Saturday, November 22, 2008

Wicked

The temperature dropped on Thursday night, so it was really cold yesterday, and we're supposed to get snow tonight. We'll see. I trust the weathermen here about as much as I trust them in Seattle.

Last night after class, we headed to the pub where the guy carded me, but I didn't get carded this time! Huzzah! I'm old enough to drink! Anyway, I couldn't stay long because Laura, Holly, and I were headed to see Wicked. We grabbed fish n' chips, which came wrapped up like giant cones, shoved them down our throats, and headed to Victoria for the show. I enjoyed it, but Holly and Laura were "underwhelmed." Laura said she thought it was a bit too "American." Well, it is American, after all. But I see what she means. The book was really dark, but the play is...well, a musical. It's a bit cheesy, and happy-fun-times. The girl who played Elphaba had an amazing singing voice, but too often eschewed it for a nasal, baby-doll voice that made my ears hurt. Also, she couldn't seem to decide on an accent. "Am I American? Am I British?" Which is odd because the actress is British. Perhaps my accent-radar is broken from overuse?

After the show, we decided to walk towards Westminster. Originally, the idea was to find a pub, but then we decided to just walk across London. You know what's awesome? Westminster Abbey at night. Laura, despite being from the UK (Scotland) and having lived in London as long as I have, had never yet been down to Westminster to see Big Ben. We paused for photos, and when I looked up at Big Ben, I noticed stars. Stars in London! Granted, they were really faint, but there they were.

Well, I really should be working on my essay about tuberculosis and the reasons why patients delay in seeking care for a persistent cough. Later!

5 comments:

  1. That reminds me! I need to go see Wicked before it ends its L.A. run in January. Thanks :-)

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  2. I can't believe anyone could be underwhelmed by Wicked. I absolutely LOVED that show when I saw it in New York and I've never met anyone who was not blown away by it. You people are clearly just weird... :)

    Also, I want to go see Big Ben, too!

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  3. I found the book Wicked to be very relevant as an American. It was about terrorists, and who really is a terrorist, and how the bad guys can also be good, and the good guys can also be bad, and how the world can't just be seen through black/white lenses.

    Maybe I can help you on your paper by telling you why I ignored a very persistent and terrible cough about a year ago. It was so bad that I would start to choke, and it lasted for weeks. But I ignored it because I thought, "It's just a cough. I just need to wait it out." That's just my freakish personality, though: when there's a problem, don't actually take any steps to solve it.

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  4. I agree 100% with Jax. The last song in the first act literally left me speechless. So friggin' good. And that's odd that Elphaba's voice was like that, since traditionally it's Gahlinda's voice that is high and baby-ish.

    And it's so odd that you saw it and wrote this blog just now, since I am just finishing up reading the book! I love it. It made me cry at one point. And it is 100% different from the musical. It's like Stephen Schwartz thought, "I like the names Elphaba and Gahlinda. I'm going to write a musical named after the book they're in, but I'm not going to use any of the events from the book in the musical." So different. If you would like to know how different, just say the word and I will make you a list. I still love both of them, though. Apart from each other, they are both amazing.

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  5. Wicked has left me nonwhelmed because I've never seen it. I don't think I would pay to see it or make an effort to win free tickets to it.
    How's your tuberculosis essay going?

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