Hi Wicked fans! I love Wicked. So much. I've been lurking on here for a while. Haha. But I finally joined. Sooooo:

I'm seventeen. I'm from San Francisco and only just discovered Wicked, which makes me sad because I could've been going since it opened in January! And they had so many events like Wicked day for its "homecoming" and Vicki Noon sang at the tree lighting and... sigh.

But anyway yeah! I've always been really into musicals but Wicked never caught my attention. I had heard of it even, but the concept didn't intrigue me. Gosh. I've even been an Ugly Betty fan since the first season and didn't even care when they had that special episode that was half Ugly Betty and half long commercial for Wicked!

But then! One weekend in April when my mom and I were walking around downtown, we passed by the Orpheum and were just like, BAM. Let's watch Wicked! So we walked up to the ticket window, asked them if there were tickets available for the evening, bought the only tickets they had which were a crazy high one hundred dollars but sixth row and center, and walked into the theatre.

And it was amazing.

But well first! We sat down in our seats and were thinking OMG what amazing seats. I had truly never been that close to the stage for a musical, and I've seen a lot of musicals! Then we opened up our Playbills and saw the little slip of paper: "For this evening's performance, the role of Elphaba will be played by VICKI NOON. The role of Glinda will be played by NATALIE DARADICH." And we looked in the cast list and saw... they were the STANDBYS! We were slightly disappointed.

BUT THEN. My mom just said, "Well sometimes they're even better."

And then they started. And BAM. It was freaking awesome. I literally had no idea what I was going to see. I didn't know any of the songs, except that "Popular" was one that people like in particular. It was really the least I have known about a musical ever before watching it. But it was just the best. Amazing. I fell in love. Beautiful, sweet love.

Then I had the same experience as a lot of people here. I read as much as I could about it, I became kind of sort of almost obsessed with it... The whole nine yards as some old people who love sayings would say.

I took my friend to the Orpheum about a month later to try the lottery. I really didn't think we would get it. But BAM! They called my name third! Then they called her name fifth! Of course we didn't need two more tickets, so we politely and proudly and smugly declined. It was amazing. We got pretty decent seats for lottery. It was Vicki Noon and Kendra Kassebaum. I wished I could see Teal Wicks, just to see more portrayals of Elphaba, but Vicki Noon is just great. I loved seeing her again. On a whole I think I liked Natalie Daradich more, because I prefer the sound of her voice. This is not to say that Kendra Kassebaum's vocals are poor, just that I like a quality in Natalie Daradich's voice that Kendra Kassebaum doesn't have. I just prefer her voice. Not to say that it or her singing is better or worse. Phew lol long explanation. But as far as comedy I think I liked Kendra, but probably she has had a lot of time to hone her craft and work on that character. I really liked the way Natalie Daradich kicked out her let on "No, I'm not!" after the students tell her she's so good in the Shiz scene. I don't think Kendra Kassebaum did that. But I liked the way she said "Yes-I-do" really fast when Elphaba asked her if she felt better.

Well thank you so much for reading that, if you did! Lol it was so long. I'm kind of talkative and think a lot and retain a shockingly vast amount of accurate and very specific information about things that I like. And I like Wicked a whole lot.

So to sum up: I love Wicked. My name is Riley. I'm seventeen. I'm from San Francisco. I'm excited to meet people and swap Wicked stories!

The end!

Oh wait one more thing! Today I went to the Theater Festival and was so excited to see Wicked perform! But! They said that "someone from the cast was supposed to come but couldn't make it!" So sad. But then Natalie Daradich came up on stage and was like, "So they called me this morning and said, 'Hey do you want to sing in a park?' and I just said, 'Sure!' So I grabbed my Popular t-shirt and came over here." And apparently she had a matinee today? Crazy. The performance was just an hour before the matinee was supposed to start! She was good.

Hey Riley

Welcome to the crazy and insane world of WoO! (In a good way of course ) Anyway, if you have any questions or anything really feel free to send a PM my way.

And you're SO lucky you live in San Fran! It sounds like you've had some lovely experiences with Wicked!! ... and you're also insanely lucky you got to see Vicki and Natalie. They're both brilliant. But you know that

But yeah, welcome!

B ootleg talk isn't allowed on here Might wanna edit out the references. Just advice.

Anyway, I'm so happy you got to see Vicki and Natalie together They're simply fantastic.

WOW! If I had known about that park thing I would've so been there! Natalie's amazing, I really wish I could've been there.

Hi Riley,

I'm Jai, one of the moderators of Witches of Oz. I just need to ask to make sure you read the rules of the forum. As you've already been told there is no bootleg talk allowed here. Mainly because of course its illegal.

Anyway enough of my Mod talk.

If you have any questions or PMs or just need help with anything. Drop me a PM, I generally tend to help the newcomers here as I mod the Intro section.

Anyway have fun. x

Welcome to the boards! Technically she could be comparing legal videos, ones from appearances and Broadway in Bryant Park, etc, etc. There's basically legal stuff for almost every Elphaba.

Lol, sorry. I edited it out. Thanks everyone! And hi! I read the rules! The YouTube stuff didn't register as illegal to me until... now. Sorry!
Yeah, I loved Vicki and Natalie working together! They ARE brilliant indeed. Natalie was basically crying when they sang "For Good." And in a few other places. I read Vicki's interview where she says they've become "close friends." That's so sweet to hear.

Well there are so many nice people on these boards! Thank you! And lol there are a lot of funny emoticons... Lol okay.

And yeah, the legal videos... lol. I've seen Vicki Noon, Teal Wicks, and Caissie Levy singing "The Wizard and I" at different park appearances. Vicki Noon was sooooo good at Pride! And Natalie Daradich and Kendra Kassebaum and... Angel Reda? all singing at Hotel Nikko. Legal.

Hotel Nikko is famazing I'm going to have to look the benefit up.

Riley, its great that you're here! I'm Glen, and if you need anything, or need to know anything, give me a shout!

All the best

Welcome to WoO!!!
I'm extremely jealous that you've seen Natalie/Glinda!! Lucky.

Thanks everyone!
I have come back to say, because I don't know where else to post this, I LOVE THIS PLACE!
There are so many people who watch Wicked over and over and over and over again and don't tire of it. And I LOVE watching things over and over again. ESPECIALLY Wicked! And no one gets it. EXCEPT THIS PLACE! And there's so much information. That I could ever want about Wicked. Yesssss. I love this! You all are great! It feels like I'm going to feel this way for the rest of my life!

And yes, I feel lucky to have seen Natalie! But I am a little jealous of you; you've seen it eleven times! Woah! And you've seen so many actresses in the lead roles. Wow!