Wicked Words

Today's blog post brought to you by ... The Empire State. On Wednesday, I travelled over sixteen hours on a bus with my new friends, my daughter, and her friends from her choir to New York City. I hoped I would be inspired into a blog topic and I was.

Last night, we went to see Wicked on Broadway (I will do my best to avoid spoilers). The show was fabulous and, as I watched it, it occurred to me that I was having a different experience with it than my immediate theater-mates. The people I enjoyed the show with were singers, dancers, actors, and music teachers. Judging by reactions of one such teacher sitting next to me, the performance was flawless. The right notes were hit, the lines delivered impeccably, and the dance moves right on cue. And I thought so, too. Thing was, if they had been closer to mediocre, I, not an actor but for a one act play I did in high school, dancer, or singer but for in the shower, would not have known the difference.

What fascinated me about the story was, the story. The writing. The words. I loved the jokes, especially the subtle ones. I was enthralled by how the imagination of the author of the original story's words worked and by how the script writer flawlessly converted the words into speaking and singing words. I've never written a play so it was a great learning experience. I learned that instead of leaving a hook at the end of chapters, you leave them at the end of Acts. The reason you care, of course, is that despite the fact they already bought their tickets (or the books), if it's bad, they will tell their friends, and they will be the last tickets (or books) you sell.

The story of Wicked has wonderful surprises and answers almost all of the questions about how what was what was that way in the Wizard of Oz. Again, what seemed to fascinate the people around me was the singing, dancing, and acting, but what fascinated me the most was the imagination the author used to create the story and why the author chose to write the story the way it was written. But, to me, there are still a few questions I have (which I won't detail to avoid spoilers), but that's okay, because it provides an opportunity for another author to come along and tackle a more challenging feat of weaving The Wizard of Oz and Wicked into another story to answer those questions.

Other than the "on ice" shows and a few children's stories at a local theater, I've never been to a play or musical. I recommend it, even if you can't get to Broadway, whether you are theater people or word people.

The Wordsy Woman
http://www.wordsywoman.com