Author: Melissa

It takes a lot to tempt me into wandering into a theater.  I can count on one hand the number of professional shows I’ve been to – and the last time I saw a show was in 2001 when Rent was playing at the Orpheum in San Francisco. 

Now I’ve added Wicked the Musical to that list. 

It was first workshopped here in SF years ago, and then there was a previous run a few years ago.  I wasn’t interested then because A) I was still living in Texas so I wasn’t exactly near where it was playing and B) I read a review in Entertainment Weekly that kind of panned it with a C grade and C) I hadn’t yet reread the book so I didn’t quite realize what a literary masterpiece it was! (Honestly, don’t be 15 and try to read the book, no matter how much you love the Wizard of Oz.)

Anyway, so six months ago my sister and I decided to go see the new run at the Orpheum and Abby ordered our tickets.  Finally the day came and we headed to the city.  The show has been sold out, so the theatre was packed.  Somehow, Abby managed to get seats on the bottom floor – there are two sections on the bottom, orchestra level and mezzanine, I think (louge [sic?] is upstairs) and we were in the mezzanine in the middle of the left side section.  Really decent view of the stage and kind of exciting to actually be on that level, especially since I thought we’d be upstairs.  My participation in acquiring the tickets was pretty much telling Abby to keep it around $100 if she could and then paying her back for my ticket. So it was a nice surprise that we were so close!

I will say right here that I am not a fan of Stephen Schwartz, the composer of this musical.  I think his work lacks cohesion and singable tunes.  He’s responsible for the crap soundtracks of Disney’s animated musicals Pocahontas and Hunchback of Notre Dame, and various other stage musicals that I’d like to punch him in the face for (Godspell, etc.). I’d gotten the Wicked soundtrack out of the library last year or the year before and was disappointed at how ultimately blah it was. 

So, yeah, I still decided to go, despite this.  I do love the book, and I love the Wizard of Oz.

The sets were amazing.  The costumes were fantastic.  The woman who played Glinda was absolutely fantastic (Kendra Kesselbaum, I think her name is).  We had a surprise in that Madame Morrible was played by Patty Duke! She was great. (Abby was all, “Who’s Patty Duke?”) Also, the Wizard was played by the guy who played Steve on Married With Children – he was good too.  But nobody was as good as Kendra Kesselbaum, who I was pretty much blown away by.

There was a cop-out happy ending, which I found slightly irksome, though understandable. However, because of that, I would definitely say that it’s kid-friendly, since, basically, NO ONE DIES. Also, it’s totally funny.

My ultimate grade would be a B- because I feel that the music really does drag it down that much.  But as a stage production, the sets, direction, comedic timing, fabulous costumes, and excellent performances really elevate the show past lame music.  I would definitely recommend going to see it if you have the opportunity!

Two Saturdays ago it was completely necessary for me to get out of Dodge.  So, I gassed up the car, got on the road and found myself in Burlingame, aka Land of Delicious Thai Food and Home of the Sibling. 

I’d been feeling the need to go a botanical garden or something like that; when I lived in San Antonio, there was a local botanical garden that I frequented – it was only $4 a pop with student ID. I liked going there because it was quiet and pretty, and filled with flowers and plants.  The irony being that I hate to garden, having suffered an eye injury when I was nine in the line of duty (directly contributing to my eyeball issues – while I am fine, I can’t watch or even talk about anything to do with eyeball injuries).  But: no matter; I like botanical gardens. 

There are a couple of botanical gardens around here, one in Berkeley and one in San Francisco.  We know that I abhor both those cities, so it’s doubtful I’ll get myself over to those gardens.  But I’ve always wanted to go to the Filoli Gardens, which my parents had gone to a few years ago and I had always wanted to go, but I think I was living in Texas then.  So I looked the gardens up and discovered that they are but 12 mere miles from the sibling! I thought they were much farther south and would be annoying to get to. 

But they aren’t.  So I emailed Abby and asked if she wanted to go, and she agreed, and so I headed over there in the morning and we went over to Coconut Bay, where we had the chicken red curry lunch.  It was extreeemely hot and cleared our sinuses.  Still delicious though! Best Thai food ever.

Then we headed out to Filoli, which is basically an English-style estate out on the peninsula. It definitely has Jane Austeny vibes and you can tour the first floor of the house and the extensive gardens, including the daffodil fields.

It was pretty cold and cloudy when we went, but still fun. Since then, it’s been really sunny and nice out – but then again, spring has sprung. I miss my winter! Cold, cloudy, and blustery is my favorite sort of weather.  You know how some people get depressed in the winter? Season disaffective disorder or whatever it’s called?  It’s the opposite for me.  Give me fall and winter – you can have your spring and summer! So I’ve been in a bad mood this week.

Monday I finished my Hearts Afire socks. Tuesday I had a migraine and stayed home from work.  Wednesday I was gone all day for work – I had a meeting in the evening and barely got home in time to start watching Lost.  I am not super interested in Sayid-centric episodes but, um, I will say that for awhile I thought he would be sympathetic to young Ben, but then he totally wasn’t and did what I thought he’d do since last week… Lost is getting interesting! I’m glad it’s ending and we’re actually getting anwers.

Anyway, so I will post about the Hearts Afire socks next time.  I’m also working on the periwinkle Malabrigo earflap hat, which is about half done.

See the entire Filoli Gardens set here. It includes interior shots of the house, too.