Wicked Review

Mike and I received tickets to see "Wicked" as one of our wedding gifts (great idea, isn't it?!). We went last Saturday night and had a great dinner at Cafeteria 15L and then walked over to the Community Center Theater for the show.

Synopsis: (from www.wickedthemusical.co.uk)

"Wicked" tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students at Shiz University: the blonde and very popular Glinda and a misunderstood green girl, Elphaba.

Following an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads and their lives take very different paths. Glinda's unflinching desire for popularity sees her seduced by power while Elphaba's determination to remain true to herself, and to those around her, will have unexpected and shocking consequences for her future. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

I absolutely love this story. It tells you how both Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West became what they were in "The Wizard of Oz". In fact, next to "Phantom of the Opera", this may be one of my favorite musicals. The music is really great - my favorite song was "Defying Gravity". I also really liked "I'm Not That Girl". I had read the book years ago, and I actually think I like how Elphaba is portrayed in the musical a little better. In the book, she truly becomes wicked (rightfully so), while the musical makes her a little more likeable.

If "Wicked" comes to your town, I would definitely recommend getting tickets to see it. It's funny, heartfelt, and a story about true friendship. This was a really great night out and we had the perfect seats. Thanks Chris!

Cats!

Today Mike and I took a lovely trip to San Francisco to see the Broadway musical "Cats". It was playing at the Orpheum Theater, which is where I believe I saw it with my parents and sister when I was little. It's a very ornate, beautiful theater inside, however, my only criticism is that the seats are very close to the seats in front of you. If I, at 5'2" feel cramped, I can't imagine how a normal person feels!

The show was spectacular. Kathryn Holtkamp played Grizabella, and if you've only heard one song from "Cats" it's likely "Memory". Kathryn gave a spectacular performance of this song - in fact, it actually gave me goosebumps when she got to the final, very emotional chorus. Click here to listen to a clip of her singing it on a Houston morning show.

The other really cool part of the show was the amazing dancing. There was sort of a clear divide between those who sang and those who danced, with the exception of one woman who managed to sing and do cartwheels! One of our favorites was Jordan Dunlap who played Victoria (the all white cat - if I remember correctly, this was Kati's favorite when we were little!). That girl can dance! It was absolutely amazing to watch some of her solo work and when she was in with the rest of the company, she was the one that stood out!

Of course, any road trip is not complete without a picture, so here you go:

Mike and I After The Show

Bah Humbug

Last night Mom, Dad, Kati and I went to see the Sacramento Theater Company's production of "A Christmas Carol". I don't know why, but I was not expecting an out of this world production, however, I was very quickly proven wrong! This show was outstanding... from the lighting and smoke effects to the acting by all of the characters.

My favorite actress was a little girl who played the beggar girl. She came out and sang the first refrain of the Advent Carol... that little girl had a voice! She came out several other times during the production and I was absolutely amazed.

I think they also did a very good job with the ghosts... in order to give them an otherworldly feel, they used voice changing microphones to help add echo and depth. The ghost of Christmas present was one of the best ones I've seen... he was a big jolly looking fellow and just fit the role perfectly!

This was a really fun event to go to... it was in a part of downtown that was not overly crowded (read: we were able to park for free on the street) but we could have gone to a yummy restaurant if we wanted to (read: we went to In-N-Out instead). What a fantastic outing!

Aida

The highlight of my weekend was seeing "Aida" with my Dad. It was the cutest thing ever - I really wanted to go to the opera, but mom was working and none of my friends really care for it. So I was going to go by myself, but Dad said he'd take me. In case you didn't know it, Dad really doesn't like opera. He tried so hard. I sent him the synopsis the day before ("Aida" is in Italian - I figured he'd like it better if he knew the story before he went). He read through it and then in between each act read through the synopsis in the program so he know what was going to happen next. I think he only nodded off once (he claims he was just listening with his eyes closed). It was such a fun night and just goes to show how much my daddy loves me. :) The best part was on the way home. We were talking about the story and the music and Dad (who, by the way, had been on a plane all day flying back from the East Coast - we're gonna chalk this one off to being tired) turns to me (after listening to three hours of opera) and says: "You know, it's almost like they were singing in a foreign language.". Um, yeah. LOL

Here's us looking all cute in the lobby between Acts 2 and 3:

In other news, I'm SO excited that Kati and Derrek are coming home this week! Woo hoo! We have the Hullabaloo on Thursday (our family's quirky version of Thanksgiving) and I just got the greatest pajamas. They're called "Santa Claws". Basically, it's a bunch of lobsters dressed up like Santa with little seahorses pulling their sleighs and palm trees with Christmas lights. I know we're still a few days before the Christmas season, but I had to have them!

