These first few months of 2015 brought me a bunch of new
friends, met in different places and for a number of reasons. I couldn’t be
happier (pun fully intended) to have met several people from the Wicked fandom,
whom I originally only knew on twitter, and become friend with a few of them. Some
other friends came thanks to uni, either because of Open Days or because of the
Ecology fieldtrip over Easter.
Cecilia – She was
the second person from the Wicked fandom that I met, back on the 16th
of January before the Wicked show when I saw Emma Hatton for the first time. We
bonded nearly instantly over our shared love for Emma and the amazing
performance we witnessed together did the rest. The next time I saw her was the
weekend of Jennifer DiNoia’s last shows, and since then we’ve met up lots of times,
either for shows, or simply for dinner, or a sleepover. Aside from Wicked
shows, we’ve been to a cabaret night together, we have organised and put
together a beautiful birthday present for Emma, we’ve been to the theatre cafè
and to a number of places in Victoria Station to eat (right, about that...
about 80% of the time it was McDonalds, but we’ve started varying a bit lately)
:D In such a short time that we’ve known each other we’ve already shared so
much, including two amazing double-show days at Wicked and the most beautiful
moments with our idol Emma. I’ve grown to love her so much and so quickly! She is
sort of another me, a bit older and German, as we have so much in common that I
couldn’t believe it at first: for example, apart from the obvious
Wicked-related things, we both love writing, we have spent months in Australia
(and always miss it) and neither of us eats most of sweets and chocolate. Oh,
and we are so good at fangirling together! I always have so much fun when I’m
with her and love spending time in her company, as is pretty obvious every time
that we have to separate when we have to take different lines of tube and we
spend a long time at the station where we have to change just chatting and
dragging time before we go :)
With Sophie, the first time we met
Over the moon with our tickets for Emma's first show as lead
Beginning a double-show day
Happiness after our first double-show day
Sophie – I met her
on the same day as Cecilia and she was actually the very first Wicked friend I
met, with whom I spent a couple of hours alone chatting in front of stage door
before that show on the 16th of January. She lives in Birmingham for
university and therefore I don’t see her very often, and to be fair I haven’t
talked to her much lately, not even through messages. We’ve been together to a
few Wicked shows, to stage door, to Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
(another musical) and she has slept over at my place a couple of night. Our time
together is always loads of fun, but it hasn’t happened in a while! For my own
records: her favourite Elphaba is Jennifer DiNoia (no need to specify the
Glinda, as it’s Savannah Stevenson for all of us unless otherwise specified).
Twin Elphaba necklaces
First show together
With Sophie and Jen at the camping for Jennifer's last
Before a Natalie McQueen show announced last minute
Amy – I met Amy
for the first time at the camping for Jennifer DiNoia’s last shows in London, she
was one of the “crazy” (as we were called) people who decided to camp out to
get front row tickets. To be fair, I didn’t talk to her much that time and I
suspect I wouldn’t have gotten much of an impression of her if she hadn’t saved me from freezing at
5am by offering me her hot water bottle to warm up under my blanket. Thanks goodness!
