Saturday, May 19, 2007

My "Wicked" Birthday Weekend

I couldn't think of a better way to spend my birthday aside from spending it with Arvin and watching my favorite Broadway show -- Wicked. So, when the cast was announced for the LA Production in November and I found out that it was going to be Eden Espinosa and Megan Hilty, I immediately got tickets to the show for my birthday.

Dropped Jack at the kennel last Thursday and then off we went to LA. We took the ultimate driving machine for a long drive as well on this trip. I drove part of the way. The car's too fast. I normally just go maybe around 75 mph to about 80ish max on the freeway. With this car, I think I went over 100 mph and was cruising along at an average 80 mph while watching out for the CHP -- I don't want to end up with a speeding ticket! The handling is awesome with this car. Clearly, it also has the power. Having a GPS navigation system in the car is great! We're not familiar with LA but we were able to go where we needed to go. It rerouted us based on the traffic conditions and when we took the wrong turn, it told us how to get back on track.

So last night, we went to see Wicked on my birthday. After the show, I was telling Arvin that I really really want to see Wicked from the front row. You can only sit there is you win the Wicked lottery -- you put in your name 2 hrs before the start of each show and they draw the winners. If you get picked, you can get up to 2 tickets for $25 each. Anyways, I think he knew how much I wanted to see the show from the front row so he agreed to go try the lottery today. We went and played the lottery for the matinee performance. Arvin's name got picked!!!! So we were able to get tickets for the front row today! I keep on telling him that he's my lucky charm. I've tried the Wicked lottery in New York so many times already and I have never won. He kept on telling me that I picked well. He gave me my heart's desire -- to watch Wicked from the front row and the big plus was Eden and Megan were the ones performing!

I'm going to focus more on today's show since I got to see it from the front row. Our seats were almost dead center on the front row. You had to look up a bit from were were were sitting since we were so close to the stage but it wasn't such a big deal. I can't explain how awesome it is to watch your favorite show with your favorite performers from the front row. I absolutely LOVED it! The cast in LA is so much better than the cast on Broadway. I really liked this cast a lot. They're all so talented. Eden was amazing! I absolutely love seeing her perform. She has the best facial expressions and she absolutely rocks when she's on stage. She knows how to suck you into the story and makes you feel how she feels when she's performing. I've seen so many shows and not a lot of performers can actually do that. Seeing her fly in Defying Gravity from where I was sitting was just breathtaking. That scene never fails to give me goosebumps. Megan was wonderful as well. She really knows how to work the crowd and her comedic timing is awesome. Eden and Megan are still my favorite duo in Wicked. I've seen the show so many times but I still got really teary eyed when they sang For Good. I could see how sad they both were while singing that song and they were even crying so what can I say, I got carried away.

As of today, I've seen Wicked 7 times and I have seen 15 shows this year (Wicked 3x). I'm probably going to skip Wicked for a while even if I end up in NY again soon. I'm not too thrilled with the current Broadway cast-- they pale in comparison with the LA cast. We'll see once the cast changes if there is a compelling reason for me to go watch the new cast. It's too bad I don't really get to go to LA for business. I would love to see the show again as long as Eden and Megan are still in it.

I'll never forget this birthday weekend. I really couldn't ask for anything more. It really meant a lot to me being able to see my favorite show with my favorite performers from the front row with Arvin.

4 comments:

dusTyLoKa said...

hello there! Cebu's going to have Wicked, i wanna see it, it interests me more reading your blogs about it, heheh i like broadway too but not too familiar only seen some during college required man sa lit clas but i really like watching the shows. i hope i can watch Wicked here too, i don't know the date yet. and maki happy birthday na rin ako! :-)

Carmila said...

Hello! Thanks for dropping by. I'm willing to bet dinner that you're going to love the show. :)

That's very exciting to know that they're opening up a production in Cebu.

It's a very good show. Sure, the story has it's flaws however, it's one of those shows that people can find something to relate to in the show. I highly recommend that you go watch it if you get a chance to do so. If you ever see it, I hope you'll come back and let me know what you think. :)

Skip the book (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory McGuire). I was bored reading it. I think I blogged about the book somewhere here. I love the musical but I'm not a fan of the book at all.

Which shows have you seen? I saw 1 production in Manila a while back (The Baker's Wife) and it was very good. The talent is at par with those on Broadway. I like musicals a lot more than straight plays but I'm running out of stuff to watch.

Cheers,
Carmila

dusTyLoKa said...

hihihi i forgot some of the plays i saw, it's matagal na i saw plays during my college days and i like watching it, the musicale, i like the way the artist sings the dialogue hihihi, fortunately the college i went to loves doing musicale play, i watched west side story, and i forgot the other one (it's the one with the song lyrics...climb every mountain)--mga oldies na actually--ito lang mga naalala ko coz during our time the dramatics ensemble in our school was busy rehearsing for other countries,i heard before they did ms saigon, the phantom of the opera, fiddler in the roof (i bought a cd of this, i like the songs)
but i also remembered watching a play done by the jesuits, and local plays too (forgot the titles na) everytime literature classes asks the students to watch it kuha ako nang ticket kaagad kasi mura hahah, as for Wicked, i'm still waiting for the schedule usually sa SM Cinemas ang venue so far no update pa...i'll sure let you know if i get the chance to watch it...nae-excite na ako

Carmila said...

That's a good repertoire of shows. :) Hopefully Wicked gets there one of these days. There's a lot of other shows that are worth watching. Hit me up if ever you find yourself going to NYC. I can give you recommendations.