Wicked's 10th Anniversary

As everyone who knows me knows, I am obsessed with the musical Wicked. the show opened in 2003 and last night (October 30th) it celebrated 10 years on Broadway. I was extremely lucky and I am eternally grateful that I had the opportunity to be there for this performance. I left school in the afternoon and met up with fellow Wicked fans and good friends  I had met through social media. Elizabeth and Tess, thank you for making yesterday as amazing as it was.
 
We started the day by going to a theatre hangout/bakery, Schmakary's and getting their Wicked themed cookies. Double chocolate chunk with emerald green icing. They were pretty reasonably priced too, at 2 giant cookies for $5 total. We took our cookies back to Time's Square and sat on the steps in front of the New Year's Eve ball. we sat there just enjoying talking to each other for a while as we had several hours before the show. Eventually we went to dinner at Ellen's Stardust Diner. That place is soo cool. o many Broadway stars got their start there, and Rachel Potter, in the top 12 on the X Factor is a former staff member there. Why? the ENTIRE staff sings LIVE as you are eating. They dance, they walk around on top of booths and are all around amazing.  I will be posting a couple videos of some portions of the staff singing.

Finally, we made it to the theatre about an hour and a half early, but we knew it was going to be packed. The show was sold out, which means there would be over were over 1,000 people in that theatre all trying to buy merchandise, pick up tickets, search for famous Broadway stars, take pictures, etc. We took numerous pictures outside of the the theatre with murals of Elphaba and Glinda.

We went inside, and I had an e-mail from the theatre company that told me because I had ordered my tickets from the site I did, any apparel purchase came with a free complimentary gift. I had planned on buying a t-shirt anyway, and I was expecting a free gift like a key chain or poster or something. I was not expecting a $20 reusable Wicked themed tote bag. That was just one thing that helped make the night an evening I will never forget. I also ordered a soda from one of the bars and every drink came in a souvenir cup and lid that was acceptable to take into the theatre, and that made me happy. Finally, we all found our seats and the lights dimmed. As soon as the curtain came up, the house started cheering: all 1800 plus of us...including the ushers. I have seen the show before, but the 2 people sitting next to me (not my friends, we all had different seats in different areas of the theatre) were seeing it for the first time and it made the night all that much more special to talk with them and watch their reactions as they fell in love with the show that has spoken to millions of people across the globe. I can't even begin to describe how I was feeling as I sat there and watched the show I know so well. Alli Mauzy (Glinda) made her entrance and once again we all started cheering. Every major entrance, including the green baby at the beginning of the show was met with cheers and applause. It was extremely exciting to be part of that.  There was even huge cheers for the actress playing Elphaba's mother as she has been with the show from day one.

The cast finished the first song No One Mourns The Wicked and the audience cheered for 10 MINUTES. Alli, in an interview today stated that she was worried about that due to various issues. "I had a moment where I [thought], 'We might be here all night if they keep applauding,' but I also thought, 'If we go past union [time constraints for the] musicians, this can be a problem. So I knew I had to move on at some point, but the audience just didn't want to stop applauding [at] the notes and the chords and the word 'Wicked.'"

As if that wasn't enough, we reached Defying Gravity and the end of Act 1. Not only did we al start clapping and cheering, again, but a show is really good if it gets a standing ovation at INTERMISSION.
The second act was just as amazing and I was reduced to tears in For Good. I was not the only one. On stage, Lindsay (Elphaba) and Alli (Glinda) were both in tears also.

There were numerous former cast members in the audience, but I could not find them. Winnie Holzman (She wrote the book for the musical) and Gregory Maguire were both there also, but unfortunately due to the sheer number of people there last night, I did not see them and get to meet them. After the show, Tess, Elizabeth and I headed to the stage door along with about half the audience, but were only told the cast was not coming out that night as they had an after party to go to, and that was not open to the general public unless you felt like shelling out a ton of money.

I am so truly thankful for this opportunity to go to a celebration like this. It went above and beyond a normal Broadway performance.

Despite that small let down, the night was truly magical and I want to send out a huge and heartfelt thank you to the cast, crew and creative team of Wicked for making a musical that has spoken to me and many others, and will for years to come. To be cliche (even if it is true), because of Wicked, I have been changed, For Good. Cheers! Here's to another 10 years and beyond!

Friends and surviving the subway system

This was one insane weekend. One of my friends flew in from Wisconsin Thursday night for the weekend. I asked a huge favor from a William Paterson and she drove to Newark with me to pick up Breanna. I got a phone call from Breanna on the way to the airport saying she was there and was "scared" because there were so many people. I told her to wait until we went to New York on Friday night. We did not do anything until Friday night as I had a 2 PM class on Friday I was not willing to miss as it was my only class of the day.  After class we quickly changed and got ready for the show. We had tickets to see A Time to Kill on Broadway. We got on the bus and an hour bus ride turned into a 2 hour bus ride, with the 2nd hour sitting outside the Lincoln Tunnel (which is pretty much a mile away from Port Authority/Times Square. Apparently there had been an accident in the tunnel, which blocked traffic. We finally made it to Times Square with 10 minutes before curtain. We literally ran through Times Square and made it to our theatre with a few minutes to spare. The show was phenomenal and if any of you ever get the chance to read the book A Time to Kill or see the movie, I highly reccomend it. After the show, Breanna and I went to the stage door where I got to meet one of my numerous Broadway idols-Sebastian Arcelus. It was rather awkward at first. My first  words to him were literally "I'm sorry, is is really awkward." However, once I relaxed a bit I got to talk to him for a while about several things. I offered a hand for a handshake once we were done, and he ignored it and asked for a hug instead. I was soooo excited to get a hug and a picture with him :).  He was really nice and really funny once we got to talking.

On Saturday we went all over the city visiting stores. We went to 5th avenue and several of the high end stores like Saks. We also took the subway down to SoHo to visit Top Shop which apparently only has 3 stores in the U.S. We went to a MAC store also, which provides a ton of high end makeup. On an interesting side note, the company also provides the green makeup that is used in Wicked for Elphaba. I know, I know, obsessed Wicked fan right here. We took the subway all over the city and it took google and asking lots of transit employees which trains to get on, but we successfully navigated the subway system without getting lost. We were actually quite proud of ourselves. The night ended with a huge dinner at Applebee's which was really good.

Sunday we went to Central Park and it is absolutely gorgeous! We took a peda cab (bike cab) around the park for a whole lot cheaper than they wanted. It is impossible to ignore the drivers selling their services, but we successfully vetoed 3 of them before we got one for $30 each. It was a beautiful day. We saw pretty much all of the park and also saw the Plaza Hotel as well as several penthouses from the outside. We saw the penthouse of John Lennon's widow and the place he was killed. There are several places in Central park that have been used in movies, including the song/dance scene "That's How You Know" from the movie Enchanted and I recognized that place which made me so happy. We also stopped at the Central Park Zoo and saw the Tavern on the Green, Strawberry Fields and other attractions. All in all it was a wonderful weekend topped off with dinner at the cheesecake factory and the bus driver getting lost on the way back to campus.