She is such a kind person and so lovely :) I am not saying this only on the
basis of that one meeting, but also from what I could see the next Monday and
other times I’ve been with her. Until last week I had never seen her on my own
and hadn’t spoken to her too much, even though we have daysat at Wicked
together a few times, but last Wednesday we spent over an hour hanging around
Victoria Station, chatting. She is lovely, I repeat myself :)
Jen – Our Scottish
hilarious friend. I met her at the camping for Jennifer’s shows and it took us
very little to become friends. I suppose these crazy experiences are a good way
to bond, isn’t it?! Especially when you are the only two who need frequent
trips to the pub’s toilets and when you find yourselves squished together to
sleep in the warm at night. Literally, we were cuddled together to keep each
other warm, so I’m glad she is such a nice person! After that, I’ve seen her
during my second double-show day with Cecilia for dinner and the evening show
and then... there was a surreal moment a couple of weeks ago when she suddenly
flew down from Edinburgh as soon as Natalie McQueen (understudy Elphaba and her
favourite) was announced on for two shows on that very same day. Cecilia and I
were at my place after a sleepover and we went to meet her at the station to
give her some essentials (like toothbrush, etc) and keep her company while she
was freaking out :)
Camping for Jennifer
Camping for Jennifer, with Jen and Cecilia
Show with Cecilia and Jen
Martin – He was
the first Wicked person I ever interacted with, as he runs the original twitter
fan page for Emma Hatton (I run the second one, he was there months before
me!), so we started talking on twitter and facebook and eventually met on the
16th of January. Yep, I met quite a few people that night! I have
seen him several more times since then, at a number of Wicked shows and at
Alice New Musical. We have become friends, but sometimes things are not as easy
as I wish because there have been a few problems in our friendship. Oh well, we’ll
see how things evolve, if everything gets sorted out or not. Obviously, his
favourite Elphaba is Emma.
Wicked with Sophie, Martin and Bailee
Bailee – the American
of the Wicked group. She is from the USA and I only met her at the end of
January and for a week or so, when she was here in London for Jennifer’s last
shows. She is such a lovely person, quieter than most of the others and we
talked less, but lovely nonetheless. And I have messaged with her quite a bit
since she’s gone back to America. I hope she comes back soon for a visit! Her
favourite Elphaba is Jennifer.
At the Wicked stage door with Bailee and Sophie
Camping with Jen, Sophie and Bailee
Lauren is the one
I’ve seen the least out of my Wicked friends. I have met her three or four
times at Wicked and Alice, with our first meeting being on the 16th
of January (again – I promise she is the last one I met that day). I don’t know
her that well, to be fair, even though I do find her very nice and friendly. Every
time I saw her she was with Martin, with whom she is best friend. Her favourite
Elphaba is Emma.
Lina – getting out
of the section regarding Wicked friends: Lina is in my tutorial group, but
throughout the year we barely spoke to each other and always only for practical
reasons... however, we ended up in the same group on the Ecology fieltrip and
spent four days together for most of the time. I never thought she was such a
fun and friendly person! I am so glad we had that fieldtrip, because now I’ve
become friends with her and next year’s tutorial will be even more fun.
Measuring shells
Zanna – I had
never ever seen her at a single lecture, despite the fact that we have exactly
the same classes, but she was in my same group on the fieldtrip. We bumped into
each other randomly and then she joined me and Lina for the rest of the trip,
since the two of them are the only Scandinavians in our course :P She is so
funny, and sparkly and fun to be with!
Me, Zanna and Lina
Zanna and Lina on the beach where we measure molluscs
Anita – I’m not
sure I can exactly call her a friend, since we’ve spent very little time
together, but she is definitely the Biology Ambassador I have talked to the
most during Open Days. Also, she was on the fieldtrip with me and we had a few
chats over there as well – with her saving my life by lending me a towel, seen
as I had forgotten mine at home!
With Anita, Zanna and Laurana on our Ecology fieldtrip
Bio – until a couple of days ago I wouldn’t have
included him in this list, because he is just one of the many people I have met
on the fieldtrip, but he has been messaging me these days and he is really
lovely. So I thought it would be nice to have him appear on here. He is such a
cool and funny guy to have around and he keeps the fun up in any group meeting,
as I saw on the fieldtrip! He is American and is going back to the USA in May
after the end of his exchange.
Emma Hatton’s debut as lead Elphaba – 2nd February 2015
As usual when it comes to Wicked-related posts, I warn you this is going to be a very long post!
Before the show
I spent pretty much the whole day outside the theatre, with my
friends (met on twitter) Cecilia, Martin, Sophie and Amy. Cecilia and
Martin are the other two biiiiig Emma-fans, Sophie is a Jennifer-fan and Amy is a Willemijn Verkaik-fan. Not that I don't love Jennifer and Willemijn, but Emma just tops them all for me :)
Once I had bought my dayseat ticket in the morning (and the woman who sold
it to me actually remembered my name from Saturday!), I went around the
queue to sell the ticket I already had, for row O. I thought I would struggle,
but it literally took me 5 minutes to find this Asian girl who was very willing
to buy it and skip the rest of the queue :) So I got the money for it and it’s
like I didn’t pay anything for the show, since my dad had bought me the row O
ticket some time ago!
