In light of this very, very sad and very momentous occasion of the closing of WICKED CHICAGO, I ask just one thing of you, especially you Old-Schoolers.

Remember when?

1. Elphaba was Ana Gasteyer, or even Kristy Cates. And Glinda was Kate Reinders, or even Stacie Morgain Lewis.
2. Kristina Fernandez, Dioni Michelle Collins, Kathy Santen, etc. were in Wicked.
3. Delandis was the best Ribbon Twirler EVAR and you loved his hair, too.
4. The alley wasn't gentrified; it didn't have a nice cobblestone-like path, there were no lights, no advertisments, but it DID have grafitti.
5. The lobby had a unique, pleasant smell of its own. Not always has it had odors reminiscent of Garret's Popcorn.
6. The front of the cancellation line in the lobby was the now non-existent pay phone.
7. Elphaba didn't always have a trap door in the floor to yell at Dorothy in Act 2.
8. In The Wizard & I, Elphaba walked AROUND the column to put her suitcase away.
9. Dancing Through Life choreography didn't always use the books the whole time.
10. You couldn't wait for Elphaba and the Wizard to dance during Wonderful.
11. There was no such thing as "Behind the Emerald Curtain"
12. There were two "baby doll" style tees to choose from: Defy Gravity and the original dark/light Popular shirt.
13. You were psyched to see that Chicago FINALLY got its own T-Shirt!
14. You bought the original program, the one that only had Broadway pictures.
15. You lottoed at Borders on the weekends, and played trivia to win Borders coupons.
16. You really wanted to steal those styrofoam-backed production photos of Ana Gasteyer and Kate Reinders from Borders
17. Steven Skybell was the best Dr. Dillamond ever.
18. You remember when you were going to have Don hoist Heidi on his shoulders and steal you a green lightbulb.
19. You and your friends had a special understanding with Kristy during As Long As You're Mine.
20. You would stage door, and there were no barriers between you and the actors.
21. You remember the team of TELLY/HEIDI and how they were the best Nessa/Boq team.
22. You know the story behind "MISTY CRATES".
23. Ana's Twitchy Fingers and Steph's Hands. 'Nuff said.
24. You could name almost the entire Chicago company, plus all of the other Elphabas: Idina Menzel, Stephanie J. Block, and Shoshana Bean.
25. Wicked was strictly in North America. There was no London, Stuttgart, or Melbourne.
26. You attended the First and Second Wicked Anneversaries at Water Tower Place.
27. There was no "...to Fiyero." when Boq sang to Nessarose in Act 2.
28. There was none of this "I guess he saw green and thought it meant go."
29. Back in the REALLY early days, when Ana's "Ahhh!" at the end of Defying Gravity wasn't conventional AT ALL, but was like, straight out belt for 26 seconds, and the cast members would wait and come in a little later to make sure they held the entire note with Ana.
30. Things like riffs really weren't a big deal.
31. Kate broke her leg during Popular.
32. You cracked up after watching Ana make herself a "pantomime ballgown" during Popular.
33. The Dancing Through Life books were brown, not blue and red.
34. There were no awesome brass sfortzandos at the end of What is this Feeling?

- List compiled by Vicky (Emeraldgreen) and Mandy (Yeroismyhero)

Please, feel free to reply and add more.

For many, many people, including myself, Wicked has been over 3 and 1/2 years of seeing a show, lottoing, meeting new people, and being "changed for the better". As corny as it sounds, it truly is "the end of an era."

31: Really? She DID?
I had no idea that happened, but, I'm not near Chicago, so...

Yep! It was about October 2005. When I saw her that November, she came out of the stage door in a boot and I just kept thinking, "Wow, she did that show without any sign of pain and she was supposed to be in a boot!"

I remember most of that. The good old days.

Wow, a lot of that reminded me of my first Wicked show. MISTY CRATES for the win!

I love that list and I've never seen the show in Chicago but I remember some of the productions changes from the tour before Wicked L.A. opened. Thanks for making it. Hope some others can add more.

I'm sitting here trying to think of more. I know there has to be more.

OMG Usher Lady, remember her? She was mean but you know we all loved her. She was the older one. She'd be all serious and cracking jokes about what's not allowed and such. It was great!

OMG USHER LADY FOR THE WIN!!

Usher Lady = Usher with dark hair and accent. NOT usher with orangey skin and grey hair.

Usher Lady would hate doing the lotto cause it "cut in on her break."

She was all business and was awesome because she tried to make it as efficient as possible.

I always say hi when I see her, and the last time I saw Jersey Boys we must have talked for 10 minutes. She would threaten you like mad style about taking pictures and has been quoted as saying, "Yeah, and I take that **** away."

I remember when Ana was in Chicago, and I won lotto for the first time, and I said, "Oh, I hope Ana's here."

Usher Lady just looked up at me and said, "Oh, Gasteyer? Yeah, she's here. I saw her in that **** tea shop."

(The tea shop was Argo Tea.)

I take solace in knowing that even after Wicked closes, Marybelle will still be working at Broadway in Chicago.

Thank you, Marybelle!

