WICKED: A Second Look

I went to see Wicked the other night. Last week when I was attending to my Civic Duty and attempting to get on a high profile murder Jury I walked into the Oriental Theater and purchased a single seat ticket to a show the following week.

Wicked arrived in Chicago a little more than 3 years ago and has been playing strong....but they announced earlier this summer that they will be closing in January 2009. I guess everyone in Chicagoland has seen it.

I had been wanting to go see it again and I figured since I wasn't paying those ridiculous Ticketmaster surcharges that it was the perfect time to buy a ticket. I bought the best ticket I could ($90) and was sitting in row L on the aisle - a good seat.

Last time I saw Wicked we were all the way in the balcony near the Fire Exit, and even though I liked the show then - I was very disappointed with the ending - which sort of threw off my whole attitude towards the show. Plus at that time it was new and I was excited about it.

This time, it wasn't new, and I wasn't so excited about it, so I had a totally different experience.

The one thing that really put a bad taste in my mouth the first time was the whole ending (I'm not going there - so no spoilers here, you'll need to go read the original review for those), this time since I already knew the ending I could chew up the show and enjoy it for what it was and find all the "clues" they had hidden.

Let's just say that sitting close to the stage and knowing the end I had a whole new perspective of the show. The acting, costumes, sets and singing were all still phenomenal - even for a show that's been playing for 3+ years. There were parts though that I felt the singing was rushed and they didn't the "emotion" right but those were minor annoyances and it's my fault for listening to the "perfect" soundtrack so many times.

This time I enjoyed the show immensely, it's like watching "The Sixth Sense" for the second time and you realize that old Brucey is dead, this time I was able to enjoy the show for what it was and not what I wanted it to be.

The entire cast put out so much energy it was amazing, you honestly could not tell that they have done this show so many times that it's probably like walking to the bathroom in the dark for them. One of the benefits of sitting so close as well was the chance to see the actors faces - there were several cute Asian boys in the Chorus and the guy that plays Fieryo is very handsome - too bad he turned into the Scarecrow.

I'm still upset at the ending, but I'll get over that!

I can totally see why they are closing, a good third of the orchestra seats were empty on the evening I went. They only had one bar open on each floor but had 4 souvenir stands open (they wanted $19 for some silly green "Emerald City Sunglasses" - it's obvious where they're trying to make money now).

I'm sure that once the holidays start gearing up seats will be hard to find so if you've been wanting to see it, I would suggest going now.

So to take a note from all of the advertising:

"The longer you wait to see Wicked, the longer you'll wait"