Tickets in our bags, we all rushed to get the tube and go home,
with Sophie coming with meto campus since she had already checked out of her hostel. We had about two hours before
we had to head back to catch Emma at stage door before the show. In this time,
I wrote a little note to attach to the flowers I was going to buy for Emma,
then Sophie and I had lunch and we both got changed into our theatre outfits. Around
1pm we arrived back in Victoria Station and we went looking for some flowers. At
first I thought of buying some from Mark & Spencer, but I didn’t like any
so I chose a little florist in the centre of the station and bought this lovely
little bouquet :)
Less than 20 minutes later, Sophie and I met up with Martin
at stage door and soon also Cecilia and Amy joined us. We stood at stage door for a while and Emma arrived around
2.30pm. we saw her walking in the wrong direction and we all kind of panicked,
but then she walked back towards stage door and awwwww... Cecilia, Martin and I
were so excited! When she reached us she was with her parents and Cecilia and I
gave her the presents :) She was sooooo adorable and sweet and thanked us a lot
and her parents kept saying “thank you so much” until they walked inside. That’s
when both Cecilia and I freaked out xD It wasn’t the first time either of us
has seen Emma, but it was such an important moment, because it would be the
last time before her debut as lead!
We barely had the time to recover from that and immediately
some men walked out of the theatre holding a ladder: it was time for the
pictures on the wall to be changed!! Sophie was on the verge of tears, knowing
that Jennifer’s pictures would be taken down, Amy wasn’t there, and the rest of us
were over the moon. It was so hilarious seeing the three of us following the
workers around while they brought the pictures out. We expected two photos of
Emma to take the place of the two of Jennifer’s... we were very wrong: yes, Jenny’s
were removed, but instead they put up FIVE new photos of Emma, taking down and
reorganising most of the pictures on the wall - Emma really took over the Apollo Victoria theatre!
We literally squealed when we
saw the “Popular” picture coming out
and then went on giggling and smiling at every new one
that they put up :) Then there was the biggest surprise: an “As long as you’re mine” proshot that nobody
expected at all! They had already released an enormous and unexpected amount of
proshots of Emma, plus a couple of videos that had sent us fans crazy, but that
“As Long as you’re mine” was such a
gift... it’s so beautiful. Also, we found this stunning, sweet picture of Emma
in “The Wizard and I” online and we
were starry eyed forever afterwards :)
"Wonderful" picture
"For Good" and "No Good Deed"
The "Popular" picture!
Surprise surprise - first glimpse
of the "As Long as You're Mine" pic
Isn't it just a beauty?!
Such a sweet "Wizard and I" image!
Once all the pictures were up, they went to change the cast
board – it remained pretty much the same, with a couple of exceptions... which
obviously included Emma’s name taking the place of Jennifer’s!
Eventually all of this was over, Cecilia and Amy went inside
the station because they were freezing, while Martin and I stayed with Sophie
(despite the fact that we were freezing ourselves), who had some flowers for
Savannah Stevenson (Glinda). After about half an hour of Savannah not showing up, she decided to
give them to the orchestra director and we all joined Cecilia and Amy indoor.
The five of us found a place upstairs at Victoria Station,
and we still had over 3 hours to wait before the show started. Honestly, this
wait was the longest ever... We were just so excited for Emma and couldn’t believe the day
had finally arrived for her to become lead. I have only known Emma for three
months or so, whether Martin and Cecilia have been following her for almost a
year – I can imagine that if I, having known her for so short, was in
disbelief, they must have really felt like it was unreal! During the hours that
we had to wait, we ate a little bit, listened to audios, chatted, laughed a lot
and went to the supermarket to buy ourselves some water for the show.
