Glinda - Annaleigh Ashford
Elphaba - Lisa Brescia
Nessa - Cristy Candler
Boq - Ben Liebert
Fiyero - David Burnham
Wizard - Lenny Wolpe
Morrible - Miriam Margoyles
Dillamond - Steven Skybell
NOMTW - I'm getting used to the hologram...I liked the hat better, but hologram is cool too...was looking forward to seeing Annaleigh. She seemed a little bit soft at first but that didn't last long. Her take on nomtw is a little different as she has a little less of an operetic spin with a litttle less vibrato than others that I've seen. I liked it though! No entrance applause for Glinda
Shiz - I was really looking forward to seeing Miriam as well...and she didn't disappoint. She's quite funny and she truly doesn't sing anything but it's like she doesn't need too. I also liked Ben Liebert as Boq. He's the first one I saw that really didn't overact. He seemed to fit quite naturally into the part. Lisa got entrance applause...yay!
TWAI - This is when I realized that I truly wouldn't be dissappointed. Lisa really knocked this song out of the park.
WITF - Lisa took a real long break before saying "blonde." Added to the humor...got good laughs. The company overpowered Lisa and Annaleigh a bit in this song. I've heard of that tending to happen a bunch in this song...in all productions...good energy overall though.
Classroom/SB - Steven really took quite a big chunk of the paper and then he turned to the audience for a minute and nodded his head a bit as if to say 'yummm, that's good stuff,' or something like that. Song went well.
DTL - I liked David. I thought he fit into the part quite well. The part where the cart runs into Lisa was kinda funny cause you could realllly tell that it didn't hit her at all, like, when she tripped she wasn't even close to it! Something that's not much of a big deal, but if you're a wicked nitpicker, you notice. I liked annaleigh's acting when Lisa came in with that hat on. At first she kinda looked away as a 'too bad, yup I did this to you' kinda thing. Then she looked as if she felt truly sorry. I thought that moment of maturity in Galinda went really well.
P - Hilarious. Annaleigh has had good training for the ditzy part of Glinda. I loved the lip-smacking thing she did after applying the lipstick. Also, her toss-toss is quite amusing...she did the toss, then kinda made a semi-flirtatious/semi-just wierd face and backed up. When Lisa tried it it was very funny. The audience got really into this one and applauded before the song was actually over. Oh yeah, and annaleigh really chucked the wand backward for "wear the frock it's pretty." It took a looong time before I actually heard it land.
Cub/INTG - I like Steven Skybell - just thought I'd add that in....good chemistry between Lisa and David...In my opinion nothing can beat Carmen Cusack's intg...but Lisa's was decent, her voice is a little less deep for the song, but not bad.
TWAI ®/Train Station - I still call it that even though it's not really a song anymore...good, Ben played Boq so well in this...he is by far my favorite Boq so far.
OSD - This is one of the instances where I really like the lighting better on tour than on broadway...I mean, it's not a huge deal, but the green to me seemed much brighter on tour, and I liked that. Song went well. for the counterpoint at the end I thought that the 'Who's the mage...' overpowered the 'one short day...' a bit. But when it came together it was nice and strong.
SM - Lenny came out and was good. Some people don't like this song, but I really do...I think it was geniously composed. For the first part, it seems very gentle and grandpa-ish (the part that's on the OBCR). but by the time the monkey's are transformed and all that..the instrumentation is changed just a tad and the music overall is just altered a bit so it sounds more haunting...same melody, two different feelings...great job Stephen Schwartz!
DG - my heart always starts pounding throughout this whole song...I can't help it. It happens every time. Lisa was once again very impressive. Lift worked well. No glitches or everything, song went off smoothly. You could tell Lisa was just a bit short on breath...her high "deFYing gravity" (the FY part) was really short...but the bring me down's and the ahhh went off well. I can't remember if there was a flash or not, but the song went great (worth the heart pounding!). She held the last note out for a while too which was nice.
