Wicked!

Okay, I've been putting off this post because I knew how long it is going to be, but here it goes. For our last big adventure before moving to the "dirty south" our friends Dave and Jenny came out to hit New York once more. Since their last visit brought a bit of bad luck (please refer to Our first Visitors! post from May 6, 2009 if you're not familiar) so we were hoping this time the stars would align for us. And align they did!

You see, the only thing that I wanted to do in New York was see the Broadway show 'Wicked'. Not only are the reviews amazing, but the show was in Utah on tour and I just so happened to get tickets in April. Then, we ended up heading to Baltimore a month earlier than planned so we weren't able to attend. This made my goal even more important. Right after we learned that we would be heading southbound, I immediately got on the internet and started looking for tickets.

As it turns out, the 'Best Musical on Broadway' is about a month sold out so it looked like my dreams were dashed! I called the theatre in hopes of a cancellation list or something similar and I was told that the only chance I had was the Lottery. Lottery, oh yes that sounds promising right? I learned that on days that the show runs they do a drawing at 5:00pm for the show that night. You have to be there at 4:30pm to put your name in. The winners get front row seats to the show that evening for $26.50 a piece. I also learned that there were 26 tickets available every show and each winner was allowed up to 2 tickets which translates to 13 winners (because nobody only wants one ticket).

So, Dave and Jenny flew in on Monday night and we headed up to New York on Tuesday morning. I told the group about the lottery and they were very supportive of testing our luck. We started with Staten Island since that's where we parked and rode the ferry past the Statue of Liberty.Next, we hit up Canal Street (of course) and then it was about time to head to the Gershwin Theatre. We got off the subway on the wrong stop (thanks to a local) and we were about 12 blocks away. We started walking like New Yorkers and I really thought we weren't going to make it on time. Magically, all of the crosswalks were green so we didn't even stop and we got there right on time. We put our names down and then started discussing how unlikely it was that we were going to win. There were at least 200 people there so our chances were very slim. Not only did we need someone to have their name drawn, we needed 2 names to be drawn (because of the 2 ticket per winner rule).

At 5:00 someone came out of the theatre and explained the rules. I was just standing in the back trying to think of what else we could do that evening when I heard "Ben Clark" in the distance and Ben let out a little woo hoo with his arms in the air! I couldn't believe it! Did I hear that correctly? More importantly, did Ben hear that correctly? The answer is yes. Dave, Jenny and I grouped together discussing how much we thought we could sell 2 front row tickets for and then we heard "Dave McConnel". EXCUSE ME? If I'm not mistaken, I believe that means we are going to see WICKED! I couldn't believe it...how lucky is that?! They even handed out these green buttons that say 'Wicked Lottery Winner' and the boys wore them very proudly! After we picked up our tickets we were off to have some celebratory dessert before the show! Now onto the show...it was AMAZING!!! Everything I hoped it would be and more! Part of the reason I wanted Ben to see it so badly is the fact that I had been building up Broadway to him all summer and the first show we saw was Chicago. Now don't get me wrong, it was really good, but Ben wasn't the biggest fan. I think it ruined "Broadway" for him and he even mentioned that he didn't really care to go to another one. I was really hoping this one would redeem "Broadway" for him and it did! The girls loved it, the boys loved it, everybody loved it!

One of the main characters, Elphaba, was played by Dee Roscioli and that night just happened to be her Broadway debut! She had played that role in Chicago, but this was her first big show. She did such an AMAZING job and started crying during tag (the final bow). The whole thing was was such a neat experience! I would HIGHLY recommend this show to anyone!