I've been Wicked.

After an impromptu blogging hiatus, I am coming back with a bang.  And a broomstick.

I went to Wicked Thursday night and I am still in awe.

I was contacted a few weeks ago by Broadway Across Canada via Bottom Line Productions and offered tickets to the Saskatoon showing of Wicked.  I'm pretty sure I could not have answered quicker when I said yes.

I asked The Guy if he wanted to go with me.  Before I got out the words "musical" and "about the witches of Oz", he had declined.  I contacted a friend of mine, New Heart, to meet me there and we would go together.  I drove up with another friend Saviabella who was going with her girl friend, Madame Diva.  Sometimes, a woman just needs a girls' night out.

After a wonderful steak meal at a local venue, we wandered down the street in our teetering heels and picked up our tickets.  I felt a bit like a celebrity when I grabbed them.  My tickets were at the media table with tickets for people from local radio stations and the like.

We settled into our seats and waited with anxious glee.  Here we are waiting.  Don't worry, we don't usually look so grainy in real life.  Nor so shiny.

MayB and New Heart preparing for the time of our lives!

Finally, the lights dimmed, the music began and monkeys started dancing across the stage.

I was too excited to breathe.  The backdrop was fantastically cool -- a giant dragon spread across the ceiling of the stage; gears and cogs created the borders; the twinkling lights of the faraway city.  The mechanisms (like the mechanical bubble) were brilliant.  To watch Glinda (which started out as Gaaaaah-linda) come down to the stage in her bubble was magical.

The costumes were elaborate and dramatic.  As we were watching, New Heart leaned over and asked why we couldn't dress like that everyday.  I responded that some people do: Bjork, for example.  The music was beautiful and the singing was fun and gorgeous and at times powerful.

As the main character, Elphaba (aka Wicked Witch of the West) was lifted into the air before intermission, her voice filling the air with power and determination, I was transported.

The entire show was fantastic.  Glinda (with a silent Gaaaaah) was charming and hilarious.  I can only imagine how fun it would have been to play her character.  Elphaba was every girl who ever felt out of place.    The power that each of them put into their songs left me wishing I could sing like that (other than in my car.)

When the last song was over, I stood with tears in my eyes and my heart full of happiness for the characters that I had fallen in love with over the last few hours.  As we walked out, I was so amazed at how great it all was.

It was up there with the time I saw Fred Penner.