I have been away from theater for too long. And perhaps I've gotten old, too. There were too many reasons for me NOT to attend theater in my current life than there are reasons TO go to theater.
Saving up money for months to see "Wicked" at the Broward Center" was something I was really, really wanting to do. I wanted to see "Wicked." I knew the music already and had never seen the show. I wanted to know why most of the women who auditioned when I was in my 30's sang "Popular" or "Defying Gravity." I wanted to know why a lot of the men sang "Something Bad" or "Dancing Through Life". So, my husband agreed to go with me. I looked at tickets online at Ticketmaster and they were massively expensive depending on the exact SEAT you wanted on what day. My thought was to go directly downtown and buy tickets and I would save money. I was soooo wrong. The same two seats I saw online for one price was higher for the same night when I got to the Broward Center Box Office. Really?
Sigh.
So I had to change the seats on the night that worked for both my husband and I. Upset, I just went home with tickets, saved $5 for parking, which, I should have realized would be much higher on the night of the show, and went home. Last night, parking was $12 instead of the $1.25 per hour that garage is during the day. It wasn't really packed, which was nice, and we got to park on the 2nd level. We walked over to the Center and memories hit me...memories of walking up that steep hill to go inside the lobby. I remember that. I remember climbing the stairs up to the booth. I remember talking to house management and crossing paths with ushers and others that I might have known at the time.
Getting to our seats finally up in the balcony I was reminded about my husband's fear of heights. He really did not like being that high up. And he hated the seats: they were too small and not comfortable and it just really wasn't his thing. And the show hadn't started yet.
Once it did, I realized that balcony is not a bad place to see this show. I couldn't see any of the faces clearly, but the way the blocking was done all characters and sets and lights and everything was conveyed nicely. Props to the Stage Manager for starting the show 2 minutes after 8p.m. Well done! Also after intermission the 2nd act started 2 minutes after....I'm so proud!
I noted that the father character, played by Wayne Schroder, sang a little fast during the opening number. The music played on and there was a deep pause and the mother figure caught everyone back up to the beat of the music. There was a scene later in Act 1 where a bicycle was left in the back of the scene upstage of everyone and someone from the wings ran out, grabbed the bike and wheeled it off: nothing choreographed, just - removed.
Props to the set designer and the clock motif that my husband had to explain to me. Love the dragon, too. The sets on the pulleys just worked for me: easy to maneuver, yes there were sets repeated for different scenes but it didn't take away from the story and that magic just worked. I like the smart idea for Mary Kate Morrissey who played Elphaba to put her box on the set piece as she sang "The Wizard and I" and she moved downstage to sing and the set pieces moved into the wings removing the box that she didn't need for the next scene. Yup, that works for me!
The lights were magnificent and I wanna know how the lighting designer, Kenneth Posner, made it rain. And I wanna know how I missed it raining on Elphaba and she didn't melt.
It looked like an 8 to 10 piece orchestra in the pit with the conductor. They were so in rhythm and tune and yes, I watched them on and off and they moved with their music. It was so pretty to see. I saw a 15 person chorus who did everything necessary to fill in the world that we were seeing.
The choreography was only "eh". It wasn't spectacular but it was just "there."
Elphaba, played by Mary Kate Morrissey, was really the star of the show. She was the focus. Glinda, played by Ginna Claire Mason, was the co-star. She was also really breathy during "Popular" and you could clearly hear it. I thought she was gonna stop singing and pant for a bit. And the Wizard, played by Tom McGowan, was a delight. I really, really liked him in Act II with "Wonderful".
Most of the time I watched the booth. I miss it up there. Those, to me, will always be the best seats in the house. No old people above me on my right talking during the ENTIRE FIRST ACT. No one's bright screen from their cell phone as they record the show. I know, I know: cell phones are everywhere and you can't stop everyone from recording a show right after everyone is asked NOT to record a show. Although, I did see one patron walk down to a teenager and tell them to put their phone away..and that worked.
It was a very good musical, but for my future, I won't be sitting in the balcony with my husband. I will take in his concerns on being so high up and maybe we'll just wait for a great show to be live in tv.
