Wicked

It's been a while, hasn't it? For many different reasons. In part it's exactly like I explained in my previous entry in that I had surgery last month and haven't been able to be up to much. It's also in part that I've kind of rediscovered LiveJournal, a website I've been on since it's heyday and have never given up on, but I've been reminded of just what I loved about it so much in the first place. I know people have a sour attitude towards LJ nowadays, but I've always loved it for it's personal touch - my journal feels more like a personal scrapbook than a curated blog with a theme where each post has to serve a purpose. It feels very liberating to have a place to talk about anything, and I've enjoyed having a space to speak my mind without a filter, to post to the internet for myself again instead of thinking about an 'audience'. Which actually brings me back to this blog, as I initially set it up as a place to nerd out to my hearts content without worry!



Previously I wrote about how I'd been rediscovering my love for musicals, and in the past six weeks or so Wicked fell a bit by the wayside. Les Miserables was my original favourite musical and I'd returned to it, playing one of it's various soundtracks more often than not. So when I booked my next trip to London I decided to make the most of my time and see two shows in one day - the matinee of Wicked, and the evening performance of Les Mis. This was 10 days ago now, and I had an amazing time and really enjoyed both shows, but seeing them back to back really made me realise that nowadays I can firmly say that Wicked is my favourite. Which 10 years ago is a comment I never thought I'd say!

I still have my ticket from the very first time I saw Wicked, and like I've explained before I didn't think much of it. Back then I was definitely a bit pretentious, but I really thought nothing could ever top Les Mis. And don't get me wrong, I still do love it and it's a very close contender, and they're obviously so very different that they could never be compared, but Wicked has definitely come to mean a great deal more to me at this stage of my life. And it's a realisation I'm glad to have made, as not only has it reignited my passion but it's also made me feel a lot less apologetic about it. I guess it's left over feelings of pretension from my teenage years as well as what I've absorbed from the musicals fandom, but I really don't care that I love something that's so popular because I don't need to score niche points by pretending to prefer more obscure shows, and I certainly don't need any of that petty BS in my life.



It was my third time seeing Wicked in as many months and I really do love the current London cast so much, Alice Fearn and Sophie Evans' chemistry together is amazing, they fit their roles so perfectly, they even look exactly how I imagine Elphaba and Glinda should look. Naturally I couldn't resist buying more from the merch stand when I was there, but I intend to do a collection post soon so you'll have to wait to see what I picked up. I also recently checked the US online web store for Wicked which was a huge mistake for my wallet. I always figured the shipping would be astronomical, but it actually isn't and there's a lot of things for sale that aren't available over here so that's my plan for after Christmas! I've also set my sights on making plans to travel to New York, but I'm playing it close to my chest right now as nothing is for sure! It's definitely a dream though, I'd love to see how the two productions differ.

In my quiet time away from this blog I've actually been drawing quite a lot of Wicked related artwork and still have plenty more ideas thumbnailed and planned out although I'm not under any pressure to complete them.



I wrote quite a bit about these three pieces over on my art blog if you fancy a read, but in short I drew Elphaba and Glinda with their corresponding classical elements as I became interested in how much they formed of their characters, and I drew a spoiler-ish scene from the Finale as I feel Fiyero's sacrifices are really overlooked.

Seeing the musical again also inspired me to continue on with Gregory Maguire's book, which I'm enjoying a lot but I haven't been in the head space for reading so it's been quite sporadic. I'm very near the end though, so I'll be sure to post a proper book review soon!

One Short Day

On Monday I took a rather impromtu trip to London to see Wicked again, despite having only been a little over two weeks ago. What can I say, I love it and can't get enough! I knew I wanted to go again, but I'm due to have major surgery on my dominant arm this coming Friday so didn't expect to be able to take myself on such a trip until mid November at the soonest. London is a four hour drive away and it's quite physically demanding to drive for 8 hours there and back in one day. But I realised that I had Monday free, and couldn't think of a better way to spend it and I'm so glad I did!




It was a different cast than what I saw last - previously I saw the standby for Elphaba, and this time I saw the standby for Glinda. Personally I prefered this show - Alice Fearn is phenominal as Elphaba, and I personally prefered the standby Maria Coyne as Glinda.

I also added a few bits to my collection - I wanted this dress on my last visit, I find that too often merchandise strictly caters to the tshirt and hoodie wearing crowd of which I'm neither so I really liked the fact that they offer something a bit different. It's much nicer quality than I expected too, and fully lined so it won't cling to everything despite being made of jersey.



One of the best things about the theatre for me personally is how I'm always immediately inspired for illustration ideas as soon as I leave - intermission is always spent frantically drawing thumbnails on my phone and making notes trying to remember. Although it was a bit bittersweet this visit as I have 6 ideas planned out and I'm not sure how many I'm going to get to actually draw before Friday. I'll give it my best shot, as I hope even if I can only finish the lineart hopefully colouring it on my iPad won't be too strenuous on my arm.

I really won't be able to next go any sooner than mid-November now, and I'm going to save up and try and do two shows in one day as I'd like to see my other favourite show Les Mis too. It should give me something to look forward to throughout my recovery!

"I shall take the heart. For brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world."

