July 4, 2005
[when monkeys fly] 5:38 AM
One morning I carefully crawled out of his bed, over his body, and made my way in the early hours to an art history class. After sharing an absurd amount of things in common, we'd both just discovered the Wicked soundtrack together, and flipped for it. On my way to the Metro, I moved my iPod to the next song I hadn't heard yet, which was "Defying Gravity."
It was a summer morning, but surprisingly mellow outside, only a few people were moving about the streets, the sun was cutting between the buildings, I was falling in love for the second time in my life, and this song ... this song was making me literally want to dance to school even though I was running on about 2 hours of sleep.
We had talked of going to New York together, seeing the show, exploring the big city, maybe even moving there and attempting to beat the odds. Things obviously didn't go as planned, but over a year later I finally saw Wicked on stage (here in LA at the Pantages). I laughed more than I thought I would, and I'll readily admit to crying. I did.
It was amazing. Spectacular. It exceeded all of my expectations, and in a way gave me a very odd sort of closure.
Gosh, I so love Wicked. I saw it at the Gershwin Theater in NYC with Idina Menzel still in the lead. I've also got a bootleg video of Kristen Chenoweth's last performance -- she's in the new Bewitched movie, by the way. I've got the soundtrack and the book, too. It's such a stunning musical, and Idina owns it... I don't know how I feel about a non-Idina production. But Wicked is heading toward Houston, so I will probably see it again anyways. I hope I can drag my mother along too.
Posted by: Alanna at July 4, 2005 6:27 PMStephanie Block, our Elphaba was actually the original Elphaba in the San Francisco workshops, then she left to do BOY FROM OZ, and DAMN she knocked it out of the park.
Posted by: kyle at July 4, 2005 7:22 PM