Finally it was 6 o’clock and we could get inside the theatre
to go to the Elixir Cafe upstairs as we had planned: we wanted to have a proper
celebration for Emma’s first! We took a seat and then waited for Lauren (another Emma-fan), who
was going to arrived a bit later, before toasting. In the meantime, at 6.30pm,
the Ozdust Boutique opened and Cecilia, Martin and I ran to get the updated
programme with Emma’s pictures inside. It’s perfect – this programme is utter
perfection *_* Emma is everywhere,
practically in every page. She has so many pictures, either big or small... I
can’t believe how amazing this programme is! And there’s also a new photo of
Savannah, from “Popular”, which is stunning – well, it’s Savannah, how could a
picture of her be anything but stunning?!
Around 6.45pm, Lauren arrived and we toasted to Emma, with
whatever drink we were holding (for me it was water, of course LOL) and while
still admiring the beautiful new programme. Now it was only a matter of minutes
before the show! We waited until the door opened, at 7 o’clock, and we
went to our places: me, Cecilia, Sophie and Amy central in front row, Martin
just behind me and Lauren somewhere in the stalls (though she stayed with us
until the beginning of the show). Behind me there was also a man that I have
met a few times at previous shows, who has seen “Wicked” over 180 times and has
become a friend of Sophie after seeing it together a lot of times lately. He is
a huge Jenny-fan and was there just to see the cast change, despite having
already seen Emma and not being the biggest fan of hers.
The last 30 minutes before the show dragged on forever... I
had watery eyes and so did Cecilia, while Martin was simply over the moon (like
us). Fangirling went on until the last moment, with hugs and excited “enjoy”
whispered as soon as the lights went down!
The show <<Ladies and
gentlemen, welcome to this performance of “Wicked”>>
I’ve been as nervous as on Monday night during this
announcement only the first time I’ve seen Emma. And back then I didn’t have
nearly as much excitement as I had this time! I was dying for Emma to walk on
stage and for her takeover to be effective! I’ll go through the show step by
step, so bear with me.
“No One Mourns the
Wicked” was as perfect as usual, if not better, because Savannah was
amazing in my opinion. However, I couldn’t concentrate on the song that much
and in my mind it went so fast.
At the beginning of “Dear
Old Shiz” I held my breath and I heard I wasn’t the only one doing so. “...We
were both very young...” – and the back door opened: Emma Hatton ran on stage in
her lovely make up, portraying the tiniest and cutest Elphaba. We all erupted
in cheers, and we held onto those cheers and applause for a long time. At first
I was worried it would be just the few of us cheering her entrance, but most of
the auditorium joined in (even though it was half empty) luckily and Emma got
the welcome she deserved.
From the moment she arrived, her acting was particularly entertaining,
hilarious very often and perfect in every moment. Her face is just incredibly
expressive and her eyes can transmit so much emotion!
“The Wizard and I”,
normally one of my favourite numbers from her, was slightly undertone. It was
still great, but she was clearly nervous (well, clearly to us who knew her) and
didn’t give her best – she would have if she hadn’t been that nervous, but it’s
totally understandable considering what a big step she was taking. After all,
she is the first London standby to be promoted to lead, not counting Kerry
Ellis because she knew pretty much from the beginning that she would take over
Idina. No matter what, her “The Wizard
and I” got to me and once again, when the high and long notes came Cecilia
and I were holding and squeezing each other’s hand. Emma has that effect, yes!
In “What is this
feeling?” both Emma and Savannah were awesome, they were perfect. Though,
that’s when I could really see how
nervous Emma was: while she was holding the letter at the beginning of the
song, her hands were shaking. And later on I saw her tapping her fingers
nervously on her leg... poor Emma must have been working so hard to stay calm!
That aside, her acting in here was different from what any of us had seen
before (and by that I mean that everyone else agreed with me, it wasn’t just me
noticing it – I’ve only seen her once so I can’t judge differences in her
acting that much). During the first part of the chorus of the Shiz students she
rolled her eyes in a way that had all of us burst out laughing.
