Wicked

Wow.

I have just completed watching a performance of "Wicked." It is now 11 PM, but I had to write this post anyway because I wanted the experience of the day to be fresh in my mind when I write the post. The sights, the sounds, the annoying people in the audience (more on that later)...but it all started with the most hectic of work days.

Things were going along smoothly in the morning. I had to do some research in an old laboratory notebook looking for some endocrine hormone related studies pertaining to a patent interference proceeding (the mechanics of which I will NOT bore you with at this time...maybe later). In the background, on my computer screen, I had the live ABC feed for President Obama's inauguration playing on my computer in the background. I was feeling GOOD-it was the perfect day and looked to be even better. I had my performance of "Wicked" to look forward to, and I had planned out my afternoon perfectly. All I had to do was complete that task and then do some document review (mindless discovery work) for a few hours. I was then going to walk to the Ford Theater and watch the show. Of course, work has a way of messing up our best laid plans. Exactly 1.5 hours before I left for the show, one of the partners sent down a research task that HAD to be completed tonight. There is a client meeting scheduled for tomorrow, and this research HAD to get done and would I mind doing it? Mind? Yes. Say no? Uh-uh. I set about working on it in a fevered pitch and was handed ANOTHER grenade-a copyright search for a character in the public domain. THIS was fun. I love stuff dealing with characters, and I had done some other research on Oz to prepare myself for "Wicked."

More on that later. So I finished the research task, finding cases ON POINT and CURRENT and ACING OPPOSING COUNSEL's so-called precedent (yeah, I said it) within ONE HOUR. Talk about efficient. I then took some time to familiarize myself with the state of public domain with respect to fictional characters. Now I will not share with you the name of the character in question (obviously, there is some attorney-client privilege that comes into play here), but I will share with you what I know about the characters from L. Frank Baum's "Oz" series. Did you know that for all works from Baum published before 1922, the fictional characters are in the public domain? That means ANYONE can use them without paying any copyright fees. This would explain a lot from what I saw in the show tonight (but I am getting ahead of myself yet again).

Going into the show, I had no idea about the storyline or what I would learn about the witches of Oz. I knew that the musical was acclaimed and that a lot of people that I know and trust in such matters loved it, but that was all. So I set off from work (in plenty of time) to walk to the theater where it was showing. I had purchased a will call ticket, so I wanted to get to the box office in plenty of time. Now, "Wicked" has been playing for over 4 years now, and I figured that it would not be that crowded. Boy was I wrong. When I reached the Ford Theater, I noticed a line snaking out the front door-and this was 45 minutes before showtime. It took me 10 minutes to get my ticket from the Will Call box and then another 15 minutes to wait for my seating area to open up. The Ford Theater is an old school theater, a former movie theater that has ornate gold inlays as part of its decoration. The stage is a classic proscenium stage, and I noticed an ornate border surrounding the centerpiece, a map of Oz that also served as a curtain. The Ford Theater also has the most intensely uncomfortable seats.

The theater was PACKED-waves of people and families came crashing in one after another. I started to feel a little squished (no doubt to the giant overweight woman that reeked of old person seated to my right). What IS that smell, anyway? Finally, the lights turned down, and the show began.

What can I say? I am still relatively blown away. First of all, the performances were spot on. This was not some performance of "Phantom" where people were merely going through the motions of a show they had performed several times before. No, these performers were giving it their all, and the audience appreciated it. Dee Roscioli was amazing in the role of Elphaba, the woman who would become the Wicked Witch of the West. Equally amazing was Annaleigh Ashford in the role of Galinda/Glinda. Without the performances of these two actresses, the story would have fallen flat, for so much depends on how much the audience buys into their interactions. The music and lyrics were also perfect. As with the story, both danced the fine line between comedy and drama. The audience let itself be carried away with "Popular", "I'm Not that Girl", "Defying Gravity", and especially "For Good." The musical talents of the ensemble-well, all I can say is that, having watched quite a few Broadway shows ON BROADWAY in my time, this was far and away one of the best that I have watched.

One of the more remarkable things was how the stage served the production yet never became its own distraction. I remember watching "Les Miserables" on Broadway and being distracted from the amazing music because of the centerpiece of the stage, a turntable kind of device that would noisily spin during Act and Scene changes. That took me out of the musical. When I saw "Dirty Dancing" recently, I was taken out of the story by the "gee whiz" aspects of the stage production, including the overly elaborate "bridge to the staff quarters" and the painstaking re-creation of the sets from the film. "Wicked" did it right. Of course, there were some elaborate set pieces, but they never overshadowed the show itself. Much as a special effect should serve the story, so too did the stage pieces serve the overarching need-nothing appeared to be mere window dressing. And remember what I said about the public domain? Well, I knew that the ruby slippers were actually the intellectual property (copyrighted and trademarked) by MGM, for in the original novel, the slippers were silver. Lo and behold, when the sparkly slippers made their appearance on the stage (and no, I will not tell you why they were there), they were, indeed, silver-the public domain slippers as it were. Of course, the imaginative geniuses behind the show used one key portion of the show to illuminate the stage with a reddish/purple light that, in that instant, made the silver slippers appear to be ruby in color. When that happened, I jsut shook my head in amazement, as I was impressed by the ingenuity shown by the technical staff to give the audience what they wanted while at the same time staying within the allowed intellectual property boundaries. Note to self...stop being such a huge intellectual property nerd...

What about the story? Well, I cannot discuss it because I had so much joy in watching it unfold myself (except for the second Act-more on that in a second). If you want to discover another layer to the story of Oz, a prequel and also a parallel story to the "Wizard of Oz," then you should definitely go to see this musical. Unlike George Lucas' atrocious "Star Wars" prequels, Winnie Holzman and company got it right with the denizens of Oz.

So why was I not surprised by some of the revelations in the second half? Well, during the intermission, an audience member sitting a couple of rows up from me was speaking to who I assume was her father and proceeded to recite everything THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN IN THE SECOND ACT. As, in mounting horror, I realized what she was doing, I quickly tried to distract myself from her piercing, irritating, high-pitched voice. I partially succeeded, but I was irritated that some of the surprises had been ruined for me. I suppose it is poetic justice, as some of you readers know of my penchant (inadvertently) to spoil TV episodes that you might not have watched (and you know who you are). Still, if you are at the freaking show, WHY WOULD YOU PROCEED TO TELL EVERYONE WITHIN LISTENING RANGE WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT? We GET it-you love the show and have seen it many times before. Shut the HELL UP!!

Other than that, I took in the crowds and listened to the gentle demands (seriously, no sarcasm intended) of a young girl that her father buy a "Wicked" t-shirt. The father said no, and I quietly laughed to myself, as I know that, if I have a daughter, I would be putty in her hands, and I knew that the father would cave. Sure enough, at intermission, he got up to scavenge for his little girl, who was sitting behind me and was incredibly well behaved for the entire show. She even stopped asking for a t-shirt immediately upon her father telling her to stop.

Yeah, if I have a daughter, I will be completely useless in the "telling her no to what she wants" department. I also thought it was cool that this was something they were sharing together. "Wicked" is an amazing show to attend as a family, and other than for Disney productions, these types of shows are sadly few and far between.

Bottom line-if you have yet to see this show, go and see it. You will not be disappointed.

Wow...I really did not expect to be as impressed with the show as I am.