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.

Wicked in LA

They finally announced the cast for the LA production of Wicked. It's Eden Espinosa and Megan Hilty for the role of Elphaba and Glinda!

I am sooooooo happy!!! They're my favorite pair. I've seen them perform together twice on Broadway earlier this year.

I was waiting for the casting news before buying tickets to the show. I was hoping it was going to be both of them or even just Eden. So, naturally, after I heard who was in the cast, off I go to buy tickets. :) Hubby and I are going to watch Wicked in LA on my birthday next year. That's 7 months from now (opening night February 10, 2007) but I couldn't risk not having tickets or not having good seats for the show. Anyways, I managed to get 10th row left of center orchestra. I am soooo stoked. This it that one birthday that I am actually looking forward to. heheheh.....

Anyways, I managed to find video clips of Eden and Megan singing at Universal citywalk today when they announced the LA cast. Stephen Schwartz (composer) is accompanying them on the piano. Can't get better than this! Enjoy!

Eden - Wizard and I
Umm... need I say more? She's awesome!

Megan - Popular
She's hilarious. She's definitely Glinda in the flesh. Love her!

Eden and Megan - For Good
Awww... the end of this video is just so sweet. They both actually look happy singing this song together. The first time I watched Wicked and I heard the two of them sing this during the show, I was crying.

Eden's Last

Today was Eden Espinosa's last performance in the role of Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway. I'm so sad that she's leaving the show and I'm definitely going to miss seeing her on stage and listening ot her perform in Wicked. I wish, I wish, I wish I got to see her perform on her last show however, I'm here in SF. The reviews are starting to come out and it seems like she gave one heck of a phenomenal performance tonight and sang notes that went straight out of this world and blew the top off the Gershwin. Anyways, I'm thankful I got to see her perform 4 times.

Wishing you the best in whatever you do after Wicked, Eden! I feel so lucky having the privilege of seeing you perform. I admire you for always giving it your all on stage and will cherish the memories I have of each of your performance that I've seen. You're the best! :)

Wicked Stagedoor Picture with Eden

I normally don't like posting pictures of myself on my blog. A picture paints a thousand words and I'm the type who would rather write a thousand words than post a picture. However, I think this picture merits being posted on my blog -- not because of me (oh puuuhhllllleasssseeee... I wouldn't have posted it otherwise!) but because of who I'm with. I finally have a picture with Eden Espinosa! Yay! I'm a huge, huge fan. I loooove listening to her sing!


Thanks Illene for taking this picture. I totally forgot to bring a camera on this trip. Last time I attempted to have a picture taken, my camera crapped out on me.

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.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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

NYC Trip

I was in New York City all of last week. I have been meaning to blog something about my trip but my schedule was really hectic when I was there. The main purpose of my visit was for a training class. Class pretty much took up my time during the day. My nights were dedicated to Broadway shows.

Speaking of Broadway shows, I had a 4 show quota I wanted to meet for that week. That pretty much meant a show each night except for Monday night when most of the theatres were dark. Well, there were some shows that were playing on Monday night but I didn't have the desire to see them.

Tuesday (6/13/06):

A friend and I tried to get tickets for Wicked however we struck out on both the lottery and the cancellation line. It's almost impossible to get tickets for Wicked at this time of the year when tourists start flocking to New York city. We met up with 2 other friends from JMBB (Judith McNaught message board) and they suggested that we try The Drowsy Chaperone lottery. I won us 2 tickets to TDC! We got front row center orchestra seats for TDC. Not bad for $25.

I didn't know anything about the show. It pretty much started off with the theatre completely pitch black and you hear someone saying: "I hate theatre!". After that line, I knew I was going to enjoy that show. I loved The Drowsy Chaperone! I saw a lot of myself in the Man in the Chair character in the show. Bob Martin rocks! It was pretty hilarious. I was laughing throughout the show. The music wasn't that great however, the cast was wonderful and the story was original and very unique.

Wednesday (6/14/06):

I had tickets for Avenue Q. I liked this show. It's pretty much an adult Sesame street. I wish I didn't listen to the soundtrack beforehand. I think I would've been a lot more shocked that they used certain kind of language and showed "adult" scenes. It's very humorous and un-PC. So if you're a prude, this isn't the show for you. Barrett Foa is such a hottie!

Thursday (6/15/06):

I was pretty much undecided on what to watch for this night. I decided to try the Wicked lottery (again!) and struck out (again!). There were around 300 people who tried out for the lottery that night.

I headed off to the TKTS booth to get half priced ticket for either the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or Sweeney Todd. My first choice was DRS since I was not too sure if I really wanted to watch Sweeney Todd since the story is kind of dark and gruesome. By the time I got to TKTS, there were no more tickets for DRS so I bought tickets for Sweeney Todd.

