Wicked: Emma Hatton's debut as lead Elphaba

Emma Hatton’s debut as lead Elphaba – 2^nd 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 16^th 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.

Wicked the Musical - Jennifer DiNoia's last show

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 I started 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 that that was the last live Fiyero-riff I was going to get from Jenny...

However, I calmed 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.

A Little Night Music - 40th Anniversary Concert

Hello!

After so many musical posts concerning “Wicked”, I am writing something a bit different. Yes, it’s another posts about a musical and yes, I will eventually get back on track and talk about my holiday in Italy and return in London, but this happened last night and as usual I can’t leave musicals un-reviewed for long! I promise my post about Italy is half done and I’ll upload it as soon as possible. Coming back to university has been crazy because there’s so much to do... academically and not!

Anyway, I had never heard anything about this musical before last Friday night when I read the name on the facebook page of an artist called Anna O’Byrne. She is my second favourite, if not absolute favourite, Christine from “The Phantom of the Opera”, even though I came to know her thanks to a recording of “Love Never Dies”, the sequel of Phantom (more about this in later posts, when I get up to date). I fell in love with her voice, and her performances in general, and she quickly became one of my very favourite musical theatre personalities. So, I was going through her facebook page trying to find out what she was doing at the moment and I stumbled upon this series of post talking about the 40^th anniversary concert of “A Little Night Music”. I did a quick research and it turned out the show would be on for a one-off on the following Monday, which would be yesterday! After a couple of calls with my parents, I worked out a solution that worked for all of us... the ticket for the concert would be an early birthday present from my aunt :) Yep, I had a ticket an hour or so later and I was beaming because I’d get to see Anna!

After a lovely afternoon that will be talked about in later posts, I made my way to the Palace Theatre, where the show was going to take place, with a quick stop at “The Theatre Cafe”. I had heard so much about this place on twitter and I really wanted to get my own Wicked-cup :)

Little detour aside, I reached my seat and I almost felt dizzy for the height... I do not suffer heights, but that balcony was very steep and a lot above the ground. I felt like I could fall anytime I tried to stand up, like for the final standing ovation! I was so excited about the show, because I had read the plot and it sounded entertaining :)

Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to all my expectations. The plot was very good, funny and well-developed in the musical, but I found the songs were not catchy and I ended up hoping for the show to end half way through act two... I was convinced by it, despite some amazing performers!

Below I’m just commenting a few artists, who impressed me for different reasons.

Anna O’Byrne (Anne) – she sang very little, sadly, but whenever she did she was astounding! Her vocals are so beautiful and crystalline and... and... and oh my goodness, she is incredible *_* I found myself smiling anytime she’d sing even just a note! She interpreted a young, naive and silly girl and had to change her voice to act and she did very well, in my opinion :) So, even though the show wasn’t amazing, it was all worth it to see her!
I met Anna at stage door afterwards and she was sooooo sweet! We took a picture together and I reckon it’s one of my best stage door pictures, because she is really actively taking part in it :) She also signed my programme, of course.

Fra Fee (Henrik) – handsome boy, no doubts about that. However, I didn’t like his voice, despite how amazing lots of other people found him... I suppose it’s personal taste... I met him at stage door as well and he was pretty kind, even though in a rush!

Laura Pitt-Pulford (Petra) – she surprised me and in a very positive way. I was totally not expecting her to sing as amazingly as she did, not after a show in which she barely had a few lines... but Petra’s song near the end of the show made me attentive to the performance again! “The Miller’s son” isn’t a song I particularly appreciate in itself, but her vocals were impressive, to say the least. She got so many cheers and applauses at the end of the number!

Jamie Parker (Count Carl-Magnus) – I like his voice better than any of the other males on stage, but that’s all I have to say about him.

Joanna Riding (Countess Charlotte) – Oh my gosh, she was hilarious haha I couldn’t stop laughing every time she said her lines, like the rest of the audience. She was just too funny in her tone of voice and acting! 

Despite not being totally taken by the show, I still think it was worth the ticket because I saw Anna being amazing and a few other things that I really appreciated :)

A few more photos...

At stage door with Michael Colbourne
(whom I also saw in Les Miserables as Enjolras)

Programme signed by Anna O'Byrne,
Fra Fee and Michael Colbourne

A few shots from the show (from Anna O'Byrne's facebook)

 

Wicked the Musical #3 - the amazing Emma Hatton

Good evening / Good morning,

I don’t even know how to start this post because it’s something like 3am, but I am still over the moon and I feel like I’m defying gravity, just to stay on theme. I am warning anyone who is reading now: this post is about me fangirling over Emma Hatton and seeing her in “Wicked” – it’s for my personal record, I understand it’s not the most interesting story to read, and it’s pretty long :)

Tonight was special, tonight was amazing and I am so happy I keep feeling tears build up in my eyes. I know, it sounds silly, but you also have to understand that I have seen Emma Hatton perform and I have met her in person. Emma Hatton. The woman I have a fan page on, one of my top idols, the woman who sings pretty much all that I have been listening to lately... so yeah, I am excited, happy and still incredibly upbeat because of this. Emma Hatton! Emma is the current standby Elphaba (the Wicked Witch, aka the Green Girl) in London, even though she is going to become lead on the 2^nd of February :D As I have mentioned in all my previous posts about “Wicked” she is my absolute favourite and tonight was a incredible show for that very reason.