On that note, I'm going to get ready for bed. Tomorrow is my BIG presentation (think happy thoughts between 2-4pm) and then it's smooth sailing to Turkey Day. Night!

Jazzercise, Food and San Francisco!

What a weekend!

I spent most of Friday night in the car - a nice 3 hour 20 minute drive to the Bay from here. Fun times! I sat up and watched Dr. Phil with Oma and relaxed - it was so nice to see her again and have some time just to talk and catch up!

On Saturday I met up with Adam and Eva for Jazzercise. I have to say, I was skeptical, but VERY happy that I went. Eva met up with the instructor to pick "cool" music. As it turned out, all of the cool songs happened to have the killer routines that went along with them, so I got the workout of the century. It was sort of like weight lifting and hip hop class combined... I loved it! We danced our little booties off (I even let out a little "woo" towards the end when I got really into it...)! After class we took a little drive through a beautiful neighborhood to the friendly local Starbucks for a treat. Then I had to race back to Oma's to get showered up to go meet Grandma and Aunt Sandy for lunch. We went to Applebees (yum - no matter how hard I try to order something else, I always end up with the chicken and broccoli feduccini!). It was really fun and great to spend somet time with them! Then it was back to Oma's to change into some slacks and make the drive to San Francisco. I met up with Ted and we hit the town in his convertible mustang (ok, it was his rental, but it was still sweet cruising across the Bay Bridge in it!). We went to this place called manger's. It's an Italian/Brazilian restaurant... and it was DELICIOUS! I had the spinach and cheese raviolis with roasted tomato sauce and Ted had the Brazilian Steak Rechaud (you finish cooking it at your table!). The decor was amazing as well... it was just a really fun place to eat and it was nice to really enjoy a meal with an old friend.

http://www.mangarosasf.com/

After dinner we walked over to the Fugazi to see "Beach Blanket Babylon". What a crazy show! It was really a lot of fun and it was great to see fantastic singing, hilarious comedy and HUGE hats! Basically, the show has been running for 30-something years and is constantly changing. So if you saw it last year, it's totally different now! Check out the link below (click on "skip intro" and then "hat gallery") to see some previous hats and to learn more about the show! I definitely recommend it to anyone in the San Francisco area!

http://www.beachblanketbabylon.com/

This morning (which came way too early, by the way) I met up with Oma, Adam, Eva, and Emy for breakfast! I'm so glad I had the chance to see Emy while she's in town - it seems like it's been forever! We went to Hobees- another place I recommend! YUM!

Now I'm back home, getting ready for bed and the long week ahead of me. Only two more days until the Kings game! Woo hoo!

Good night!

Today's Triathon Training:
Running: 1 1/2 miles

Madonna

Ladies and gentlemen, I have my Halloween costume. My team at work is entering the costume contest under the "rock star" theme. I am Madonna. "Lucky Star" Madonna.


That is my costume. I'm going to curl my hair and make it BIG and then pull it up with a big black bow (like she did in the video). I promise to post a picture tomorrow, with lost of commentary about what happened at work. I'm a little nervous to be letting it all hang out at work, but everyone else is going all out. We have a guy bleaching his hair to look like Billy Idol and we have a pregnant girl letting it all hang out as Britney. Should be interesting!

We went to the ballet last night - it was really cool! They did "Dracula", in honor of Halloween. At first we didn't like the guy playing Dracula because he actually wore makeup when no one else was (they had two mini-ballets before they actually got around to Dracula), but once it came time for the main event, he was amazing. GREAT makeup for that!

I love this time change. Early to bed, early to rise. My kind of timing!