Day: January 2, 2005

X Witch

I went to go see this Broadway musical called Wicked (after which I was able to touch a New Kid’s butt), which was pretty good (not great), but had a striking parallel to the things that bring us all here.

You see, Wicked is the story of a young woman who, because of a strange formula imbibed by her parents, is born with bright green skin. Because of her unusual appearance, she is treated badly by everyone around her, and grows up a little resentful and moody. So moody, in fact, that when she loses her temper things occasionally explode or fly in all directions. She is taken under the wing of a teacher who recognizes her innate talents. She eventually befriends some fellow students as she harnesses her power and begins to use it fight for the rights of other outcasts (usually of the talking animal variety). Soon, a despotic government that wants to control her and her power finds her unwilling to be its pawn, and the populace is turned against her. The people grow to fear and hate her, and try to hunt her down. She continues to use her powers to help others who have been similarly mistreated, but all her efforts are seen as nothing but more wickedness. Many adventures later, she is forced to fake her own death and go into hiding with the man she loves, who had been turned into sentient plant matter earlier in the story.

Sound familiar? Like maybe something out of a familiar franchise? Actually it’s a retconned version of a totally different kind of classic. Who knew the wonderful world of Oz was so much like Salem Center?

Brush With Stardom

JoeyI brushed a New Kid’s butt today. Well, not really, but I at least had an arm around his waist while posing for a picture, with a bit of a quick brush of the fingertips across the rump. When all was said and done, who knew little Joey would turn out to be the handsome and talented one?

My old pal Matt breezed into town today with his sisters, 4 tickets to Wicked, and a chance to get a backstage tour and a quick introduction to Joey and anyone else who might be around. As it turns out, the young Mr. McIntyre is awfully pleasant (and pretty hot) in person, and I honestly didn’t realize he could carry a tune that well. I always feel a little awkward in those meet-and-greet moments: obviously he was just being friendly to another random group of strangers, so I didn’t know whether it would actually be intrusive or not to make polite chatter while hanging around. To everyone’s credit, they were good show people who handle the public gracefully. When the schmoozinng was done, we sent out the stage door and into the midst of a crowd of adoring fans. For a moment, I entertained the fantasy that I was the cutest, most popular blogger on earth and they were all screaming for me, not the glimpse of the actors behind me.

Sparky on the Yellow Brick RoadJoey led us on a quick tour of the stage, which was pretty groovy. The sets and such for Wicked are…well…pretty wicked awesome, and I always get a kick out of seeing how all the props and set pieces get tucked away when not in use. I’ve been backstage at plenty of theaters of one size or another over the years, and I always love that look at everything when the lights are off and the scuffs and the illusions are exposed. If anything, it makes me appreciate the final effect of the shows that much more.

I’ll admit, I was pretty skeptical about Wicked after the snippets I’d seen and heard, but I was pretty charmed by the whole thing. The music isn’t great but it has a bunch of really nice pieces. I actually think I’d like more of it if the whole scale of a Broadway show didn’t require so many microphones on everyone: so much of the sound levels flatten out that a big moment is often as loud as a soft one, and in big group numbers you don’t have enough natual acoustic cues to help you decipher what sound is coming from where. It drives me pretty damn crazy, actually, and makes me appreciate good, unamplified performance that much more. But the whole show doesn’t suffer just because of a pet peeve or two of ime: it’s a smart story, told with some excellent performances and stagecraft.

Joey