Wicked!

Oh, I’m a little wicked. Aren’t you? Yesterday we saw Wicked in Salt Lake City. It was Amazing!

People have asked how I got tickets. Did I win them? Do I know someone in high places? Am I secretly a munchkin? No. Back in October, I got a message from my bank telling me I was eligible to buy Wicked tickets at a pre-sale on Halloween day. I put in on my calendar, and when the time came, I got on the internet, hitting refresh every minute or so, trying to get through. I was also on the phone trying to get through. It’s just like any other contest, right? Dial, busy, repeat. After about an hour, I FINALLY got through, and bought tickets. I was allowed to buy 8, so 8 I bought. Even though there are only 7 people in my family. So, no, I didn’t win them, but I kind of felt like I had won them.

When the time came closer, I realized that our tickets were for the same weekend as women’s conference at BYU, and my good friend R would be in town that weekend, so I offered her one ticket. As it turned out, however, she couldn’t come because of scheduling problems, so I offered that ticket to another friend, who I knew would love to see the show. Out of town. Hmmm. I actually had two tickets to sell, since John wasn’t old enough to go, so I offered them to my friend J, who had told me long before that if I had ANY extra tickets, she would buy them from me. She jumped at the chance, and decided to take her daughter, one of my daughter’s friends. Hooray! Plans were made, and we were getting excited.

Wednesday night I told the kids, “Guess where we get to go on Saturday?”
“Disneyland?” was their excited reply.
“Not quite THAT exciting, but still exciting. I have tickets to see Wicked.” They were sufficiently excited. I was happy I could take them. But then I realized that my 15 year old son had a scout camp out over the weekend, and he wouldn’t be able to go. Oh, no!

With one more ticket, I asked my friend if she wanted to take one more in her family. Darn. Her husband just had surgery, so he was out, and her son, who would also LOVE to go, had a soccer game. She couldn’t use it. I asked another friend, S, who has already seen Wicked twice, but who I know would LOVE to go. She was thrilled to be offered the chance. But just ONE ticket? Should she grab it up and go, or be a good mom and let her daughter go? She agonized over the decision, but it finally came down to letting her daughter go, and she would go with her other daughter to her dance recital. We were all set.

Saturday dawned, and I had my kids cleaning their rooms. John was set to go to a friend’s, whose mom willingly offered to watch him while we were gone to the play. I dashed over to a fun watch party open house, and while there, my phone rang. It was about 11:30. Ryan tells me he’s decided he has too much to do today, and can I find someone else to use his ticket? Are you kidding me? The show is in less than 3 hours, we are leaving in an hour and a half, and NOW you decide you don’t want to go? He said since he had already seen it once in New York, and he was leaving town tonight, he really wanted to get some things done before he left, and would I mind if he didn’t go.

I turned to my friend, M, who was also at the watch party, who was JUST BARELY telling me how much she WANTED to go to see the show, and asked if she could drop everything and go to see the show TODAY.
“What?” She gasped. “Today? What time?”
“Two o’clock. We’re leaving at 12:45 and we can take you.”
A look of anguish passed over her face. “I can’t go. It’s my daughter’s dance recital. And it’s prom tonight.”
I tried, unsuccessfully, I might add, to persuade her to ditch her family obligations, and come to Wicked with me.

She called me Satan, and told me to stop tempting her.

Back on the phone. I called S. More anguish. She had promised her daughter she would go to the dance recital, and she had to leave and go and get pictures taken. “ARRRGH!” she said, “Try someone else, and call me back.”

I called another friend of mine, but she was just leaving to go swimming with the kids. Could none of my friends drop everything and go? I was beginning to think I might have to make Ryan just go with me. And how rude I was to be phoning and calling while I’m at someone else’s house.

I called S back, who I KNEW really wanted to go. She was still agonizing over the decision, but trying to be a good mother and fulfill all her obligations. She decided she couldn’t go. I called my friend D.

“D,” I said, (only I didn’t just call her “D”, I used her whole name) “can you drop everything and ditch your family and go and see Wicked today?”
“Let me see. Can I call you back in two minutes?” she asked.
While she was figuring it out, I was mentally listing who I would call next. My sister, my friend S, my sister-in-law, who could be spontaneous? These darn families! Keeping us too busy to drop everything and just go. And who would have thought it would be this hard to get rid of tickets to Wicked?
Ring-Ring. It was D, “I’m in. What time?”
Good for her! Even though she had just gotten back from running 20 miles (Yes, that was not a typo–two, zero. Twenty.), her husband was ok to go to the soccer game with the kids, and she could go. I told her I’d pick her up in one hour.

Back home, we fed the kids lunch and got everyone ready. The excitement was running high. We dropped off John, picked up our friends, and were on our way.

Once we got there, we split into our two groups, four of us in row w, and four girls in row Z. Because it was a matinee and there were lots of kids there, I wasn’t able to get a booster cushion for Jenna, but sitting on my jacket and her jacket helped, and I think she was able to see all right. Although Megan just informs me that she “couldn’t see hardly anything because there were these really tall people in front” of her. Well, now. Sorry about that. I can’t make all the tall people stay home just so she can see better, now can I?

The stage at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake is definitely smaller than the Gershwin Theater in New York, but it was still amazing. I personally liked the Elphaba and Glinda we saw in New York better than these, but I liked the Fiero, the Wizard and Madame Morrible better. It was amazing. I loved it. The girls loved it, and my friends loved it. We sang all the way home. Gee, I wonder why Ryan didn’t want to go. Anyway,if you haven’t seen it yet, I hope you will someday get a chance. It was Over the Rainbow spectacular.