Popular - My Trip to See Wicked

Notes from a Musical Theatre Fan

Honestly mate, I've walked in and a choir is belting Defying Gravity.

My mate Ellis - Messaging from Odeon, Leicester

It feels like nearly everyone I know is in the cinema tonight, spread across a frosty East Midlands.

I’ll grant you that I have a large cohort of musical-theatre-heavy friends. If they’re not going tonight, 79% of them will have watched Wicked by the end of the weekend, while the rest are just normal people who don’t really know what it’s like to karaoke the soundtrack three times a year¹.

The cinema is packed for my screening, the previous one and the next. We’ve decided that it’s date night, so we pick the fancy seats which include a “bento box”. I went sweet (I should have gone savoury)

I really should have gone savoury.

We’ve been waiting some time for this. I saw the stage show in 2021 and I just couldn’t imagine how they would capture that end of act one. At the time I was left awestruck, nothing could match it.

Could it?

We take our seats (ten minutes early for the trailers because..well..I don’t know why).

Lights down and a full house.

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Before I say any more I have to tell you about the woman sat next to me for this screening.

I have never. EVER. known anyone so excited for anything in my life.

Every time Ariana Grande said a word she would do that laugh that’s half laugh, half hyperventilation, like her body couldn’t hold in her excitement for every word Grande uttered.

It really put me off to start with. This film wasn’t ALL funny. The bits I was finding funny I had half a mind on finding a brown paper bag to help the poor lady out.

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We’re in the throws of it. I look across at the Mrs as she happily mouths the words to every song. I look to the other side and this woman is levitating, her excitement giving her the power of flight.

I wasn’t sure about this film at first. You know when you’ve been waiting for something for so long, you put up a barrier just incase it’s no good, so that you can protect yourself from certain disappointment?

But after the first fifteen minutes I let that go.

This is something special.

Every department has come together and created something worthy of its name. The care behind the film is there for all to see, which doesn’t often come across in similar big budget movies. It’s been made to be watched time and time again for years to come.

As Defying Gravity begins I wonder where the last two and a half hours have gone.

The woman next to me is in bits.

She’s broken in to pieces and is just lying in a pile on the floor, waiting to be swept away and put in the recycling with everyone else who got too excited to see this film.²

For someone who likes a musical, this couldn’t get much better. It’s an epic in every sense of the word. I bet everyone in that cinema was glad to have been there, sharing it with their friends and family, excited to purchase the sing-along copy in a few months time.

As for us, we watch the credits to soak it all in. That end of act one was good. VERY good.

We walk back to the car, trying to avoid slipping on the icey pavement. We get in the car and reach for THE album and sing every song at the top of our voices. Wicked is an event and whether you’re into musicals or not, you’ll be enjoying it long after that final note.

Gareth

1. Minimum

2. luckily it’s a green bin