A Wicked Good Time

We learned that the musical Wicked would be coming back to Denver last summer I think, and tickets went on sale sometime during the fall.  Since it is such a popular show, I went ahead and bought tickets for Darly & I to see it.  I gave the tickets to Darly as a Christmas present even though the show didn't actually get here until June 3rd.  She was very thrilled and excited to finally see it.

Darly had started following the Wicked Facebook page and learned that there would be an event at a local mall with a costume display (that will still be there for most of this month until it moves onto the next tour stop) and some of the actors from the show would sing a few songs and sign autographs.  We of course had no idea what actors would be there, but hey, it was free so we went.

That turned out to be a very good trip.  The mall was running a promotion where several of the stores were offering discounts or free goodies and if we collected 5 stamps from participating stores we could enter a drawing for some Wicked merchandise and mall gift cards.  sweet!  Darly got a Wicked mini-make over at Sephoria.

The actors who showed up for the event turned out to be the understudy for Galinda and the stand-by for Elphaba.  (we later learned what a stand-by is... it is an actor who is paid to be dressed and ready to go on stage during the show.  So if the regular actor gets hurt or something she was ready to take her place... kind of a bummer most of the time, but the regular actors do take days off so she would get to perform then.)  Galinda being a regular understudy could perform as an ensemble character(s) during the show.  The girls offered us a really good show and were very sweet signing autographs and taking pictures...although we had brought a black framing mat and the one used a black sharpie to sign it...oops!

Since the mall is really close to a museum that had a Mythical Creatures exhibit going on, we went over there and saw that.  Pretty cool, but we would have liked for there to be fewer people, better behaved children and more creatures.  lol

Then last night we went to see Wicked!  The show was very good.  I think the only bummers about it were that our seats were too far off to the side so we couldn't see all of the back part of the stage, but could see backstage when they opened the side curtains!  Kinda distracting to see the actors goofing off over there.  Also the couple that had the seats in front of us really don't get the "be considerate of those around you" concept... the guy kept putting his arm around the girl and taking it down when his arm would tire...obstructing our view of the show.  I really wanted to pop him in the head with my program.

After the show there was a Q & A with some actors...again, no idea what actors we were getting...and of course we got some very minor actors...well the one was pretty major.  We got an ensemble/understudy for Elphaba - she was the one who explained what a stand by is to us.  She differs from the stand by in that when she isn't Elphaba she CAN be in the ensemble.  She told us that since the beginning of the tour she has actually only gotten to play Elphaba once.
There was a Swing - who is an actor who has rehearsed and is able to stand in for all the minor parts.  This particular night she stood in for the mid-wife.  She's also the understudy for Nessa Rose, but didn't play that part that evening.
We got to hear from Chistery - the lead flying monkey who can speak but is losing that ability thanks to the Wizard. 
And finally and a little later one of the male ensemble came out.  He didn't have a named part but we were told that he was the one who was lifting all the ensemble girls.  LOL!

During the Q&A we were invited to a charity event next Monday where the actors will all be singing any of their favorite songs while auctioning off some cool stuff like a walk on part in the show.  While we would have loved a shot at the walk-on, Darly has her first rehearsal for her show that night and I'm sure the director (her friend) would probably hurt her if she didn't show up for rehearsal.  bummer

After the show and Q&A we ran into some of our friends.  One Darly has been in a few shows with and the other we just met but she is in Fiddler also.  Funny, R (in Fiddler) had told C (in other shows) that she was going to be acting with Darly, but since R didn't know Darly all that well C didn't realize she meant my daughter until we saw her.  C exclaimed that she would definitely come see Fiddler now and we laughed that she didn't want to see it when it was just R.  Ah well, good laughs.  C was very sweet and even greeted me which I totally didn't expect as I'm just another mom, but then I also helped dress C in Peter Pan...I guess she remembered that.

Now Darly is still fast asleep, recovering from her adventure.  I wish I could sleep.  sigh