During “Dancing
through life” Emma simply couldn’t stop smiling, she was clearly excited and
happy of being where she was. Her Elphie-dance was the funniest ever and then
she and Savannah had me melting when they held hands and smiled at each other
fondly!
“Popular” was
something else, something unbelievably funny. As I have already said
previously, Emma takes part in this song, so it’s not only Savannah’s song when
Emma is on as Elphaba! The two of them are the perfect pair here, because they
are hilarious with their faces and acting :P And during her debut, Emma gave
particularly funny and expressive faces LOL
Her acting before and during “I’m not that girl” is simply the best ever and her performance of
the song is my absolute favourite. Nobody else does it like her, in my opinion,
also because of the beautiful high note she puts at the end. Utter perfection!
“One Short Day”
saw even more smiles than usual, as Emma couldn’t hold her smile back... I
guess the reality of what was happening was catching up with her and she was
just so happy! I was smiling myself, happy for her :)
“Defying Gravity”
was slightly undertone at the very beginning, but she must have calmed down
half way through it because she gave a stunning performance of it and the
ending was so powerful and moving! I had tears in my eyes, for how amazing she
was and because I felt the emotion of the moment (the first “Defying Gravity” as lead!). The final
riffs had me and Cecilia hold hands again, and I’m so glad I had somebody’s
hand to squeeze in that moment!
When she walked out of the wardrobe in her visit to
Nessa, Emma had me burst out laughing like no one else does: Jennifer’s “Did I
scare you?” is sort of dramatic, Emma’s is hilarious!
There was soooo much enthusiasm in “Wonderful”, in the jazz hands, in the singing, the facial
expressions... and the spin that Philip Childs (playing the Wizard of Oz) gave her, almost
making her fall haha
“As Long As You’re
Mine” was the best one I had ever heard. Chemistry between Emma and Jeremy (playing Fiyero) aside, which was
impressive, Emma’s vocals were pure amazingness and brought tears to my eyes
during this song for the first time ever. Astonishing!I don’t like Jeremy’s
voice at all, here, but he makes a good Fiyero to Emma because they’ve known each
other for ages.
I was laughing so hard during the catfight scene! Emma’s
cackle was spectacular and I laugh even just remembering it LOL Then the slap
to Glinda didn’t work properly: the sound came a couple of seconds after the action
and that cracked everyone up (well, everyone who knew what was meant to
happen). I really couldn’t stop giggling until we were already half way through
the next scene haha They were nearly laughing on stage as well!
“No Good Deed”
left me speechless in its perfection. No words to express how incredible her
riffs, belts and acting were here. Whatever nerves might have held her back in
first act, didn’t have any effect on her second act, she was a force of nature,
she nailed it and blew me away.
For the first time I saw a “For Good” that had smiles all the way through. Emma must have been
trying hard to hide it, but she couldn’t keep it from us in front row... her
smile never faded or left her face, she was just too happy. And I (we) were so happy for her. Despite the
smile, or maybe also because of it, this performance of “For Good” brought tears to my eyes – it was such a lovely one.
The “Finale” was
so beautiful and sweet! And it put an end to Emma’s first show as lead, which
hit me while she was walking out of the back door. It was over, it had
happened!
All the way through the end of “For Good”, the talk between Glinda, Madame Morrible and the Wizard and the final
there was a terrible buzzing noise in the theatre that nobody could indentify. I
actually saw a couple of cast members looking around for it, and the director
of the orchestra did the same a few times!
At curtain call there was a huge standing ovation, which
luckily involved most of the theatre, and us Emma-fans literally screamed our
lungs out when she and Savannah walked on stage. She had this huge grin on her
face and looked radiant :)
Right, it might not have been a perfect show, because she
was very nervous at the beginning. Act 2 was absolutely incredible, though. It wasn’t
a perfect show, but it’s understandable, and it was still magical no matter
what. Seeing my favourite Elphie take over as lead alongside my favourite
Glinda, and her being so happy and excited made me joyous beyond words. I am so glad I
was there in front row to support her and see her shine in her own right. She
earned this role as lead Elphaba and deserves to be cheered and to have a
wonderful run!
