A Wicked Night Out

I clearly haven’t been to the theatre in ages; I had forgotten that during the intermission they sold ice cream. A lady stood at the front of the theatre yelling, ‘Ice cream! Ice cream!’ in an impressively loud voice. But one tiny, little tub cost more than £3, which is totally ridiculous. Safe to say, as a student, I didn’t buy any. It was during the intermission that I realised how tall the tall man really was. He had to be at least twice my size; I don’t understand how he sat comfortably in the cramped theatre chairs!

After a while I just couldn’t help thinking the intermission was really dragging on; I wanted the Second Act to start already! The First Act had finished on a cliff hanger, with Elphaba finally becoming the ‘Wicked Witch’. However, she was just made out to seem evil; it’s really the Wizard of OZ, a big shock I know!

The Second Act didn’t really have as many impressive songs as the first did, like many other musicals, it was more about the plot rather than the songs. But I was still very interested. The best bit about the Second Act was the involvement of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and Dorothy (though I find Dorothy really annoying, but I like Toto!) These characters are not at all like they are in the original book, they’ve all got their own twists and I think this makes them so much better (except Dorothy, she’s still a pain in the butt!)

Wicked was one of those things I just didn’t want to end. The finale was brilliant but I just wanted to watch it all over again. Thinking about it afterwards though, the ending wasn’t that brilliant for Glinda; she believes her best friend and her true love to be dead, whilst they run off together secretly alive. If something like that happened to me I would be pretty pissed off. I guess that’s why they call her the Good Witch; she’s always nice about everything. Maybe it would be an interesting idea to do an intervention about Glinda actually being evil?

Even after all that, I still would rather be Glinda than Elphaba; she just has the better songs, the better personality, and definitely the better outfits!

A Gravity Defying Show

This was the part of the day that I was most excited for. My best friend had seen Wicked last year and Barbara and I had planned to see it this summer but just never got around to it. As part of the lastminute.com deal the seats would be nearest to the stage. Our seats were 31C to 35C, that’s three rows from the front! Admittedly, this is both good and bad. Good because we could see all their facial expressions and even when they spat from enunciation (which was a lot, by the way) but bad because it did mean quite a bit of neck craning. Typically, sitting in front of my short sister was the tallest man possible and sitting in front of me was a woman with the poofiest hairstyle straight from the eighties. However, I wasn’t going to let any of that get me down.

My mind was blown away by the set of Wicked – it is absolutely amazing! The best thing about it is the dragon at the front. It’s not really part of the story but at the beginning, to set the mood I suppose, it breathes smoke and roars loudly. I was practically giggling with excitement by then.

I didn’t actually know the plot of Wicked, except that it was about the witches of OZ. I think I especially liked it because it was an intervention of the Wizard of OZ; and Textual Intervention is one of my favourite modules that I’m doing at University. And University is actually where the Good Witch Glinda and the Wicked Witch, Elphaba, first met and became close friends! Can you believe it?  But more importantly you can’t really imagine there being a University in the land of OZ!

I’ll tell you one thing; the outfits in the show were amazing! I wouldn’t mind having some of Glinda’s dresses, especially her Good Witch one. The Emerald City outfits were completely ridiculous, though! I bet the costume designer really loves their job!

I sat in anticipation for the Act One finale, although all the other songs and dances were fabulous, especially Popular, I was looking forward to Defying Gravity the most. And, boy, it didn’t disappoint. It was sung fantastically (with lots of spit) and it was choreographed perfectly. It actually gave me goose bumps, which I had throughout the whole of the intermission! I had the song stuck in my head for the rest of evening as well. 

Justin BBar

Before I get your hopes up this blog actually has nothing to do with Justin Bieber, sorry! The restaurant we ate at before seeing Wicked was called BBar. My Dad had gone to lastminute.com where you can get a meal and then see a musical for a really cheap price. We could have either gone to ASK restaurant or the BBar, we felt like being fancy so we chose the BBar. Just the location sounded fancy: Buckingham Palace Road, we were practically dining with the Queen! It’s actually a cocktail bar and restaurant but we were going for the food rather than the drinks; we didn’t want to be drunk for the musical!

The décor wasn’t really how I imagined it would be; I pictured sleek, shiny, black and white wallpaper with chrome and glass furnishings.  In reality it had an animal safari theme but it was still very sophisticated. There were many of those odd animal sculptures dotted around the place made of bamboo and wood, probably from Ikea. The menus had animal photos on the back, and the chairs and wallpaper were all animal print. The chairs were actually wicker armchairs with big squishy cushions, although their size meant it was quite hard to get close to the table. 

