A Wicked Christmas Eve..

Arrived early at my hostel after a morning of arguments with Royal Post about my parcel sent from home. Was in a pretty bad mood so was hoping that Wicked would cheer me up.

My hostel is about 100m away from the tube which is great, so it was a very quick trip to Victoria underground. Once there, walked across the road to the theatre, picked up my ticket and went to the closest pub for a meal since i was over an hour early.

Went into this irish pub at the train station and had some good old fish and chips. Felt good to eat some real food for once! After my meal (and some time wastage) i headed back across the road and entered the theatre.

Wicked was amazing. It was so different to home!

For a production that has been running for 4 years, they're allowed to get away with a lot which we're not allowed to back home.

The staging area is a lot smaller than in aus (even smaller than Japan). They have their bridge near the forestage area which changes the whole dynamic of the lion cub scene, they don't use their dragon as much and the bridge doesn't even appear in act 2.. so everyone is on the stage for the entire song.

The costumes were very similar.. but all had slight variations. The costumes here are more glitz.. more sparkle! Glinda's dress is like a disco ball and her wand is different to Japan's and Australia's wands. A lot of the DTL costumes have beading to make them stand out which is great.. especially the costume Romina wears back home.

What i found odd though was that every paper item was laminated! Took away the magic of the tickets, envelope, letters, etc.. can understand why they did it (to lengthen the prop lifespan) but it sort of made it look a bit tacky.

They have changed the script a lot to relate to the London audience which i thought was funny. No longer does Elphie attend a seminar, she attends a tutorial.. no longer did they 'all (go) to school together', they all 'went to uni together'.. oh, there were so many more.. but my mind has gone blank! They were all silly changes i thought.. but i guess they suit better with the accents, which actually didn't bother me! I thought i'd be put off by hearing everything in british.. but it actually wasn't too bad.. gave the show a new spin :-P And the musical score is different too! Don't ask me how i know.. i just do! It was more of a 'rock verison' of Wicked than a fantasy woodwind version. You could really hear the drum kit which altered the way they performed the songs. I actually liked it a lot :-)

Two highlights of the show were

1. When Dianne (who plays Glinda) tossed the wand away, she threw it so hard into the wings it bounced off the set and back onto stage. She noticed it.. stopped the show to toss it again and this time it was semi successfull. After a few giggles, she went on with the show. Was very funny..

2. When Alexia (who plays Elphaba) threw her bag onto the ground in the Shiz scene, usually the bag just falls and lays on its side. But she tossed it so hard that it bounced off the floor and landed up right.. the reaction from the cast and especially alexia was classic.

I was lucky enough to have a full cast bar Madam Morrible.. but the woman who was the u/s was amazing. Apparently it was only her second week in the role :-) You couldn't tell.. she was great!

Had a seat in the second row right in the middle. The front row seats go on sale every morning at 10am, they don't run a lottery here. But lucky enough for me.. they didn't sell the 2 seats in the front row in front of me ;-) So i had a clear view the entire time :-D

After the show i went to stage door and it wasn't raining! Yay.. finally i could get a poster signed without it getting wet :-P

Got to meet (but sadly not photos with all) Oliver Tompsett (Fiyero), Sam Kelly (Wizard), Natalie Anderson (Nessa), Ashleigh Gray (u/s Elphaba), Shirley Jameson (u/s Morrible for the night), Michelle Theunissen and Danny Mac (i think it was danny.. don't have my poster with me so can't check all the sigs.. they were ensemble members.. Michelle is a warragul girl!), Dianne Pilkington (Glinda) and Alexia Khadime (Elphaba). Alexia was so nice.. had a good chat with her :-)

Then it was a race (well.. not really since it was across the road) to get the last train, as all train services shut at 8pm that night.. with no trains running during Christmas.

I had a ball at Wicked and hopefully (fingers crossed) can see it again when i make a quick visit back to London before NY.. only if i can afford it.