Stage door
We stood at the very end of the barriers in front of stage
door and waited for the cast to come out. To be fair, we ignored everyone apart
from Emma and Savannah!
When Savannah arrived she talked to Sophie first and then
she turned to me and... she recognised me!!! I mean, the previous times she had
realised she had seen me more than once, but on Monday night she actually
associated my face to something! We had a brief conversation about Jennifer’s last showand our dedication to "Wicked" and the actresses (considering how
often the others and I had been there lately). Then she was like: “Oh, I love
your hat!” about the hat I got for Christmas, with the big puffy pon pon. It was
a little consideration she made, but I had starry eyes the whole time
afterwards and I froze when she said that. Right – Savannah Stevenson likes my
hat! That aside, she signed my programme and ticket, once again. Awww she is
just the sweetest person...
The next one coming out was Emma. As soon as she stepped out
of stage door I had tears in my eyes, really... I had been fine until that
moment, but seeing her so close after such an important night made me
emotional! She looked a bit down at first, but when she got to our section of
the barriers (aka Lauren, Martin, Sophie, me, Cecilia and Amy) she suddenly
cheered up. She signed everyone’s programme and when she looked up at me... she
recognised me as well *_* I was over the moon hearing her “Did you give me some
flowers today?” :) I was just starry-eyed and barely nodded and... awwwwwwwwww!
I love Emma too much! I tried to recover quickly and I actually spoke to her,
with something like “Congratulations on becoming lead” and then told her how
amazing her new “I’m not that girl”
final note is. She was very humble, and answered “Let’s pretend it’s a choice, but
it’s actually because I can’t do it low” or something very similar. That isn’t
really true though, as we all know, because until a few shows ago she had
always done the low version of it and everyone was amazed when she came up with
that note on the 16th of January (when I saw her for the first
time). Why would everyone be so amazed by it if she had always done it this
way, for as beautiful as it is?! Anyway, she also signed my programme and my
ticket and then took a Polaroid photo with me (thanks to Sophie once again). I can’t
stop staring at this photo now!
When she left our group, we didn’t
leave immediately. We were all so overwhelmed, so amazed, so emotional. What a
day and what a night it has been.
Jennifer DiNoia's
last show in London - 31/01/2015 evening
I spent most of my day near the Aollo Victoria theatre, with some friends I made on twitter through the Wicked fandom (including those I had laready met in person when I went to see the show on the 16th - here). Around 6.30pm, Isabela and her cousin Igor joined me and the rest of the twitter group
at the theatre. We had a quick take away dinner at the station and we all took
our seats in the auditorium. There were so many of us... all the twitter people, plus
Isabela and Igor. Isabela,
Igor, Megan (from twitter) and I were in the upper circle so we rushed there after picking up
some tissues from one of our friends inf ront row, who had kindly provided them for everyone.
I sat in S33 for the
first act, in Igor's place so he could be with Isabela for a while, in the
middle of Wicked first-timers. I know this because I asked. And because I had
to warn them there would be lots of cheers and tears during the show. I
couldn't not tell them what a special show they were about to witness! I
had to hire a binocular to see properly... new experiences...
The beginning of the
show was normal, until Jenny ran on stage at the beginning "Dear Old
Shiz". In that moment half the auditorium exploded in cheers and
applauses and screams and it went on for ages. Longer than anyone thought.
Longer than Jenny expected because, after holding a straight face for a while,
she broke character and a sad grin appeared on her face! The director of the
orchestra allowed for the cheers to continue and held the orchestra back for
longer than he should have, before starting "Dear Old Shiz".
I'm glad he did, as Jenny deserved to be shown all that support!
