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.