For Good.

This post was supposed to go up 10/1/06:

Friday night I made the trip down to Seattle to see the musical "Wicked."

Oh. My. God.

I knew it would be good, but I didn't realize how great it really is.

For those of you who don't know, "Wicked" is the story of Oz before Dorothy dropped in. The Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North were best friends in school, and it's essentially the story of how they meet, become friends and finally how the Wicked Witch becomes, well, Wicked. It's to "The Wizard of Oz" what the latest three episodes of Star Wars are to Eps 4-6. Except about a million times better. Which, to be honest, is not that hard.

From the set design to the music to the songs to the acting, this was definitely the best entertainment (books, music, movies, shows....everything) I've experienced in a long time. Up until now, "Rent" was my favorite show on stage, and "Moulin Rouge" my favorite musical, but this blew them both away. The sheer emotion in the theater house at the end of the first act as the Wicked Witch realizes her power of flight and escapes from the henchmen of Oz was palpable. I kid you not when I tell you the energy from the stage transferred to everyone there.

We were cheering for the slightest things. At least ten times the actors had to wait for the audience to stop cheering to continue. And I'm not talking at the end of songs when the audience usually claps. I'm talking little things. Example: We cheered for almost half a minute when the Wicked Witch gave another character a thumbs up. That minor, but perfect in context. Also, the timing of the word "blonde" caused us to cheer for just as long.

Which brings me to my next cheer: Shoshana Bean, who played Elphaba (the real name of the Wicked Witch) was a force of nature. Anyone who's been in the theater knows how difficult it is to keep interesting when it's just one person on an empty stage, but she did it. I have never, ever seen anyone command the stage as she did during "The Wizard and I." People in the house almost jumped to their feet. In fact (and I can't be sure, since I was in the waaaaaaaaaaay back), but I think she broke character for a second because of all the cheering.

Finally, I almost got choked up during the final song, "For Good." This is a fantastic duet between Elphaba Wicked and Glinda the Good, just as the Wicked Witch is about to meet her fate at the wrong end of a bucket of water by that obnoxious farm girl.

Okay, so this was boring for most of you. But if you ever get the chance, see this show. It was amazing.