Margaret and I were fortunate enough to be able to get tickets to see “Wicked” at the Kennedy Center on Friday. After parking the car at Margaret’s office (And catching a quick dinner at Thai Kitchen), we caught the shuttle from GW Metro to the Kennedy Center.

It’s nice to walk into the Kennedy Center, have the usher check your ticket and rather then telling you to head all the way up to the top of the stairs, he directs you to the usher at the main entrance. It gets even better when the usher at the entrance sends you down the stairs to not the first usher, but the second. Yes, we were in the 5th row! Ok, all the way on the right side, but 5 rows back anyway…

I was a little nervous before the show started. “Wicked” has been sold out at the Kennedy Center pretty much since they went on sale. We were able to get ours (at a markup…) from a ticket broker. I was worried that we had gone to this effort to get to the show, and that we weren’t going to like it. Lucky for us, “Wicked” is one AWESOME show that we both loved!

The first song was tough for me. I have problems understanding people 6 feet away from me talking in a normal voice. It took a little getting used-to to understand what they were singing. But by the 4th song or so (“Popular”) I was hooked. This was also the song where Glinda (pronounced Guh-linda) basically stole the first act. I haven’t laughed that hard in quite a long time, and definitely not while listening to s song that you can’t get out of your head. In case I wasn’t hooked enough, the first act ended with “Defying Gravity”, which I spent the entire intermission singing.

While I did point out how much I enjoyed Glinda’s performance in the first act, I would be negligent if I didn’t mention Elphaba’s performance. Just awesome. You can imagine it being hard to get people to identify with a woman who is green, but she was able to pull it off. And let’s not forget to mention that she was a fantastic singer.

Nothing is perfect: I wasn’t that impressed with the part of the Wizard. I think the actor did a wonderful job with what he was given, but I don’t think he had a whole lot to work with. Particularly in his musical numbers. I found (And still find) the songs to be a little uninspired (”Wonderful”, in case you were wondering). And now my biggest disappointment: The end of the production. While they sent you out to intermission with a powerful, full cast, show stopping number, the show ended with a whimper. I still love the show, but I would have preferred another show stopping number to sing all the way home.

Universal is kind enough to host a Trailer where you can see a little of what the show is about.

In short, if you can get tickets, GO!