I am so glad that I actually got to see Sweeney Todd with the current cast. The show was amazing! The cast was so talented. It just blew me away. I felt so lucky that I got to see Patti Lupone, Michael Cerveris and Manoel Felciano on stage. Michael was freaky as Sweeney Todd. He actually looked scary when he was on stage. The staging was quite interesting. The cast doubled as the orchestra. At times, it was kind of distracting that they were acting and had musical instruments with them.

Friday (6/16/06):

Did you think that I would visit New York City and not watch Wicked? My co-workers and I managed to get tickets for Wicked. They were second row left orchestra seats. The seats were alright. There were times that the ensemble would be blocking some of the scenes but it wasn't too bad. The big plus sitting this close was actually seeing Eden Espinosa's facial expressions. She has wonderful facial expressions! She's just so full of emotion whenever she's on stage. This is the third time I've seen Eden perform in Wicked. She just gets better and better each time I see her. She totally blew me away with her performance. Magnificent voice! Such a wonderful singer and actress. This was the first time I saw Kate Reinders as Glinda. she was great in her role. She played Glinda a little bit more ditzier than Megan Hilty. Kate has great vocal control and she was pretty funny. I still liked Megan Hilty as Glinda although my co-workers who saw Wicked for the first time liked Kate's performance.

My week just flew too fast. After the last show for that week, I just wanted to go back to the hotel, pack my clothes and I was ready to go back home to the Bay Area.

Wicked

I have a new favorite Broadway show! It's called Wicked! :) So move over Lea Salonga and Miss Saigon...

I was planning to watch maybe 2 shows during my trip. I wasn't too sure what to watch plus I didn't really keep up with what's on Broadway ever since I moved out to SF several years ago. I watch shows once in a while here in SF but the experience is just different. I get a different feeling when I'm watching it on Broadway compared to when it's on tour. I never regretted moving west but if there is one thing I miss by moving out to SF, it's Broadway!

My short list consisted of the following: The Light in the Piazza, Avenue Q, and Mamma Mia. Wicked was not even on my list. Thanks to my fellow Dreadnaughts on the Judith McNaught Bulletin Board, they recommended that I watch Wicked. A lot of them chimed in that they love it so much and tickets are hard to come by, blah blah blah... Well, I was easily convinced and I decided to get a ticket for Wicked based on their recommendation and someone mentioned that there will be a new actress taking over the role of Elphaba and that she is fantastic. I had no idea who she was. Nor did I care much about it. All I really wanted was to watch a show. This was about 2 weeks before my trip.

Fast forward to 1/17/2005 (or is it rewind from this day?). OMG! OMG! The show was amazing. Eden Espinosa who is playing Elphaba is SENSATIONAL! She's pretty darn good. Eden IS Elphaba for me. She had my attention from the moment that she walked on stage. Even when the spotlight was not on her and she was on stage, you could feel her presence. Very good actress. Very powerful voice. She gave me the chills when she sang Defying Gravity. It felt like she was trying to blow the top off the Gershwin Theatre. After listening to her sing that song, I knew I just had to watch it again. I went back to the hotel and looked on Ticketmaster to see if I could get tickets before Saturday. I also bought the Wicked Original Soundtrack off iTunes and just kept listening to it. Up to this day, it's still playing in a loop on my iPod. I also found the libretto for Wicked online and read it.

Now for Thursday (1/19/05) night's performance. I had a great seat! 4th row center orchestra, towards the righthand side of the stage. I was so happy about the seat. Elphaba stays at the right side of the stage most of the time. It was great that I was able to see the facial expressions. Eden's facial expressions where amazing. She brings out so much emotion to the role and makes Elphaba seem so real -- so HUMAN. She's so convincing in that role that she made me believe that she (Eden) IS Elphaba. She just blew me away. Her voice is so powerful and it was such a joy listening to her sing. I really enjoyed watching her a lot. It was worth every penny getting the tickets for the second time just to hear sing and watch her act. Megan Hilty (Glinda) played her role to perfection as well. She has the best lines in the show! Such a versatile actress with a lot of personality. She just cracked me up. I love both of them! I never knew who they were until I watched the show but they sure have made a fan out of me. I will definitely watch both Eden and Megan on any show!

I did the stagedoor after the show. Eden and Megan signed my stuff. They were both very nice. Eden is such a sweatheart. She seems very down to earth. Megan was, well, Glinda personified. It felt like you were still talking to Glinda. Well of course my camera decided not to work. I would've had a picture with both of them. Oh well... maybe next time. I guess I will just have to watch it again! :)

I wish I can go back to NYC in the next few months. I definitely will watch it again if Eden and Megan are still on the show.