Intermission - I went up to the top of the balcony to see what rear mezz seats were like (cause I'd like to see wicked many more times, but the price is killing me
) The seats aren't bad at all, the mezzinine isn't really that deep.TG - I thought David Burnham's acting was phenomenal in this. He really did a great job with all his lines. He was great at transitioning into the not so shallow fiyero. Good singing by everyone....company was on fire.
WWOTE - Cristy was fiery for this...I loved it! and Ben once again was great as Boq....for whatever reason I remember thinking that someone skipped a line, but I can't remember what/who it was anymore.
W - I like Lenny....and I do miss the dancing...song went well overall.
INTG ® - heartbreaking, very well done.
ALAYM - really good chemistry between David and Lisa. David cracked on "maybe I'm brainless"....but he was fine by the time he got to that same note in "some how i've fallen" Lisa did a great "wicked" at the end, the audience laughed, it was a good moment.
Cornfield - I really liked the way that Lisa looked when she walked into this scene. Maybe I just never noticed it before, but you really could only see her silouette (sp?) when she was walking through the corn. It seemed like Lisa rushed the "oh nessa, please forgive me" part. It was just done a bit quicker than i've seen in the past. The hitting was coordinated with the sound effects and the cackle was okay...not as good as the other three I've seen (Julia, Victoria, and Carmen) but still enough to get a few people to laugh. The wand spinning got a good laugh.
NGD - by far the best of Lisa's songs. This topped any rendition of NGD I've seen so far. It was sooo strong and powerful. And at the end, she said again twice...on purpose, it was amazing!!! It was like, "No good deed, will I dooooooooo AAAAGGAIIIInnnnnnnnn aaaaaaAAAAAAggaaaiiiiin!" and she must have taken a little extra breath in between the two agains because she held that note out for a while. It was beautiful. A+++++
MOTWH - Ensemble rocked - Ben was great, so were Miriam and Annaleigh, i noticed Lisa sneaking in at the end, that was cool.
Castle/FG - "I surrender" such an emotional moment...They sang quite beautifully together. The counterpoint part was very nice.
Finale - No applause for Lisa coming out of the door...David did the scarecrow walk....I always love that added touch. This was Annaleigh's best moment, in my opinion. She really showed such emotion and yet there was still that bit of forced happiness like in NOMTW. perfection. The ensemble held out the final "wicked" for a llloooong time. Chills up my spine...
Curtain Call - My mom and I stood up for the ensemble and so did the guy and girl sitting next to me, but no one else did....however, when Lisa and Annaleigh came out, there was a deafening roar and everyone was instantly standing (at least from what I could see). I could feel the ground vibrating.
Stage Door - David, Lisa, Lenny, and Ben came out. All were amazingly friendly. First one was Ben, who got out before we did and we just caught him. A guy came up to him and said "Nice job, Biq," somebody probably says that every single stage door at some point
Then was David. He was really nice as well. There were big drops of water and ice chunks falling off the building just next to stage door and when David got there he was like, "wow this is a dangerous area." and we were like, "yeah we're dodging bullets here." Then he said something to the effect of "I'm glad you had a good time...hope you don't get killed!" chuckled and then left.
After that was Lenny. He was very grandpa-ish in a good way! very friendly. He got talking to my cousin (first-timer) for a bit. She said how my mom and I had seen Wicked several times and then he said, "Have you seen Lisa Brescia before?" and we said "no" and he complimented her, "Isn't she fantastic. We enjoy working together so much." Then the water and ice started falling on him so he was like "I better go get my umbrella" so he went back in.
Lisa was next, and last. FIrst off, my cousin was astounded that she was an understudy...so we got talking about how much she goes on. I was surprised, she said usually about two times a week, but she also said that Stephanie is sooo strong and she's been on a bit less with her there. Then we again got talking about how we've seen it several times and we sort of referred to ourselves as "groupies. " and Lisa was so nice, she said, "no not groupies...'treasured fans'" We got a good laugh out of that. SHe had nothing but good things to say about Stephanie and she talked about how difficult the role truly is both physically and emotionally...
Overall, I had such a great experience and everyone was sooo nice!