 

 

It all started with Emma being announced for the Friday night show on Tuesday and me organising with some of the people from the Wicked fandom on twitter to meet on that same day. We were such a nice group in the end! First of all I met up with Sophie, a huge Jennifer DiNoia fan, at 4.30pm at Victoria Station. We went to the Apollo Victoria theatre and stood outside stage door chatting and just freaking out about how amazing “Wicked” is and how incredible Jennifer and Emma are (reminder – Jennifer is my next favourite Elphaba AND the one I have seen twice). It was amazing, because we spent about 2 hours there in the cold, but I was fine because it was so exciting to be talking endlessly about our “addiction”! And Sophie is lovely!! We also found out we have the same Elphaba necklace :D

The same Elphaba ("Because I knew you") necklaces *_*

In the time we were there, technically waiting for Emma but since she didn’t show up we had to give up on her, we met a few members of the ensemble, some of the main cast and Savannah (Glinda). Gosh, we had this very embarrassing experience with a man that was looking through the window of the stage door waiting for someone and then he saw my programme and asked me: “Is it worth buying?” – we discussed the programme a bit and then we asked him if he was seeing the show and he said he had already seen it the previous night... so we were like “Oh, you have seen Jennifer then!” and he didn’t know who we were talking about so we told him she was “the green one” in the show. In that moment Savannah came out of the stage door and went straight to hug him, they were clearly friends, so we were so embarrassed because we couldn’t understand how someone who knows one of the two leading ladies personally wouldn’t know the other one at least by name... whatever, I still don’t get it -.-“ While Savannah was out there I also managed to give her the card I had written for her :)

Cards for Emma and Savannah

Around 6.30, Sophie and I went back into the station and to the Starbucks there and met also Cecilia, a huge Emma fan who has seen her pleeenty of times! At first I felt a bit shy having two people who had already met before and I wasn’t sure what to say, but then they were both so friendly and nice and we started talking and we were all incredibly excited about the evening :) During the afternoon I was soooo nervous about seeing Emma in the show, because until that moment I had only heard recordings of her and I was terribly worried I wouldn’t like her live Elphaba (acting-wise, etc...). I mean it, I was very very anxious. Eventually, other two joined us (Martin and Lauren) and we made our way to the theatre – we were all scattered around the theatre, but I was in first row in the very centre *_* It was my first time being central and I loved it! I barely spoke to Martin and Lauren before the performance, but Sophie and Cecilia were so cute and even excited for me because it was my first time seeing my favourite Elphaba... awwww! 

The show, meaning EMMA:

There’s no need for me to comment the show, because it was just as good as always in the whole. Just a note for records: some of the actors/actresses got the script wrong tonight and changed what they were meant to say (e.g. Madame Morrible going "she must be captured" instead of "she must be found and captured"). I am not commenting anything else about the show, but I have to comment on Emma.

On the very moment she set foot on stage I had tears in my eyes. She looks so petite and sweet in her young-Elphaba costume!! From the beginning, from the first time she spoke, I was in love with her. She is hilarious, her acting is incredible and her facial expressions and body language are indescribable. She makes for the perfect Elphaba, showing vulnerability mixed with power, with a lovely sweet touch added onto the Elphaba I was used to see with Jennifer.

Then she sung. “The Wizard and I” is already one of my favourite songs from the whole musical, but when she started singing I thought I would just melt there :P She is stunning, fantastic, capable of transmitting an enormous amount of emotions both with her voice and her movements! From that moment I couldn’t take my eyes off her, I observe all the little things that she does differently from Jennifer, I listened to her voice and I knew I had no reason to change my mind about my favourite Elphaba. In the interval I went to see Sophie and Cecilia and Cecilia and I were both with tears in our eyes and we were completely freaked out because of how amazing Emma was. Even Sophie, an hard-core Jennifer fan, had to admit she is incredible and that she found some things she does even better than Jennifer!

OMG Emma is perfection, pure magic and talent. She is incredible, definitely my favourite Elphaba! Her performance just made me so happy :) I could go on forever about how amazing she was, but I’ll just point out the highlights of Emma’s performance so I remember all of them:

• Elphaba introducing herself to the other students: her way of saying the funny lines when she is explaining her “verdigree” was too funny to hold back lots of laughs. My personal favourites were “Oh... do I have something stuck in my teeth?!” and then later to Madame Morrible “I’m the other daughter, Elphaba. I’m beautifully tragic” - her accent and her tone of voice were the best!
  
• Her riffs during “The Wizard and I” were magical, even if she doesn’t hold the “feeling things I’ve never felt” like Jennifer! Her last note was so long and so powerful... perfect way to make me love her from her very first song!
  