Oh haha I think I'm talking about the grey-haired one. My bad!

Oh... the orange-ish usher.

She made lotto so unfair. The people who got called first didn't get their vouchers first. In fact, they had a chance of getting them last so they might get the seats in row B. She mixes the winning tickets up to see who gets their vouchers first. I didn't like that. She made the whole lotto thing take SO long. She wasn't very pleasant.

Ah I never knew that, or didn't notice at least. Unfair. I don't like her now. LOL.

yeah Maribelle is still there, and so is Cat!

Oh wow. I know it was only 3 years, but wow. That really takes me back some.

Re: #s
1. Amen
2. Aww...
3. I still do! I actually emailed him a while ago to say hey and catch up a little.
4. AMEN! lol. And the smell. It's wasn't as terrible as the Palace's Stage Door Dumpsters, but there were still some smells.
5. Ha! Oh Garrets.
6. I miss that pay phone. I actually have the number for it somewhere. lol. It's great. You couldn't make out-going calls... only incoming. It was actually kind of helpful. Anyone else ever us it?
13. HA! True. But I was also disappointed in the design. Actually, I STILL think Wicked merch is kinda weak.
16. Hmm... guilty.
18. I still want a green light bulb. I hope they do something with them. Maybe auction em off or something.
19. Dude. Best days were when Michael was in the audience.
21. TELLY! Aww... *sniff sniff*
22. MISTY CRATES! YES! LMAO
26. Aww, Wicked Anniversaries. Too bad they won't hold official ones once it's gone. Wonder if anyone will go to the WTP anyway and have "a moment".


General:
Regarding production changes, it's so mixed. There's some I love and some I dislike. But meh. Wicked is still LOVE.

USHERS period. I'm so amused. Granted I'm easily amused, but seriously... most of them? they're just uber awesome.

ADD A 35 to the list please:

35. Gene's "mad scientist" hair before they banned it. An Einsteinian haired Wizard anyone?

^^^ OMG why didn't I think of that! An excellent point!!!

Oh and Rondi used to accentuate certain words but they made her stop.

how about Rondi's exit from the theatre/entrance to the stagedoor alley? that was always funny.

That is also a good one, but she still did that even recently I believe. We were aiming towards things that happened in the first year or so of Wicked.

This is a great list! I actually remember some of the things on it (Kate breaking her foot in like 4 places during Popular, Elphaba originally walking around the column).

Oh, when Elphaba and Fiyero just entered from a different side of the stage instead of coming down the stairs. Fiyero didn't run offstage, run back onstage and go out the other side during The Classroom/Saving Lion Cub scene.

LOVE this list. Hard to believe that I've been following this production for over three years.

OMG I FORGOT ALL ABOUT THAT!!

I loved that so much! I was so disappointed when he told me the producers made him change it.

AND ANOTHER ONE:

- Rondi's "Weather is my speci-al-it-tee!!"

When me and Kristy cates were email buddys for a year! lol shes very nice to chat with!
after awhile I forgot that I was chatting with a broadway star

I remember all of these! This list is so cute.

I remember all, but like 2 of these! I actually really miss the early days and sitting in the theater last Sunday brought back so many memories. I was actually sitting a few rows back from where I sat the very first time I saw it. I spend the first 10 minutes trying not to cry. Although I didn't get over to Chicago all the time (i live 3 hrs away) I did drive over to try the lotto from time to time. Sad thing is I never won. (i did get a last limited view seat once) That's ok though, I still got to see to it a hand full of times. I've seen it on tour a lot now because it's been close. I love it no matter where I see it, but Chicago's always my favorite. I'm really sad because I got to out of the loop this past year. I started working 58hr weeks & never had time to do the things I loved, including seeing Wicked in Chicago. And I never got in here that much either. This place has changed a lot too.

Anyways, my friend finally got into the show last year & is totally in love with it (she's really big into the tour cast) and it's really hard for me to begin to explain to her everything that's she's missed out. (i tried to get her to go forever)


I'm rambling!

But I have a memory! Do you remember when Ozwald started falling apart and they couldn't move him for the longest time? I remember that was within a week after my first time seeing Kristy.

And I personally was really upset when Ana left & decided that Kristy wouldn't be the same. Then, just a few feet in front of me, I saw her kneeling by her suitcase giving the other students the greatest, meanest look and I new everything was going to be ok. Kristy rocks!

Ok, I'm really done rambling now!

Reading this thread almost brings me to tears. Sometimes I can't believe how Wicked means so much to all of us. Especially Wicked in Chicago....there was always something going on...

Can I be clued in about "Misty Crates?" Please? Lol.

Ok, ok... since you asked.

A bunch of us from WoO were at the stage door. Kristy had talked to everyone and we were the only ones left. One of the people from our group couldn't make it, and Kristy said that she would talk to her over the phone.

So Holly picked up the phone, and was all, "Who is this?"

And Kristy was all, "My name rhymes with... Misty Crates." And she just looked at us like, "Wait, WHAT did I just say?"

So yeah... that's the story.

Lol. That is randomly hilarious and precious. She sounds so sweet!