I know there were several threads in the past about Wicked, so I thought I'd post a mini-review.
First of all, my DD and I saw this in NYC on Broadway last spring. That was a weekday matinee, and was a 13th birthday Mom/daughter special trip.
This time, our group included DD (almost 14), DS (12 1/2), me, and my DM (late 60s).
I bought the tickets as the families big Christmas gift. When I took DD to NYC, DS was a little bummed that he wasn't going. We had planned on seeing it at the Kennedy Center, but life happened, and we ended up moving to Tampa. The kids had said something about not being able to see the show now. So once I saw it was coming to Tampa, I knew that was the big gift for this year.
Our tickets were Row S, slightly right of center. Our tickets in NYC were row Z, slightly left of center. These tickets were head and shoulders better. NYC we had the balcony blocking our upper view. Nothing in our way here, and we seemed SO much closer.
We really didn't have any spare time, because there was traffic on our way there. We walked in about 15 minutes before showtime, and were in our seats with about 6 minutes to spare. Theater was PACKED, but everyone was fairly respectful.
The show itself was wonderful! Everyone had great voices, and I thought the staging was very similar to Broadway. I had seen some complaints about limitations of the theater, but there was nothing apparent to me!
One thing that I thought was neat, but some people might not have liked was the interaction between Ga(G)linda and Elphaba. I think these two people have been playing these roles for at least a year, and IMO, they really interacted exactly the way you would expect the characters to act! In the "Loathing" number, I was cracking up at the way they imitated each other. DD pointed out that this hadn't happened in NYC. And in "Popular" they were actually cracking each other up! I really felt like they were enemies who became friends.
This Fiyero was excellent too! I thought he did a good job of maturing through the show, seemed to show this mostly through body language, which seems like it would be very hard to do. And a great voice!
The Wizard was played by the guy who played Steve (Marcie's husband) on "Married with Children", and I was surprised at how good his voice was. Now I personally think the Wizards songs are the worst songs in the show, but he did a good job with the material. I will say that "Wonderful" was my mom's favorite (probably a generation thing!) She said "I was tapping my feet to that one!"
My 12 1/2 year old son thoroughly enjoyed the show. He was beaming from ear to ear, and singing the songs this morning as he was eating breakfast. We did end up with a few souveniers from the stand. They were pricey, so beware (plain t-shirt was $30, baseball hat was $20, mug was $10, small poster $15, soundtrack $25). But I figured it was worth it for the memory.
Overall, it was a terrific evening. Cheap?? No. But worth every penny in my opinion.
First of all, my DD and I saw this in NYC on Broadway last spring. That was a weekday matinee, and was a 13th birthday Mom/daughter special trip.
This time, our group included DD (almost 14), DS (12 1/2), me, and my DM (late 60s).
I bought the tickets as the families big Christmas gift. When I took DD to NYC, DS was a little bummed that he wasn't going. We had planned on seeing it at the Kennedy Center, but life happened, and we ended up moving to Tampa. The kids had said something about not being able to see the show now. So once I saw it was coming to Tampa, I knew that was the big gift for this year.
Our tickets were Row S, slightly right of center. Our tickets in NYC were row Z, slightly left of center. These tickets were head and shoulders better. NYC we had the balcony blocking our upper view. Nothing in our way here, and we seemed SO much closer.
We really didn't have any spare time, because there was traffic on our way there. We walked in about 15 minutes before showtime, and were in our seats with about 6 minutes to spare. Theater was PACKED, but everyone was fairly respectful.
The show itself was wonderful! Everyone had great voices, and I thought the staging was very similar to Broadway. I had seen some complaints about limitations of the theater, but there was nothing apparent to me!
One thing that I thought was neat, but some people might not have liked was the interaction between Ga(G)linda and Elphaba. I think these two people have been playing these roles for at least a year, and IMO, they really interacted exactly the way you would expect the characters to act! In the "Loathing" number, I was cracking up at the way they imitated each other. DD pointed out that this hadn't happened in NYC. And in "Popular" they were actually cracking each other up! I really felt like they were enemies who became friends.
This Fiyero was excellent too! I thought he did a good job of maturing through the show, seemed to show this mostly through body language, which seems like it would be very hard to do. And a great voice!
The Wizard was played by the guy who played Steve (Marcie's husband) on "Married with Children", and I was surprised at how good his voice was. Now I personally think the Wizards songs are the worst songs in the show, but he did a good job with the material. I will say that "Wonderful" was my mom's favorite (probably a generation thing!) She said "I was tapping my feet to that one!"
My 12 1/2 year old son thoroughly enjoyed the show. He was beaming from ear to ear, and singing the songs this morning as he was eating breakfast. We did end up with a few souveniers from the stand. They were pricey, so beware (plain t-shirt was $30, baseball hat was $20, mug was $10, small poster $15, soundtrack $25). But I figured it was worth it for the memory.
Overall, it was a terrific evening. Cheap?? No. But worth every penny in my opinion.
on "Wicked" since she has met and talks to some of the traveling cast. She went twice to the show in St. Louis. We also saw other performers in Chicago. We personally like the traveling show much better - DD LOVES Stephanie J. Block as Elphaba. Actually, she is a very nice person in real life, which made it easy to love her performance. The cast really do interact well together. It is a fun show to watch. Just as a side note, I think that Stephanie Block is leaving the show in March.
My College choir is doing selections from it, so that will keep me happy until then. I'm right now in the midst of reading the book too.
which we have seen 5 times (and have tickets for again this summer in London 
