BlueWizard sees the WICKED tour- Page 3

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 10:21am

"By the way can you or anyone else tell me if the novel ends the same way?"

SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!

No the book does not end the same way, but the book is very, very different, wonderful, but different. The show is only very loosely based on it. Anyway in the book Elphaba dies at the end when Dorothy throws water on her.
Personally I just saw the show for the second time (the first was a little over a year ago) and while I still love the show, I hate the ending. After the first time I saw it I decided to believe that Fiyero and Elphaba going off to the other world was in Glinda's head, she'll believe that they've left and can't tell her that they're still alive because of the danger. I know that's not what's supposed to be happening, but it makes it better in my head

[eslgr8]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 12:09pm

STILL SPOILERS, SO ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO'VE SEEN THE SHOW

Tigger, you have expressed exactly how I feel about Wicked, in words which I would have had a hard time coming up with myself. You've made me think about the ending of the show, and you are absolutely right, it isn't a perfectly happy ending. Yes, I felt elated in knowing that Elphaba survived, but her life is hardly going to be perfect, as neither is Glinda's. Elphaba and Fiyero are together, but he is not the same Fiyero that she fell in love with (a true test of unconditional love), and of course she can never again see the person who has most impacted her life, the person with whom she has felt the closest connection. This is hardly a "happy" ending. So yes, it is best described as bittersweet. And there are many lessons to be learned from Wicked. Not a simple or superficial story at all.

[PerhapsACreamPuff]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 12:14pm

I think one of the reasons I don't like the ending is that it completely disregards/undermines Elphaba's allergy to water. In the book Maguire makes a lot of references to how she avoids water, bundles up in the rain, bathes with oil etc. and in the show it's reduced to a rumor about how her soul is unclean, which isn't true at all. It even kind of negates the one (that I can think of) joke in the musical about Elphaba avoiding rain.

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 1:31pm

Well I think the point of the avoiding rain joke is to draw attention to the fact that she is out in the rain and is not melting. There are a lot of little things like that in the show that are said or shown off hand that become important later. Like...

SPOILER

When Madame Morrible mentions off hand that weather is her specialty. Very important later

[SimpleJoysHaveSimpleVoice]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 6:28pm

Tigger, I concur with eslgr8, your account of Wicked is very close to how it makes me feel. Thank you for writing it so specifically to my emotions.

BluWiz, I see your point and thank you for allow me the room to express my thoughts. It is a good discussion.



Hey, what happened to the 45 minute delay explanation?? Chicken??

[DefyGravity23]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 7:31pm

A little ways back someone asked me how I missed 45 minutes of Wicked in NY so here's the story:

I went with my high school theatre group on a tuesday night while we were on a trip to NY for spring break. The show starts at 7 on Tuesdays, and the rest of the shows during the week from what I understand start at 8. Our tour company got mixed up and put on the schedule that the show started at 8. So we showed up I think around 7:45...I'm not sure of the exact time, it could have been later or earlier, but I think it was around then since that was the time we planned to arrive.

When we walked in we found out the real starting time, and got to our seats during "dancing through life" if that gives any indication of how much we missed? I don't really know the whole story, but I do know the tour company tried to get a hold of us to correct the time. Somehow I guess they couldn't or my drama teacher didn't get the message. It did say 7 on our tickets, but our teacher didn't give them to us until we arrived at the theatre (probably afraid we'd lose them). I was extremely disappointed about missing part of it since I've been waiting to see the show for about a year now, but thats just how things go sometimes.

Thanks for the advice on when to see it in Chicago. By the way you CAN still get tickets for the National tour, at least in June. I've checked. (went to www.broadwayinchicago.com) You just have to look for single seats and you can usually find some pretty good ones(depending on the day). But I think I'm still leaning towards waiting for the sit-down because it would be much easier for me to go then. I just didn't know if there was a major difference between the two or not.

Okay so here's another question....I have lots of questions, sorry...what would be the BEST place to sit? So that I can see everything (if possible). Are there any places that are pretty bad seats, for instance if you go too far back on the floor is it hard to see stuff?

[SimpleJoysHaveSimpleVoice]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 10:03pm

Well, I think that your group leader should be fired, then be made to pay for the entire group to see the show out of his own pocket. But that is just my take on it.

If you are old enough to go to the theater (don't mean to sound condensending, sorry) I think you should buy a single ticket at the best location you could find. You should get a great seat. Live on the wild side, you might make a good friend.

[DefyGravity23]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 11:10pm

Yeah, I was maybe going to go w/ my sister but even if I do we were just going to both get single tickets so we can get good seats -- unless theres a really good pair somewhere. But I just didn't know what would be considered the best places possible. I mean, the front row or two is great, but then sometimes (depending on the theatre) you end up cranning your neck the whole time and can't see everything on stage.

[Tigger]

Posted: 3/29/05 at 11:27pm

For what it's worth there was a big ad in yesterday's edition of Weekly Variety congratulating Stephen Schwartz for winning the Grammy for Best Musical Show Album. It beat out Assassins,The Boy From Oz,Wonderful Town and Avenue Q.

Tigger