Wicked

One of the things from my pre-summer list of things I was looking forward to was seeing "Wicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz."

I didn't read the book by Gregory Maguire, mostly because I had tried reading one of his other ones about Cinderella's step-sister and couldn't even get through the first 50 pages, which for me is saying quite a lot because I love to read, so it wasn't the story that intrigued me.

Oh, and it especially wasn't the story of "The Wizard of Oz" that I loved that made me excited to see it, because I hate that movie. Okay, maybe "hate" is strong. But "hated" works. When I was little and that would be the featured Sunday Night Family Movie on Easter Sunday or whatever, I could only get as far as the witch's castle because the flying monkeys freaked my tree. Really. Scared me. To death. Or at least scared me to not being able to sleep well. Just ask my sisters -- I'm sure they'll tell you all about it. Anyway, I don't know that I ever made it completely through the movie. The only time in recent, memorable history that I'd seen it completely all the way through was when I was in Chile. For some reason, it wasn't as scary in Spanish.

Speaking of the monkeys, three of my friends who I was going to go see it with first were sending an email back and forth while I was in Guatemala talking about the reviews the play was getting here in L.A. One of them said that someone she knew had gone to see it already and had this to say: "The sets are great, the music is great, the cast is great. [Laura, close your eyes]

She did say the flying monkeys are pretty scary. No one mention this to Laura..."

So you can see that I wasn't thrilled about the original story, or even the book the musical was based on.
But a couple of years ago I made one of the best music investments ever when I shelled out $17 for the soundtrack. A friend of ours had seen the pre-Broadway version in San Francisco and raved about how great it was. I didn't understand all the nuances of the story just from listening to the CD so I asked my friend to fill in the blanks for me. I was hooked. The music was beautiful, the lyrics creative, and the story intricate -- with the details it wove in from the original L. Frank Baum story to the current one.
I ended up seeing it three times this summer. I actually had tickets for a fourth night, but ended up selling those ones to a friend. I plan on seeing it again when it comes to the OC next summer. It is absolutely entrancing.

People more qualifed than I have gotten paid to write actual critical reviews of it, so I won't do that, but I did want to share some of my favorite words or lines from it that I wrote down because they were so enchanting.

"It's good to see me, isn't it?" (Glinda when she's descending from the sky in her bubble.

"You've been Galinda-fied." (Fiyero to Elphaba when he sees she's a victim of one of Glinda's makeover attempts.)

"You think I'm really stupid, don't you?"

"No, not REALLY stupid." (Fiyero and Elphaba.)

"He's been thinking, which worries me." (Glinda to Elphaba regarding Fiyero)

"I don't cause commotions, I am one." (Elphaba)

"I happen to be deeply shallow." (Fiyero)

"Excuse us just a tick-tock." (Glinda to her adoring public.)

(then a bit later:) "Wait just a clock tick."

"There's a goat on the lam!" (don't remember who says this, but it's hilarious.)

"We can't all come and go by bubble." (Elphaba to Glinda)

"And that poor little dog, Dodo!" (Glinda to Elphaba)

"Lemons and melons and pears."

"Oh, my." (Boq and Nessarose talking about what's in the punch.)

"I clash with everything." (Elphaba commenting on her green skin.)

And some fun, Glinda-fied words:

Innuendo/outuendo

Confusifying

Definish chance.

Hi-odeous.

Thrillifying.

Toss-toss. (what Glinda does to her hair to try and teach Elphaba how to be Pop-uuuu-laaaaaarrrr)