NYC Again...Wicked Again...

I just realized that it has been 2 months since I last blogged. It is such a coincidence that the last entry on my blog was about my last trip to New York City. Yeah, I am back in the big apple again for work. I was actually supposed to go home tomorrow (well, technically today since it's already 4 in the morning) however, I needed to extend to finish a bunch of things in the office. The problem is I didn’t bring enough clothes with me.

You might be wondering what the heck I am doing still up in the wee hours of the morning. I had too much sugar so I am fully wired. Thanks to a HUGE serving of Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity 3 and the adrenalin that has been pumping through my system almost all day long in anticipation to watching Wicked from "god" seats that I scored for free. :D

Yes my friends, I did go to watch Wicked again for the 4th time. My seat was amazing! I was seated at Row C Seat Number 106. Yup, about 2 seats off dead center on 7th row. Awesome sight lines -- well, they should be for premium seats (re: EXPENSIVE!) at the Gershwin theatre. Close enough to see facial expressions but far enough to not see spit flying out. I felt like the actresses and actors were singing directly to me which in itself was an awesome experience. Think Elphaba looking down straight at you while flying off on her cherry picker holding a broom and singing Defying Gravity.

Here's my mini review of tonight's performances by the different actresses/actors in the show (8/18 uummmm... last night?).

Eden Espinosa (Elphaba)

She's amazing as always. She gets better and better each time I see her perform in Wicked. I've seen her in Wicked 4 times. She has definitely grown into the role. She plays this role with so much heart and soul that when she's on stage, she IS Elphaba. That's something that I actually love about her performance. I thought I've seen almost all the nuance that she could possibly bring into the role. However, each time I go and watch the show, I never fail to find something new that she brings into the show. Hand gestures, riffs and how she stings her notes together. I absolutely love listening to Eden sing live. She has such a broad range in her voice and she is such an unbelievable belter. It feels like she’s trying to blow the top off the Gershwin Theatre when she belts. You know what they say about being able to find everything on the Internet. Sure, there are clips of her singing songs from Wicked however, there's nothing like listening to Eden sing live on stage. I know when I'm listening to a very good singer (at least in my opinion) when I get goose bumps and the hair behind my neck starts standing up. There are a few singers that have that kind of effect on me and Eden is definitely one of them. I just love the sound of her voice.

You're probably wondering how many more times I would be watching Wicked before I get sick and tired of it. Ummm... well, I can still count on one hand the number of times that I've watched it. Then again, wanting to hear Eden sing live has really been the driving factor on why I keep on coming back to watch the show. In as much as I love the show itself, there are parts of it that I don't really care about anymore (It starts to become fluff after the 3rd time). I would still be willing to pay premium seat price just to listen to Eden sing "The Wizard and I", "I'm Not That Girl", "Defying Gravity" and "No Good Deed". Hehehe... I just realized that it comes out to around $75 per song if you’re in a premium seat. LOL! The other parts of the show is pretty much added bonuses at this point. I heard she's leaving in October. Will I still be watching Wicked once she leaves? Well, it really depends on who's replacing her. I would probably go and watch the replacement at least once just to see how well she performs.

I met her at the stage door after the show and I finally have a picture with her to prove it! Yay! I'll post it when I get a chance... Hopefully it won't take 2 months before I get to do it.


Kate Reinders (Glinda)

Kate has definitely gotten better. The first time I saw her, I wasn't really impressed but tonight (last night?) I really enjoyed her performance. Her rendition of Popular was hilarious! I absolutely loved it. She portrayed the role in a very ditsy manner -- having to risk being un-PC, she portrayed it as the typical blonde in the blonde jokes that you hear everywhere. She and Eden have great chemistry.

Looking back the first time I saw her, I may have been a little bit biased and was really comparing her performance with Megan Hilty's performance which really wasn't fair since when I saw Megan, she had been in her role for quite some time and when I first saw Kate, she was in her role for only about 2 weeks. I'm actually glad to see that she's growing into the role.


Carol Kane (Madame Morrible)

This was the 3rd time I've seen Carol Kane in this role. The first 2 times that I saw her, I had a hard time understanding what she was saying because of the weird accent that she was using. It doesn’t bother me now. This time, I wasn't really concentrating much on the story anymore (I was looking for small details that I never noticed the first 3 times) since I pretty much know it by heart and most of the lines are familiar (no, I can't memorize them). I enjoyed her performance a lot more tonight.


David Garrison (The Wizard)

This is the 2nd time I've seen David Garrison. I've always enjoyed his portrayal of the wizard of Oz. Whatever little material he's got, he played it really well. I don't really care much for the songs sang by the Wizard.


Derrick Williams (Fiyero)

This is the 4th time I've seen Derrick Williams in this role. I'm not really a fan of him. There's just that something’s not right about his performance. Something's missing. He's not a bad actor at all. He has a nice butt and arms. I'm just not impressed by his singing voice. I guess it's because I absolutely love Norbert Leo Butz's voice in the Original Broadway Cast Recording for Wicked (I love his work period). After seeing him for the first time, whenever I go back and watch the show, I keep on wishing that an understudy or standby would be playing Fiyero’s role during that performance. Sorry Derrick if you happen to stumble upon this. Although tonight (last night?) he actually sounded better. I guess the acoustics at the Gershwin is better when you're sitting at the premium seats. :)


Logan Lipton (Boq)

I miss Robb Sapp! I really didn't care about Logan Lipton's portrayal of Boq. I was not impressed at all -- acting wise and voice quality wise. I should really give him the benefit of the doubt since he's new. Hopefully he'll grow into the role as well.


Jenna Leigh Green (Nessarose)

This is the second time I've seen her in Wicked. Great voice and good actress as well. I loved her portrayal of Nessarose. I wish she had a lot more stage time (is there such a thing?) and she had more songs to sing.

Ok, this blog is long and I need to go to bed since I don't want to sleep through the weekend in New York city. I did get to watch the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels -- I'll write a separate entry for it. Promise.

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*** I wrote this early this morning however I was having problems posting it on blogger. So it’s a little bit behind.