An end to a Wicked year..

Last day of 2009.. of course i'd spend it with a show that has been in my life for nearly 9 years now.

Spent a lazy morning at the hostel, packed my bags to save having to do it all in the morning the next day, went into the city to get money out and headed to the theatre.

Because the show finishes in under a month, sadly they were very low on merchandise. No specific wicked stuttgart shirts which was annoying, but i did get the last 'german' emerald city designed shirt in the entire theatre.. XL though.. Hopefully i can get my hands on a shirt over ebay, if not.. fingers crossed i can get a shirt from their new location :-)
Because they are leaving stuttgart, spend over 50 euro and you get a shirt for free. Of course i spent over 50 (poster, program for me and for antje, 2 wicked charms, my german shirt) so i got the black long sleeved wicked top.. and again the last one they had in stock.. XL. They're not getting any new merch in till they move.. so the shirts are selling out/being given out for free fast.

What was interesting though was that at the door when you enter, they give you a brochure that explains what the show is about. I thought this was a bit odd.. till i remembered the conversation the ensemble boys had on the train last night. They were saying that a lot of people in germany don't know the story of the wizard of oz well.. and that nearly everyone who comes to see the show doesn't get that this story explains what happens before dorothy arrived. So they hand out the flyers for people to read and not to get confused before the show starts.. haha

The show was amazing! The cast are so strong.. and Willemijn.. oh, melt! She's like carmen in a way, very sarcastic.. looks like how i'd imagine Elphaba to look and act like. And they had flying monkeys over the audience! I wanted to cry and jump up for joy! I miss the monkeys so much! But they had a problem with the monkey on the right hand side of the theatre (unlike in melb where they both came from one direction, they have one monkey appear from each side.. like on stage).. at first they didn't appear, then when they finally did they were delayed.. so when they swung over to what was meant to be the end, the poor cast member didn't get enough speed to land on the platform properly and the stage hand had to jump out and pull them onto the platform or else they would have fallen which wouldn't have been good.
The sets and costuming are all pretty much the same.. the wicked standard, except all the text on all props are in german. I did however notice major variations in costume pieces..
- glinda's bubble dress has more of a plastic see-through collar than most, her yellow OSD outfit is TOTALLY different
- the DTL outfit that Liz Stiles wears in australia is totally different here in stuttgart. The girl who wears the outfit here is a giant! Taller than most of the male ensemble! So they've extended her layers and the dress looks more white than black/white.. and the circles in the fabric are not noticeable at all
- the Shiz outfits have been re-arranged once again, harder to recognise which character is represented by each
- i saw a totally new OSD outfit! And i think the same girl had a major variation of the DTL outfit Suzie Mathers used to wear.. a lot more white and floral than silver. But the OSD outfit.. i have never EVER seen this outfit.. anywhere. Not even in press photos for companies around the world. It was amazing! Kind of like the sailor/pirate outfit the male ensemble member wears, but a female dress version. I loved it! Just as good as emma's OSD outfit ;-)

I thought Willemijn's Defy Gravity and No Good Deed were the highlights of the show. Her defy gravity was out of this world.. it just seemed to 'fit in' to the show, didn't seem to be as staged as other productions i have seen (wasn't as obvious that she was on a machine).
But i have to say, Lucy (glinda.. yes, their glinda is called lucy too) was so funny. They cut out a lot of the jokes in the show as most germans wont understand them.. but lucy's humour made up for that. Her popular wasn't as animated as Lucy back home.. but her giggle, squeel and death stares made up for it. I thought her performance was great :-)
The funniest thing though was that when Fiyero came onto the stage in the cart.. Willemijn kicked it so hard that he actually slid off and had to quickly crawl back onto it to continue the scene. But i was in shock when i saw who it was.. it was the guy i had ridden the train with the past 2 days! haha.. i can say i've sat next to stuttgart's own fiyero ;-)

The story was changed slightly to appeal more to the audience.. the inclusion of dorothy's name, removal of political jokes, even one of nessa's lines was removed which shocked me! But overal i had a blast watching the show.. could pick up what was going on which was good since the entire show was german unlike WWRY which had english in it.

After the show i went to stage door, but it was a pain to get to as the complex was having new years celebrations.. so my original route to the stage door was blocked off. Ended up having to walk through a carpark to get there somehow haha
But i was able to meet lucy and willemijn along with some other cast members. Willemijn was amazing. She asked where i was from since i was the only person who spoke english there (plus i was the only stranger.. i realised i was there with all the wicked crazies of germany. When i mentioned australia she got excited. But when i said i had come all the way from home to see her perform, she went quiet. She said she felt so honoured that i would do that and she thanked me for coming to the show, then gave me a hug. She signed my poster saying thanks for being there and we had a photo together. As i was about to leave she asked me what i was doing for new years.. of course i told her the truth and said not much since i was on my own and didn't know anyone here. She gave me another hug and told me that she'd be keeping me in mind tonight and that she hoped i had some fun. I told her that meeting her was better than celebrating new years.

After meeting her, i decided to call it a day.. didn't want to bother the cast who were desperate to get to new year parties.
Jumped on a train and headed back to the hostel. I know i could write a whole lot more on the production, but it has escaped my mind right now. But like with all my posts which i am STILL updating, i will update as i remember stuff.