pretty well, though it's quite long. The first half ran over 90 minutes, and all in all we were there for nearly 3 hours.

After seeing the show, I can understand why the understudies played the matinee. Both lead roles are very demanding vocally and physically, and it would be a real chore for one person to play a lead role in two performances in one day. The show is pretty much music from start to finish. There were very few parts where somebody wasn't singing.

The show had a lot of humor, and a lot of references to the Wizard of Oz story that we're all familiar with. There was also a bit in the second half in which Glinda (the Good) played a scene that looked like it came right out of Evita. Very funny.

In preparation for seeing the show I read the book, and it really helped me keep up with the story. I'm not sure I would have been able to follow near as well without that. They did vary a number of things from the original story, including adding a happy ending. Consequently, the show wasn't as dark as the book, nor did the show have any of the book's political intrigue.

I highly recommend it, whether you're a fan of musical theater or not. However, get your tickets when they're first offered because I have a feeling this show will sell out everywhere it goes.