Wicked, Wicked, Wicked Good
Posted on October 24, 2007 - Filed Under Reviews
TGH and I went to the Boston Opera House on Tuesday night and saw “Wicked,” the musical. It was as I say in the post title: wicked, wicked, wicked, good. 
It was amazing. I absolutely adored it. The Boston Opera House is a gorgeous piece of architecture itself. As for the show, the story was great, it made me laugh and it made me cry. I loved how it fit together with the well known story, The Wizard of Oz. I loved the voices of the characters - they sang their hearts out. The sets and props were fantastic as well as the music by the Travelling Orchestra and the Boston Orchestra. Wow! This was a real treat and I highly recommend it to anyone who is able to see it. I especially think my veggie friends would like it - some of the story line has to do with animal rights/liberation. The woman who played the Wicked Witch (Elphaba) and the woman who played Glinda both received standing ovations when we were there and they earned every bit of it.
The only down side was that the intermission during the show was only 15 minutes long. This was sooooooo not long enough. When I went and found the line for the ladies’ room - it was almost all the way across the lobby floor, by 4 ladies wide. From what I hear, the ladies’ room line on the other level was even worse. There were elderly women and women with children and we all were all complaining and praying that we’d make it in time. Then, to top it off, a woman employed by the Opera House was going around the ladies’ room to warn us that if we weren’t back in our seats before the second half, that we would have to wait to be seated again. Nobody needed the extra pressure on their bladders. And of course the lights started flashing on and off to warn us that the curtain was going to rise again. Poor TGH was waiting for me and I was finally at the top of the line and got to use a stall. Holy myriads of mermaids of relief! I made it!! Not in time to be seated again though - they held us back but when TGH mentioned that our seats were just two feet away at the end of the aisle (we wouldn’t be in anybody’s way to get back in our seats), they allowed us to sit again.
That whole debacle pissed me off to no end (no pun intended). Those tickets were NOT cheap and it’s not like we were goofing off or wasting time. I mean, seriously, it’s women waiting to pee - we’re not messing around, it just takes us longer than the men. We’ve usually got the kids with us, we have to close and lock the stall door then perform feats of magnificent bodily contortions to avoid coming into contact with anything we absolutely don’t need to or spend that time instead trying to balance protective sheets onto the toilet seat, and then unlock and open the door again when we’re done and then go wash and dry our hands. There was no primping and preening in front of mirrors or anything and the line was moving along as quickly as it could.
But really there should either be more toilets to handle the amount of women in that time-frame or there should be a longer intermission to allow everyone to go. It just seems unfair to expect some of the women to have to go “during” the show and miss some of it just because they were at the end of the line. It’s an expensive night out no matter where your seats were and some people drove in from far away to get there. So nobody wants to miss a minute of a show. Okay - one last thing. If this had happened to Ellen Degeneres and they rushed her through the bathroom line or threatened to not seat her, I bet she would have countered with a return threat to sue them. 
Back to the positive side - it was a wonderful experience and if you haven’t yet done so, please click the link in the first paragraph to see pictures. I wasn’t allowed to take photos myself as that is prohibited in the theater, but the link I found had a bunch of them that are worth viewing. But it is so good in person, I can’t even express it to you - go see it if you can!
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That would make me mad too! You make me jealous! I hate that you get all the fun and I sit here in bed half the time…….But I guess I am glad someone out there is having fun
I know what that feels like too, Kaylee. It stinks. But yeah, be glad I’m out here doing stuff because otherwise what would you be reading right now? LOL. I’d only have boring stuff to write about like apple pies. Who wants to read that?! heehee. But I do wish you could be doing fun stuff too and hope you will be soon enough. Until then I’ll just keep trying to keep you smiling.
The show sounds amazing!! Glad you were able to experience it.
I would be annoyed about the short intermission. Either make it longer, or provide more toilets!! It never ceases to amaze me how there are often the same number of male & female toilets at places like that. There should always be more female ones!!!
At the women’s conference I went to last month, the toilet issue was a non-issue as we had all the ladies AND mens toilets to use (since there were no men there, LOL)
Thanks Hannah - I’m glad you had both the men’s and women’s toilets at the women’s conference. That makes sense since there were no men there.
Maybe they just need to start doubling the amount of stalls for women whenever they build or renovate buildings. I don’t know how they ever figure how many toilets there should be anyway but it never seems like enough when you’ve got lines like that. LOL. Oh well, maybe things will change in the future. We can hope, right?
That show sounds so amazing. I really love live theatre. Somday I would love to make it to New York City just to go to a Broadway play.
THAT would be cool. But for now, I’ll keep dreaming
I hope you get to do it Kami - I know you’d love it!!!
Well you know hopefully I can live a semi-normal life after I get back home and recover……..You just wouldnt believe how excited I am to get back to school by december LOL! yes I love school.Call me crazy if you want! THE WORST PART IS I AM ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE THAT CANT STAND TO LIE IN BED FOR DAYS I HAVE TO BE ACTIVE!!!!!!!!! BUT I GUESS I HAVE TO SOMETIMES
!!!!!!!!!
It sounds like you had a great time until the bathroom break.
If this were me I would do my homework and send a letter to someone in a prominent position that works for that company. I’ve done that many times in some cases nothing ever came of it but in others instances changes were made. The local Giant were I live now has vegetarian meals. Although I don’t eat them I do know some people do. I wrote the vice president for our region a letter.
The same thing happened to me when I went to a performance with my daughter earlier this year. I took her to the bathroom and we had to wait for an usher to be seated. In our case we were all the way down front. I wrote a few people on that one. I suggested they increased their breaks. They did.
