Last year our house was overrun by witches.  You’d think that in the 21st Century there would be some kind of way to control witch infestation, but there was no stopping these mystical creatures from getting into our home.  Let me explain.

In the winter of 2007, Julie and Sophie went to see the phenomenon known as Wicked. Seeing the Los Angeles production of the Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Schwartz was so magical that the experience was relived day after day for nearly a year.  The original cast recording, featuring Idina Menzel as Elphaba, the green-skinned, misunderstood future wicked witch of the west, and Kristin Chenoweth as Galinda, soon to be Glinda the good witch, was played endlessly.  For the first time, I saw in Julie the kind of obsession some people display for artists like, I don’t know, Springsteen, and Sophie could be heard singing the music nearly every day for a year until she’d memorized every line and was able to recreate scenes from memory.

The snippets of music I paid attention to were very melodic and I enjoyed them.  But, honestly, I didn’t understand what the big deal was.  As I didn’t read the CD booklet or do any research on Wicked, I only knew the basics:  It’s a rite-of-passage tale of how two young women, complete opposites, form a loving friendship and how they eventually become the (in)famous  characters from L. Frank Baum’s classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The play, based on Gregory Maguire’s book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, has become a sensation of Titanic proportions.

As 2008 drew to a close, Julie and Sophie desperately wanted to see Wicked again since the L.A. production was set to close in mid-January ‘09.  Adding to their enthusiasm was the news that actresses Eden Espinosa and Megan Hilty, whom they’d seen as the leads in ’07, would be returning to reprise their roles of Elphaba and Glinda, respectively. They both insisted that Jacob and I had to see it to fully comprehend its greatness.  So, in lieu of a birthday party this year. Sophie asked if we could go see Wicked and in mid-December, just before Christmas, our family drove into downtown Los Angeles to the historic Pantages Theater for a night on Broadway. (more…)