Wicked...or Not?

In trying to find the interesting and artful for this weeks blog, I heard about the Broadway musical that seems to have taken Salt Lake by storm.

Wicked.

My sister-in-law went and saw it Saturday with her children. Her youngest is a boy turning 8, and all he had to say was he didn't like the "kissing" parts...lol.

This is the musical based on the book written by Winnie Holzman.

I've known the book was around for sometime, and while my sister and everyone else seemed to be reading it, I was never attracted to it. Hearing the basic idea behind the story makes it sound intriguing, and the musical sound inviting. I'd like to see how they manage the idea of two total opposite girls becoming friends in college only to become enemies in adulthood.

I'm afraid that I have the Wicked Witch of the West firmly entrenched in my mind as the crotchety voiced crab (played by Margaret Hamilton)who acted in the original movie with Judy Garland as Dorothy -- my all time favorite actress. Who didn't want a pair of ruby slippers after watching that movie? Perhaps it's just the old fashioned part of me -- but then I don't like a lot of the remakes that have come out in the past ten years either.

Be that as it may, if you like theater and musicals, you'll probably not want to miss this one. It's truly a spectacular on stage presentation.



I hear the stage setting and costumes are amazing, and that everything is very much what you'd see on the Broadway stage. There is even some reference to the movie of it's base, The Wizard of Oz, and that would be interesting to see. Apparently everything is vivid color, like the movie, but the wizard is black and white. I guess you'd have to read the book to understand that.

The recommendation of my sister-in-law? She thought it was awesome and fantastic.

So, if you're in the mood for some musical theater this week, see if you can get some tickets and check it out.(I've heard two different sides to this...tickets are readily available, and yet, tickets are all sold out and the show ends May 3.) So -- apparently they're in short supply. I think the munchkins got to them...grin.

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Blythe Spirit

I don't attend plays very much. Perhaps it's because they are usually more expensive than going to see a movie, and we have a hard enough time forking out the money for that. Usually we do a dvd rental or go to the dollar theater. (I think I've mentioned before that we are cheap...oh wait, that's frugal.)

I can probably count the different plays I've been to on one hand. I'm afraid that makes me sound rather uncultured... One of my favorites that I've seen is Beauty and the Beast that Layton High school produced a couple of years ago. They did an excellent job. One of our neighbors was LaFue (sp?) and he was hilarious. I saw Davis High's Avida because my niece had one of the main roles. That's usually why we see one, because we know someone that is performing in it. We like to support family and friends in their endeavors.

Well...such was the case a week or so ago. My son is dating a girl who is in a play up in Washington Terrace at the Terrace Playhouse. It's called Blithe Spirit, and it's hilarious. The price of tickets aren't bad, pretty much the same as a movie ticked for the non reserved, and the non reserved seats were every bit as good as any of the middle section, which was all the reserved were. It's a small theater, but the troupe did an excellent job with the material.

The general plot is about a middle aged author who has decided to write a book exposing mediums. In his research, he decided to invite a neighbor who claims to be a medium. This woman is everyone's vision of a fortune teller, though she says she never does that -- the future is too vague. The woman who plays her does a wonderful job, she almost steals the show.

Anyway, Charles invites a doctor friend and his wife over for dinner and the seance. During the conversations with the woman, all of them are trying to control themselves during dinner and the evening, which plays out rather entertaining with the woman going into a trace.

No one thinks anything happened, except for Charles (the author). He realizes that his dead wife has entered his home, and only he can hear and see her. He thinks he's gone mad and tries to enlist his wife's help, but she thinks he's being rude to her because he's talking to both women at the same time and she can only hear him. It's quite the humorous misunderstanding. Anyway, it becomes apparent that his dead wife is trying to kill him off so she can have him with her. Unfortunately, she ends up killing his wife, and she comes back to join the fun.

The man playing Charles has a wonderfully expressive face, and he is simply amazing. He shows all his emotions, his fear and his anxiety. He simply was the character -- it was wonderful.

The dead wife struts around the room, knocking things over, and otherwise terrifying the wife (before she accidentally kills her). She also terrifies the maid, which is played by my son's girlfriend. She does a wonderful job as the maid. She's tall and slim and the clothes they have her wear make her look gangly and all bones and clumsy and she's supposed to be as inconspicuous as possible -- but she has some wonderful scenes; like where she's picking up the morning dishes and the newspaper and ends up picking up the newspaper with her teeth...

So I decided everyone needed to try and see it during it's last week of run. The show runs Monday's, Friday's and Saturdays at 7:30. Go show your support of local theater, and take an evening to enjoy yourself. You'll be glad you did.

As my sister likes to say, be there or be rhomboidal...

yourLDSneighborhood has added exciting new things to its website. Please drop me and take a look, browse around, check out our vendors, our radio station, our authors, our musicians and more. Check out the Neighborhood.

And while you're there, subscribe to the yourLDSneighborhood Newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, the newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world-all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Return to the Neighborhood.