Wicked

 PHENOMENAL. FANTASTICAL. WICKED.

Me in the Gershwin Theatre 

 So my wonderful friend John Adam gave precious front row seat tickets to my friend Louis and I to see Wicked in NYC because he had already seen it all for $30.

Is he crazy you may ask?
A lunatic I say!

Are you sure $30 you may ask?
Why would I lie to you you I ask!

How is this possible you may ask?
Well 2.5 hours before every Broadway show, they do what is called "rush" or "lottery." 2.5 hours before curtain you run yourself over to the box office and put your name in for a raffle.  If they call your name a half hour later. CONGRATS! You have won yourself 2 front row tickets to see that show your name was put in for $30 each! An astounding $200 value!  John's name was pulled an bam! here he is giving me a golden green ticket (haha) and I am being filmed balling my eyes out from pure happiness.

Part of the set

It was magical. I was on an emotional roller coaster all night.  Louis and I bought fancy programs and fancy slushies in Wicked cups. 

Ticket and Fancy Program Book

Elphaba (Jackie Burns) was fantastic, Glinda (Chandra Lee Schwartz) made an amazing transition from ditzy, crazy Glinda to the powerful, calm one we all know and love from The Wizard of Oz. I was in love with them all (with the exceptions of the monkeys because they scared me and Richard Blake as Fieryo because of his nasally voice—although he was beautiful). I could practically touch them (but I restrained myself!).

Watching the performance filled in a few of the gaps that I had by listening to the music constantly. I don't know if I can pick my favorite song either! I'm going to say ANYTHING sung by Elphaba and Glinda solo or as a duet ("The Wizard and I," "Popular,""Defying Gravity," "No Good Deed," "For Good").

My friend Louis and I

 Wicked has always been my favorite musical just from the love of the soundtrack and I had an amazing first time seeing it thanks to John Adams, the RIT Players and the cast and crew of Wicked!

Smash

Marilyn Monroe

Smash is a new NBC American musical original show produced by Steven Spielberg which is following the creation of the new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. It focuses on the behind the scene work of the creation including the audition, script writing processes and the family and home life of the characters involved.

Smash premiered February 6th and is currently on it's 4th episode (I have seen 2 so far and plan on getting through the rest during this break!) and IMDb suggests that there are 11 more set to be released (15 in total for the season).  It has stars from both the big screen such as Debra Messing (Will and Grace, The Wedding Date) and stars from Broadway such as Megan Hilty (known for Glinda in Wicked).  Katherine McPhee is also a lead in this show, playing the newcomer to Broadway. (McPhee broke into show business from being the runner up on American Idol).

Smash is shown Monday nights at 10pm Eastern time, right after NBC's hit show The Voice.  This may or may not be a good thing.  It shows right after The Voice, hoping to retain at least half of  The Voice's audience.  Smart idea considering that the audience that watches The Voice has overlap with Smash.  Smash  has also been heavily advertised and promoted but according to The Chicago Tribune, Smash is failing and The Voice is climbing.

My grandma (who shares my love of theatre) called me up the day after she watched it (surprising because it's on so late) gushing about how amazing Smash was and how I needed to check it out.  While watching, I was incredibly impressed by the vocal skills and I absolutely love the leading ladies and how the show is trying to bring in a touch of Broadway and call attention to the behind the scenes attributes.  However, it is such a slow start and seems to be missing something with the plot.  I can't exactly put my finger on it but the show seems to be just okay.  Disappointing because of the huge promotion and huge names involved in the making of Smash.  I am however, going to stick with it at least a few more episodes before I consider it a complete loss.

Watch Smash here or Monday nights at 10pm Eastern time (I sadly have to Hulu everything with my schedule).

What do you think of Smash?