Monday, May 26, 2014

E is for Elphaba


You know, when I started this blogging through the alphabet thing with my friend Marcy, from Ben and Me, I thought that a couple of letters would cause me some problems.  E was one of those letters.

Oh, how wrong I was!

E is for Elphaba!

"What?" you say.
"Who?" you question.

Well I'll tell you. But first some backstory.

Remember I told you that I had a teen who loves all things theatre?  and Broadway! and musicals!

LOVES!

Because of Riley's love for all those things I took her to see the musical Wicked a few weeks ago.  Actually because of MY love for HER.  In case this is all foreign to you, Wicked is based on The Wizard of Oz, the one story I loathe in life.  Really.

The other part of the story is that it was one of her dearest friends' birthdays on opening night, so we drove down to surprise her and all go to see Wicked.

Because I love her.  And her friend, Hannah.
Hannah and Riley
Elphaba.  The Wicked Witch of the West.  She's evil, mean, and well, wicked.
Right?

Wrong.
Not in Wicked.

Wicked tells the tale of Oz from a slightly different perspective.  Kind of the back story of the two witches- Glinda and Elphaba.  (Did you know they were friends?)

It really is a fun show.  I enjoyed it.  (once I got over that the first characters on stage were the flying monkeys.  I loathe the monkeys.)
Riley and Hannah loved it, of course.


It really is a fantastic show: the music is fun, the performers are some of the best, the costumes are stunning, and the scenery was amazing. Wicked asks you to look at things like "bad" and "good" a little differently. You will leave the theater pondering heros and villains, you will have a song or two stuck in your head for days, and you might even loathe The Wizard of Oz a little less!

I do.  Mostly!

What about you- do you have a favorite musical?  Or do you feel about Oz the way I do? ;)

Blessings,

Ben and Me


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10 comments:

  1. Hi Mrs. Pleasants! It's Avery :)

    My favorite musicals are The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and WICKED. I am super excited to see The Little Mermaid at Chanhassen tomorrow :) :)

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    1. We love those too! Have a great time tomorrow- we can't wait to hear all about it!

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  2. We LOVE Wicked here, too. My oldest did a character study comparing the characters in the original The Wizard of Oz movie, Wicked, and the new-er movie Oz the Great and Powerful. They really are amazing stories...nobody really is who or what you think.

    Wicked is my favorite "new" musical. Phantom got me hooked on musicals 25 years ago, and I've never met a musical I didn't like. I thought the movie version of Les Miserables (the stage version is my all-time favorite) was pretty good, but the idea of the "handing down" of generations with Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop was simply brilliant.

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    1. You are speaking our language Meg! You may be Riley's new best friend! I really like Les Mis, but my all time favorite is Joseph! We are headed to see The Little Mermaid in a few weeks. It's an addiction, I tell 'ya!

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  3. I haven't seen Wicked, but I love listening to the music on Grooveshark. Now I have "Popular" playing in my head!

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    1. That's the one I wanted to sing out loud during the play. Riley would have DIED! haha

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  4. That was such a great night. And look! I'm famous! I'm on Mrs. Pleasants' blog!

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    1. Famous nut is better than a non-famous nut. I'll take that any day :D

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  5. Have not seen the musical but read the book. It kinda of makes you think about when you meet disagreeable people in life that maybe if we knew their back story we would understand the present attitude better.

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  6. This is one show that is on my wish list!

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Thanks for commenting. I love hearing from you!