If a person does not address their problems with the correct people (person in authority) unfortunately, at times, nothing will change. They need to know about the customers experience. I encourage my customers to do the same thing.
In regards to Ellen I always got the feeling that famous or not she would be the type to make her feelings known if she was not happy with something. In that way we are alike although I’ve never felt like suing anyone but I will politely state why I don’t like something.
Funny you mentioned writing a letter. That was the first thing out of my mouth when this happened. I was all like “they are soooooo getting a letter from me.” TGH didn’t seem too pleased with that but most people tend to be non-confrontational. I’ve written letters in the past before too though and it has worked to my benefit. I do start off being all mad but when I’m composing my letters I get my point across without any anger. I’ve received reimbursements, double coupons, and gift certificates because of it. I have also written letters or sent emails when I found the service/product to be a pleasant surprise. So I’m not all nasty all the time. Just a little bit some of the time. LOL. Your comment reminds me though that more people should take letter writing courses - I was lucky in that we were taught in high school how to write effective letters and I’ll always be thankful for that teacher. Writing a good old fashioned letter can really make somene’s day, get a point across, remedy a situation, or just raise awareness. It is a great tool. E-mail can also be used this way but for personal stuff I prefer an old fashioned letter (even if I have to type it and print it out so the recipient doesn’t have to decipher my chicken-scratch).
Well we need more people like you. There are companies that listen to their clients/potential clients. Even if the issue is small I think people should tell the business about it otherwise they might think that everything is “ok”. I know I cannot fix an issue if my customers don’t tell me what is wrong, lol. Please tell me give me a chance to adress the issue.
I also think of it this way…
Mary Bethune, Ruby Bridges, Medgar Evers, Homer Plessy, Farrahkhan, Malcolm, and countless others that were involved in the civil rights movement did not speak up. They might still try to keep me sitting in the “back of the bus”. I said “try” because I know I would have been one that would speak up. I do that now, lol.
You are absolutely right Opal and it is only fair to let them know as silent grumbling really benefits nobody. I would like the same courtesy myself if I were a business owner. And, btw, nobody better try and put our Opal in the BACK of any bus!!!! Grrrr.
Teeni, i am so jealous! So so so jealous.
i just did a search and i don’t see any canadian dates in that shows future…sadly. :’(
But last year i did go to CATS and Phantom of the Opera - an Phantom is coming here again in May….
i’ll have to order the soundtrack i guess - to tide myself over until they tour here.
sooooo jealous…
ps - keep us informed on the letter writing - Go Make A Difference!!
pss - i recieved a litte sumpin sumpin in my mail box yesterday!!
Oooh, Laura I’m sorry this isn’t going to Canada - maybe that will change. I will keep hoping because I know you’d love it. BTW, when I visited Canada, TGH say a dinner theatre that I absolutely loved. I’ll have to try and find the name of the place and show if I can. It was not a big fancy thing like CATS or Phantom, but I still loved it just as much!
YAY - I hope you like your little sumpin!
Ah, cool. I bet that was a lot of fun!! Wizard of Oz, in any form, is wicked cool. Did I use wicked correctly? They dont use that down here in the South ;]
I too hate lines, and I too would definitely write a letter.
However, Im one of those types that hate lines so much *it’s a claustrophobic thing for me* that I’ll leave a few minutes early just to get toward the front of the line.
Glad to hear yall had a great time, though!
If I had known it was going to be such a long line, I would also have probably left a few minutes early to use the restrooms. But now that I think about it, I just don’t think anyone should have to. That is what intermission is for. So you don’t miss the show. Right?
i saw wicked a few summers ago when i was in NYC. i had already read the book, which i really didn’t like at all. it was too long and dense; the story didn’t move forward one bit. however, i did find parts of the musical much better than the book. i liked the set design for one thing. when i saw it kristin chenoweth was glinda.
I didn’t read the book myself, Ariell. I normally would try and read a book first before seeing a movie. But in this case I didn’t know I’d be going far enough in advance and even if I did, in this case I probably wouldn’t have because The Wizard of Oz is such a classic to me that I knew I probably wouldn’t like anything else written to embellish the story. But you are right - the set design was fabulous - loved Glinda’s bubble and all the little details they did. The Glinda I got to see was Christina DeCicco. They all did a fantastic job. It must have been nice for you to get to see it so early. It always amazes me how long these things run for.
That looks like it was SO much fun…
I too get “pissed off”(lol) about the inequality between men’s facilities and women’s…
Yes probably won’t come to Canada..
I have been in that situation where you have a gigantic line and then NO time to make sure your mascara is not happily living under your eyes(creating that lovely racoon look) or that your dinner has somehow not lodged part of itself(unknown to yourself) between your teeth.
Still live events are so exhilarating; glad that you enjoyed it!
I wish everyone could see this. But I enjoy smaller productions too. I actually enjoy seeing community theatre and dinner theatre and even kids in school theatre (wish I had a kid in school). LOL. I always have a good time at any of those. And yes, it would have been nice to get a moment to touch up the eyes that night especially since the show actually did make me cry. LOL.
BTW, just to be clear. I didn’t say you shouldn’t write a letter, I said while we still maybe had seconds to try and get back into the theater, it wasn’t worth arguing with the woman down by the bathroom because she doesn’t make the rules, just tries to inform everyone of them. I thought since our seats were right there, we could maybe get in or we’d go into the balcony where this rule didn’t apply. Then I was just trying to calm you down because these things can consume you and we got back in, didn’t miss anything, so it wasn’t worth ruining the night by getting too upset.
Yeah, yeah. I know.