I've wanted a space to share all of my Oz related thoughts for a while - I've been debating whether to set up a whole fan site back like it's 2005 as I miss the internet of old (remember thefanlistings.org?). I long for the days of forums with tight knit fan communities and intricately crafted graphics; back when we'd self-learn HTML and PHP just to build fan sites from scratch, and spend hours creating icons and graphics for LiveJournal. The internet has become so boring now and all blogs look the same - it used to be a place for community whereas now it's more about e-fame and follower counts. I figured setting up a blog where I can nerd out to my hearts content was the next best option to getting back to that, especially as I've been completely lost in all things Oz lately. I've searched around on the Internet and from what I can tell most other Oz related blogs are of the informative variety - this won't be one of them I'm afraid as I can't pretend to be an expert, I'm just a fan and a fairly new one at that with plenty to still learn and discover. Which is exactly why I wanted to create a dedicated space just to keep somewhat of a journal on it all, as I've been a blogger for well over a decade and it's the way I'm most comfortable expressing myself. And although The Wizard of Oz has only caught my full and undivided attention fairly recently, I know myself too well to think this is going to be some short term fling, I'm in this for the long haul.

Although I've often felt nostalgic for the old days of the WWW, I guess I'm feeling it a whole lot more currently as all of this harks back to a very specific time in my life when I was in my late teens/early 20s. Musical theatre was my entire world, and had been since the age of 7 when I saw my first West End production on a school trip (the London revival of Oliver!). I grew up in South London and was fortunate to go regularly, and had every intention of making it my career one day and was accepted into drama school when I was 18. Despite my shy disposition, as soon as I got up on stage my soul came alive and it was one of the happiest points of my entire life. Unfortunately things happened health-wise that forced me to drop out and it became a sore topic, forcing me to focus my attention on other interests as theatre fell more and more to the wayside. At least up until just recently, anyway.

Several weeks ago I was watching a YouTube video when the creator happened to mention how they’d recently discovered musicals and proceeded to list off a couple of modern ones I’d never heard of. It made me chuckle to myself, and a simple random thought entered my head - “I’m going to listen to Wicked later.” I really don't know why I picked that specific soundtrack in that instant - serendipity perhaps? But I did just that, and everything’s just kind of snowballed from there.

I find it quite funny now, but I actually didn't much like Wicked when it first came out. I did enjoy the soundtrack as a guilty pleasure, but being the kind of musical theatre fan that I was I fought against liking it. I didn't want to be yet another teenage girl jumping on the bandwagon, and had a bit of a snobbish attitude about it as I prefered productions like Les Misérables which I felt took itself more seriously. I finally saw Wicked in London in 2010 and did enjoy it quite a bit, but it didn't peak my favourites list back then. And I really have no idea what it is about it now that's captivated me so thoroughly. It's funny how things can re-enter your life and just speak to your soul in a way that it didn't before. I travelled down to see it last week, the first time I'd even been to the theatre in about 7 years. I had so many emotions, not just about the show but also reconnecting with something that was once such a huge part of my life for so long. As soon as the show was finished and the actors had taken their final bows, I was already calculating when I can hopefully go and see it again and I spent the entire four hour journey home fiercly trying to remember every last detail. A few days later I was flicking through an old sketchbook when I happened to come across my original Wicked theatre ticket tucked in there - serendipity indeed. I couldn't help but notice that my two trips were just 7 days shy of being 8 years exactly between them.




Soon after I began listening to the Wicked OBC again, I downloaded L Frank Baum's novel to my Kindle. Although I've always been familiar with the story as it's told through the 1939 MGM movie which I've caught on TV enough times, it never really grabbed me like it did when reading the book. I feel like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a story isn't as beloved within the UK as it is in other countries like the US - which I guess is natural as that's where the story is from and partially set. I even struggled to find a physical copy of the book without ordering online. I suppose that's why it’s taken me this long to discover how great the world of Oz is as it actually fits right into my interests - I love fantasy from Victorian through to the early 20th century, my favourites being stuff like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, Moomins, Winnie the Pooh, etc. So why wouldn’t I love The Wizard of Oz? I've always been a real bookworm but haven’t felt like reading much the past few years as it began to feel like a chore, but I devoured the first of Baum’s books and have started Gregory Maguire’s Wicked series. I’ve also been re-watching the movies - I’ve always enjoyed the Judy Garland movie (but who doesn’t??), Return to Oz scarred me as a child but I’m really quite fond of as an adult (I love a bit of 80s creepy-ness), and Oz The Great and Powerful had some good imagery but is better best forgotten overall. I know there's yet more movie-wise, but I want to familiarise myself with more of the literary side first before I delve too far. I'm trying really hard to pace myself so I can enjoy this period of discovery for as long as possible as it's the most exciting stage of finding something new.



As well as reconnecting me with my old hobbies, another positive to discovering Oz is how much it's sparked my creativity. This year I finally finished my illustration degree, which left me feeling uninspired as I'd become so caught up with completeing briefs and commercialising my work as it had been drilled into me. I'd forgotten what it felt like to draw for fun just for myself, and since discovering Oz I've felt inspired to get the pencils back out again. I almost feel back to my old self, happily doodling away every day, and I’ve reached that happy spot where the more you draw, the more inspiration comes. I have so many thumbnails of pieces I want to create and I have absolutely no idea when I’m going to get the time to draw them all!