Wicked

From the time I was a little girl I've loved musicals. My mom played the piano by ear and had a beautiful soprano voice. She played and sang as often as she could; I'm fairly certain it helped her chase any blues away because I never remember seeing her depressed--well almost never. One of my earliest memories of going out with my parents was to go to see My Fair Lady in Montreal when I was about 6. I was especially mesmerized by seeing the stage literally turn for scene changes. As I grew, my mother took me to musical movies every summer. And when the old movies, like Carousel and Oklahoma, came on TV, we'd watch them together. One of the best memories I have of bonding with my sister--which unfortunately rarely happened--was when we went to see Hair in New York City when I was 20 and she was 30. 

Living in England for three years was bliss. I saw Kismet and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (in Aberystywyth!), Ipi Tombi, Evita (twice--in the first run of it), Guys and Dolls and all kinds of non-musical theatre as well. 

So when my daughter came along, I was anxious to pass my love of musicals and theatre in general to my daughter. I can't remember the first musical I took her to, nor can she. But she went to see Cats when she was very young. And loved it--was hooked. We got the cassette tape and we would sing along to it in the car (not an easy musical to sing along to). From Cats we went on to Phantom, Starlight Express, Les Miserables, Joseph (with Donny Osmond), and even a couple of Gilbert & Sullivan musicals that were produced in Stratford, Ontario and in Maine when we were visiting friends there. 

A few months ago she called me to say that 'Wicked' was coming to Tempe and she wanted us to go together. I'd actually never heard of 'Wicked' but of course I was game to go. That's why I delayed flying out to England, actually, because 'Wicked's' run didn't start until July 1st. 

So Wednesday morning we left the grandchildren with daddy at home and off we went. She'd recorded the soundtrack from 'Wicked' on her iPod. . .how times have changed!. . .and as the songs rolled along on my car stereo she explained the story to me. What an interesting premise, seeing the Wicked Witch from another perspective. I liked it. And I enjoyed the music too. 

We arrived in Phoenix, it was 105º. Because it is a 2.5 hour drive from where dd lives, we'd decided to stay overnight with the blessing of my sil who works swing shifts and had Wednesday off and wouldn't have to go into work until 3:00 on Thursday. He's a terrific guy, I'm so happy that dd made such a great choice! Anyway, we booked into Four Points Sheraton which was only about .5 mile from the theatre, which was located on the ASU campus, the Gammage Auditorium. Lovely setting. We arrived at the theatre about an hour early and so walked around a bit and took a couple of photos. Here's one of me striking a pensive pose in front of Elphi's photo: 

 

Then we went in to our seats--which were way up, as we used to say, "in the gods." In fact, dd got a bit of vertigo looking down as we were in the first row of the top balcony. Everyone was taking photos of the stage curtain before the show began; I did too. 
 

This photo and the former one were actually taken on my Blackberry. Again, it's amazing how technology truly enables us, as Kodak used to say, to capture the moment. And we can actually SEE what we took a few seconds after we took it without the weird Polaroid photos we used to have. Technology truly IS amazing. And now I can write about all this in my blog, my friends can read it and, unless technology changes dramatically in the future, my grandchildren will be able to read about it and see the photos, text and photos linked together. 

And 'Wicked'--did I enjoy it? Oh very, very much. I loved the story, I loved seeing it with dd, as we always have in years past. I am so grateful that our lives have unfolded as they have and we've had all these opportunities to create such special memories