One of the conditions of the dinner and a show deal was that there was a set meal. There were only three choices for each course, and you could only have two courses. My Dad was the only one of us to pick a starter. One starter choice was Thai Fishcakes, quite the swanky starter, better than cheesy garlic bread at least! And they didn't have just any old burger; they had a beef burger in a toasted bun with lettuce and tomato relish - it's like an M&S advert! But I didn't have that (though I usually would have, only I had a burger the day before) I had the Ravioli instead. It was so tasty, a nice change from my usual studenty beans on toast. The dessert, oh God, the chocolate brownie with ice cream was the best I have ever had! I could have eaten at least five more of those! Yummy! Just thinking about it now makes my stomach rumble. Once we were full we were ready to see Wicked, and I couldn't wait!

London, Baby!

It sounds like a cliché, but when I arrived in London I felt like I was in a movie, as if there was going to be a montage of me seeing all the sights with an uplifting soundtrack. Sounds pretty lame, really! Everything was just so much bigger and faster than it is in Devon. The buildings towered over me and the traffic never seemed to stop even though there were red lights everywhere. I saw a bus nearly rear end a taxi that swerved in front of it. I was so enthralled by all these things that I didn’t realise that everyone had walked off without me. I almost got lost in the crowds of people; I think I would have bawled like a baby if I had.

It was only 5 in the afternoon, which of course meant that it was pitch black already, but it also meant that all the Christmas lights looked extra festive. I guess London wasn’t as scary as I thought, though I was in a posh area. Wicked didn’t start for another two hours so we went for a walk to Buckingham Palace, as you do. On my few trips to London I have never seen the Palace before; I’ve only really been to the art galleries for school trips and the Millennium Dome when I was a lot younger.

The best thing about going to London this late in the day was that all the other tourists were gone, so in front of the Palace was empty. Nick and I had our photo taken by the gates of the Palace like the real tourists we are. As we walked around the Palace I wondered how many rooms it had, and how many of those were bedrooms. I wondered what the Queen’s bedroom looked like. Does she have a swimming pool? Then, as we walked the streets of London I wondered if the Queen ever just fancies taking a walk, or popping to the shop for some milk. I don’t think I could handle being royalty!

Train Training

This may come as a shock to some people; but I have only ever been to London five times before, and three of those times were for school trips. I suppose I am more of a countryside girl, having lived in Devon all my life. I’m somewhat nervous of big cities so London could be one of the worst places for me. However, this week I put on my big girl shoes and braved the famous city to see the musical, Wicked.

I have another confession: I’m not very train savvy. In fact, if anything, I hate trains. This feeling started last year during the snow days when all my trains home were delayed or cancelled. I probably spent about three hours sat alone at frozen stations. Not the best way to start the Christmas holidays. Anyway, I don’t like trains, and what’s the easiest way to get to London? That’s right: trains. Luckily, I had my sister, Barbara, and boyfriend, Nick, with me; they’ve both practically got PHDs in train travel.

Obviously, the train from Winchester to London Waterloo wasn’t too bad; that’s a pretty simple one, an hour with no changes. Although, I did panic that we would be late and miss it. Things got a little crazy once we were at Waterloo Station and had to get to the underground; we were heading to Victoria. I had no idea where we were really going or how to even get there. I have only been on the tube once during an art trip; one of the girls in my class didn’t make it onto the train before the doors closed, that was a very scary moment. Fortunately, the doors opened again and she got on. A lucky break.  But now I’m scared this is going to happen to me.

The underground actually really surprised me. It looked like an Enterprise Starship corridor from Star Trek but much more crowded. Walking through the crowds I felt in the way, I also felt so obviously touristy as if everyone knew that I wasn’t from around here. If I’m honest I didn’t really know what I was doing so just followed the others everywhere; they seemed to know exactly where they were going even when there was no map around. Then no matter how many times they tried to explain it to me I still didn’t get it. Actually, being on the underground trains wasn’t as horrid as I thought it would be; it wasn’t as busy as it seems in the movies, I actually managed to get a seat!  And it wasn’t as dirty as some people make it out to be; Nick said that last time he was on the tube the tracks were crawling with rats. I kept a lookout for rats after he mentioned that!

Although the train journey wasn’t that bad in the end I was glad to be back above ground and I don’t think I could commute like so many do each day. 

The First Post

This blog has been set up as part of my Media Writing module. Keep checking the site because I will be uploading some posts soon!