Eventually the show
advanced and the next exceptional moment came near the end of "The
Wizard and I". How silly of me to think Jenny's performance of it
couldn't get any better, considering her stunning riff on "And I'll stand
there with the wizard, feeling things I've never felt"! She shocked
everyone and made all her fans squeal in the silence when she rushed the
"And thought I'd never show it" to then riff "I'd be so happy I
could meeeeeelt"! What a stunner. That was pure amazingness! I'm still not
over that riff, none of her fans is. How could we?? She had never done it
before and she left us all speechless with that.
The rest of act 1
was normal, for as normal as a Jenny-show can be, until "Deying Gravity"
arrived. Then I was back to holding my breath. This time I knew what was coming,
she wouldn't let us down! She started the song fiercely, growling parts of it,
totally on fire the whole time and by the time the ending came I was already
breathless... and then she did it. She riffed that second "Bring me
down" and once again I had tears in my eyes. What a first
act!!
In the interval, I
quickly went to see Isabela, happily going on and on about the new riffs! And
then I ran to front row to see the rest of the twitter group and festivate
(Wicked-related mistake - it's inteded) together :P It was amazing, even though a few people were in tears for having
heard Jenny's last "Defying Gravity". We were all so thrillified,
so excited and enthusiastic about that act!!
For act 2, I sat
next to Isabela and other Wicked fans luckily. I didn't want to be alone for
the last act, the emotional one, because I knew I would cry.
Everything was fine,
until "No Good Deed" - Jenny's performance was outstanding and
during her "Fiyeeeeeeerooo" riff Istarted crying too... Isabela was such a sweetheart and was comforting me. She loves
Jenny,but she is not as emotionally attached as me and doesn't get as
emotional, so she was fine... I was soooo sad thatthat was the last
live Fiyero-riff I was going to get from Jenny...
However,Icalmed down and was okay again until the beginning of "For
Good", when Jenny and Savannah both started crying on stage. Sophie (a friend of mine in front row) told
me she actually saw a tear falling from Jenny's face to the floor. That was too
much and I started crying again, as quietly as possible. It's already a very
emotional song, but on Saturday night it was even more so... the sadness
continued until the very end. Savannah and Jenny never stopped crying, but they managed to not miss a single note... I admire them so much for their
strength! Though, I saw that while Jenny and Jeremy (Fiyero) were hugging
during the finale, her shoulders were shaking and he was patting her back to
comfort her.
If it was this sad
for us fans, it must have been devastating for the cast, who had shared so much
time with Jenny... especially since she is not simply leaving the show, but flying back to America, pretty far!
In fact, after a
huge standing ovation during curtain call, when the time of the speeches came
Savannah and Jenny were still crying and had to wait before they could start
speaking. The speeches are linked below and I can just say they are beautiful
and touching and so sweet... Jenny even thanked all the fans who supported her
so much *-*
Stage door
At stage door, I met
Cecilia, Bailee and Sophie, who was very very upset so she kept to herself. All
of us had tears in our eyes, though, and were all sad. We ignored most of the
cast that came out, until Savannah... she was incredibly cute and stopped to
chat with us. She signed all of our tickets, and then when
somebody asked her how she had managed to keep her composure throughout the
show she went like "Well, I didn't! I was crying most of the time!"
Eventually, Jenny
exited stage door, welcomed with cheers once again. It took ages for her to reach us, as there were lots of
people before us. We wanted to be last, keeping Sophie as the very last one as
she deserved to be the last one saying goodbye after all she has done for Jenny
(12 shows in a row, 25 Jenny-shows in total, more than anyone else!). When Jenny arrived we all complimented her a
lot, told her how much we will miss her and she thanked us once again for supporting her as much as we have. She also signed our tickets
of course!
We stayed there
until the last moment, then I left with Isabela and
Igor. I wasn't much of a company to Isabela that night (she was sleeping over
in my room to leave hers to Igor), between sadness and extreme tiredness.
Jenny's last day in
Wicked UK was something special, something to remember and cherish. She is such
a talent, such a wonderful performer and a lovely woman! Jennifer DiNoia,
London and your fans here miss you already.
