write like you're running out of time

I've got to stop mixing the soundtracks of Tin Man and Wicked together.

For tonight at work, during the downtime before going through closing procedures, the muses came up with a new crack!pairing and God help me, I think I like it:

Glitch(Ambrose)/Elphaba.

My muses have gone off the deep end.

And here it is, day 4 of Good Fic Recc Week. Today I thought I'd step away from the realm of animated fandom. Instead I give you a fandom that has captivated me since last year, and that I had the pleasure of seeing for myself this past May.

The fandom du jour: Wicked. A word of warning, most if not all of these fics will be based on the musical rather than the book, and may contain spoilers.

The first Wick-fic I'll be recc'ing is titled "Your Life Could End Up Changing". Written by TheWickedWitchOfOz, this fic is an AU starting from the end of the I'm Not That Girl number. Instead of leaving for the Emerald City right afterwards, Elphaba instead stays at Shiz. It's quite an engaging story, and the author keeps everyone IC.

Next on the list is "Love Thine Enemy" by littlesoprano. Love Thine Enemy is a combination of the musical and the 1939 Oz film. In it, Dorothy witnesses Glinda grieving over the Wicked Witch's death. Glinda then tells Dorothy about what Elphaba was really like and about her friendship with the green-skinned girl. The summary promises that what she hears causes Dorothy to re-evaluate her treatment of Ms. Gulch, but unfortunately the fic hasn't been updated since May of this year. I remain hopeful, though.

"Forever and Again the Wicked" by Port-of-Seas is an interesting work, a combination of the musical universe and book universe. Set as a sequel to Son of a Witch, Gregory Maguire's sequel to Wicked the novel, this fic explores the idea that the Scarecrow is really Fiyero (put forth at the end of the musical). It's a good read, especially for the scenes between Fiyero/Scarecrow and Liir as the former realizes the latter is his son. One word of warning - the fic is rated M, and contains spoilers for both Wicked and SoaW.

And that wraps up another one. See you tomorrow, same place but I can't guaruntee same time.

Oh, what a day I had yesterday. Mom and I took the Rockford Charter bus tour into Chicago to see Wicked at the Oriental Theatre. There were about thirty or forty of us going, fifteen of them from our church.

The drive into Chicago wasn't too bad before we stopped for supper. We ate at the Sweet Tomatos Restaurant in Woodfield Plaza. Now that is a restaurant I'd like to see come to Rockford: everything's buffet-style, and you start out with salads. They've got nearly every type of salad topping you could want. And after the salad you can get soup, or pizza bread or a muffin...oh, it was so good.

Won't say much about the drive into downtown Chicago after supper, except that its put me off helping my brother move into his room/apartment at Columbia at the end of the August. Plus, as I recall, he never really helped move me in and out down at Monmouth while I was going to school there.

Now for the important part - the show. We had GOOD seats for this; front row, center of the upper tier. I was pretty much eye-to-eye with the Dragon Clock, that's how good these seats were (sorry, no pictures; the ushers kept reminding us we weren't allowed to take photographs in the theatre and even if I could have gotten away with it, I'd forgotten my camera anyway).

The show was aMAZing. The cast was just terrific We didn't get to see Kristy Cates perform as Elphaba; instead it was her standby Dee Roscioli. And man, does that girl have some pipes! She made a fantastic Elphaba. Stacie Morgain Lewis was pretty good as Glinda, and my mom said that she reminded her of Reese Witherspoon (from Legally Blonde, I'm assuming, and not Walk the Line). And oh, man was I thrilled to get to see Carole Shelley as Madame Morrible. Gene Weygandt pulled a pretty decent Wizard out of his hat. In the Broadway production the Wizard is portrayed as an older man with gray hair, but Mr. Weygandt had this big shock of dark hair. I thought it was an interesting and nice change of pace.

Heidi Kettenring was terrific as Nessarose; reminded me a lot of Michelle Federer. And now like many others who have seen the show, I have no idea why they left the song "Wicked Witch of the East" off of the soundtrack. It's a great piece! It should be on there! And Kristoffer Cusick as Fiyero...oh, my. Oh my.

The only complaint I have is with the theatre itself. I'm not sure if its standard or not, but fifteen minutes is not enough time for an intermission. Especially when there are lines for both the women's AND men's restrooms. And if you're not back in the theatre by the time the music for the second act starts, the ushers make you wait outside for ten minutes before they let you back in. You can watch the show on a television set near the bar (yes, the Oriental Theatre has a bar), but for as much money as the theatre has you'd think they could get a TV with a bigger screen. The picture size was, well, crap. You could barely make out any of the action.

So other than that minor inconvenience, a good time was had by all. I'm glad that I finally got to see the show, and I wouldn't mind going and seeing it a second time. And a third time. Or a fourth.

...

Oh...






...wow.

Longer review to come when I'm more coherant.