London Part 3 – Wicked
And finally, Saturday was Wicked day! Sabine knows all the songs by heart (played the CD over and over), and although I kept the end a secret, she knew what the show was about and that was a good thing as it is sometimes hard to understand what they’re saying, even for me.
We already knew Rachel Tucker – Elphaba – because she was on the BBC’s ‘Search for Nancy’ the female lead in the musical Oliver. She’s obviously grown a lot since then, artistically, and she was a great Elphie. It was the first time I saw Louise Dearman, who plays Glinda and she has a lovely voice. Mark Evans, who plays Fiyero, was on holiday. No idea if we missed something as I’ve never seen him on stage before. But, to our surprise Antony Hansen, who was on the BBC’s ‘Search for Joseph’, was his understudy. As I had no idea he was in the show, my jaw dropped when he came on stage. It’s amazing to know that so many contestants from the different ‘Searches for…’ have found their way in the West End shows and are playing major parts now.
Beforehand I was afraid that row 3 tickets would be too close to the stage, but our seats were AWESOME. Enough distance to get a complete view of the stage, but still close enough to see the emotion on the faces of the actors. Perfect, just the way I like it!
At the stagedoor we met a mother (my age) from Scotland, her two daughters and her sister (at least we think they were sisters as they looked much alike). We stood together at the beginning of the line, chatting away while waiting for the actors to come out. To me this was the best night of the three, lots of conversations and laughter, actors weren’t rushed and – like every night – made time for everyone who was waiting, smiling for every pic (gosh don’t they grow tired of it?). Thank you all, you made our day!
The lady from Scotland made a cheering sound (as in: oooo look who’s here…) when a young guy came out of the stagedoor. Apparently he was in the ensemble and the eldest daughter (Sabine’s age) thought he was cute. They met him at the stagedoor at a previous visit to Wicked. After she reminded him of their first meeting she asked him for another autograph and picture and the guy said (pleasantly surprised), yes sure! Usually only the major leads are stopped by fans while the ensemble members quickly make their way past the people waiting in line. I always feel sorry for them as they’ve worked just as hard, but as I have no idea who they are it’s a bit stupid to say: ermmm… can I have your autograph and by the way, who are you? lol.
As we were next in line and the pics with the girl from Scotland were taken, Sabine asked for a picture and an autograph and his smile grew. Funny how contagious the signing is; the people next to us – who, like us, didn’t have a clue about who he was – also asked him for his autograph and he looked genuinely happy. I think we made his day 😀 Later we looked up his name, Niall Sheehy, and Sabine agreed with the Scottish girl that he really was cute! Even though we loved Antony as Fiyero, we wouldn’t have mind if Niall had played the part that night. Oh well… maybe another time! Wicked is Niall’s West End debut, and I have a feeling we will be seeing him again, either in Wicked or another show. I’m following him on Twitter now, so we’ll know the news first hand if he does leaves Wicked.
After we visited Buckingham Palace on Sunday – where we saw the wedding dress of Princess Catherine – can I say: WOW – it was time for us to say goodbye to my favourite city of all. Partir, c’est mourir un peu…
If you want to see all the pics we took, click to visit our Picasa Webalbum.
