I tried to win the Wicked lottery four times. Now, I know other people hold the record at like half a zillion show lottery entries, but Durham is half an hour away (when there’s no traffic), and I work full time and go to school full time, so I’m pretty impressed with my efforts. Nonetheless, I did not win.
At my fourth and final failed attempt, my friend and I decided to just buy seats if any were available for the matinee instead of trying the lottery again at the evening performance. It turns out there were a few tickets left, and we got a pair of “limited view” balcony box seats for 70 bucks each. We even had to sign a waiver saying that we understood that these seats had a limited view. The seats were up in the balcony far stage right. The seats themselves were just regular chairs, so we moved them around until we found the best spot. It so happens that they were great seats and I could see more than I could when I sat in the front row because there weren’t actors blocking my view of, say, Elphaba’s birth this time. Although I still have no idea of anything that happened upstage on stage rights. Oh, well.
Anyway, the show was, of course, fabulous. When I saw it the first time, the phenomenal standby was on for Elphaba, so this time I got to see the everyday actress perform the role. She was just as brilliant. I enjoy seeing different actors’ portrayals of the same role, and I’m super glad that I got to see two Elphabas.
I figured out why I can’t stand this Wizard in “Wonderful”: he was just doing all the motions and not acting any of them. Emote, sir!
Another revelation my friend and I had was during “As Long as You’re Mine,” in which we both commented that Elphaba and Fiyero are singing so close to each others’ faces! It must be so strange to be belting out a song less than an inch from someone else. And I bet they spit on each other a lot. So they spit on each other while singing very loudly at each other, and then they make out. So romantic. It was funny because this had never occurred to me before, and we had a laugh about it.
All in all, I’m glad to have seen Wicked again. And, my friend and I went to the stage door after the show. I realize that it was a matinee, but only three or four actors came out. I did get the autograph of the actor who played Fiyero, so that was cool. I guess my expectations were high because the entire cast of the Spring Awakening tour came to the stage door after a matinee on a gross, rainy day. Oh, well. It was cool to meet some of the Wicked cast anyway.
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