  
• In “What is this feeling?” I finally saw her and Savannah one next to the other and it was too cute to see how tiny Emma is! Savannah was literally looking down on her, both for being taller and being on heels haha I don’t know why, but I found it terribly cute - she looked so little and frail!
  
• Elphaba’s little dance in “Dancing through life” was the most hilarious I have ever seen, both live (well, I’ve only seen Jennifer’s live to be fair) and online :P Then it ended with the very sweet scene of Glinda and Elphie holding hands, becoming friends... and I melted!
  
• I always thought “Popular” to be Savannah’s song, because she is the best Glinda ever and makes it so funny, but this time I have to say that also Emma did her part. Unlike many other Elphaba’s I have looked at or seen, she actively participated with nods, shaking her head, making faces, laughing... and when she talks she actually sounds so realistic, not forced at all! Totally adored her in “Popular” *_* My favourite bit is when Glinda goes “Don’t make me laugh... no, don’t!” because during that little pause Emma actually starts laughing and then is reprimanded by Savannah and she suddenly goes back to having a serious face suddenly :P
  
• When Elphaba is running with Fiyero to save the lion cub, Emma made the most hilarious faces. Fiyero goes in the wrong direction: rolling eyes and pointing to the other side funnily. Fiyero says “Do you think I am really stupid?” and her “No! Not really stupid” comes out in a way that has everyone bursting out laughing. Gotta love her!
  
• I already loved Emma’s “I’m not that girl”, it’s one of my favourites from her, because of how sweet and heartbreaking she makes it sound, but seeing her interpret it in person brought it to a totally different level. She looked like a girl in love who can’t have, and barely can admit to herself that she wants, the boy she is in love with – and that’s exactly the role she is meant to interpret in that moment so I adore the fact that she is able of making that side of Elphie emerge! Most importantly though... she held the last note of the song and made it high! That’s how it’s originally meant to be, but no Elphaba I (or Sophie or Cecilia) know of has done it before, and even Emma hadn’t done it previously apparently, but it came out beautiful! Jennifer, and everyone else, normally keeps that last “girl” low, but she went for it and held it and I had starry eyes :D
  
• Emma’s “Defying Gravity” is the best one ever. Like, ever. I even had Sophie admit that Emma’s “it’s meeeee!” is perfect! She riffs so much and has so much power in her voice, which comes out particularly in this iconic song and I was amazed at seeing it live, from up close. To be honest, the girl sitting next to me started crying for how incredible Emma was (first time she was seeing Wicked, to be clear)! So glad I wasn’t the only one haha
  
• During “Wonderful” she imitated the Wizard’s “jazz hands” and, since I was waiting for it after Cecilia’s warning, I focused on her to notice that... I was almost the only one laughing at that stage but I couldn’t help it. Too cute!
  
• At the beginning of “As Long as You Are Mine” I thought she and Jeremy Taylor (Fiyero) didn’t have much of the chemistry I could see between him and Jennifer, but around the second stanza I had to change my mind because they started acting it out beautifully!!
  
• Elphie’s cry on her sister’s grave sounded so realistic! And then just after, there was the cat-fight scene, which was lovely haha Emma’s laugh after Glinda’s slap was hilarious and the whole scene was just too much to hold back :P “I know that for that blissful blonde brain of yours [...] someone like him could  choose someone like me!” Loved that bit, loved all the emotion that was thrown out in one single sentence.
  
• “Fiyeroooooooooo!”. The beginning scream of “No Good Deed” gave me chills down my spine – perfection!! She put so much emotion in the whole song and it’s such an impressive piece of music that I think I held my breath for most of it! She truly looked “Wicked” and the effect of the lights and the artificial wind on her cape made for an incredible scene *_*
  
• The whole “For good” sequence was heartbreaking, beautiful, emotional. Emma looked tiny beside Savannah, but seeing these two friends reunited, saying goodbye forever and telling each other how much they’ve been influenced by the other... tears were a must and mine were a mix of sadness for the story and happiness at how good Emma had been throughout the whole show!
  
• Eventually, though, it was time for the “Finale”... it was perfect, but all I could think of was “no, Emma, don’t go!” and then she left the stage and it was all over :( During the beginning of it, Jeremy (Fiyero) was holding and hugging Emma and it was sooooooo cute, especially because he is so much taller than her that he could actually lay his head on top of hers! Loved that :)
  
  
• Nope, it’s not the end yet... curtain call is an important part of the show! After clapping and cheering for all the cast, when Emma and Savannah came out there was a huge standing ovation in the theatre, but in the front row I was the only one who actually stood! In the back rows there were plenty of people doing it, but nobody at the front... it was kind of embarrassing being the only one, because I was right in front of Emma and Savannah and they actually looked at me! But they deserved that standing ovation, and even more :) When they started walking back to retreat, Emma made these cute little jumps while backing out and she had this huge smile on – she was so clearly excited about being on as Elphie after some time off!

Stage door time:

I caught up with Sophie and Cecilia just at the end of the show, all the three of us so thrilled and we were hugging and jumping around and giggling and quoting the show with Emma’s accent and tone haha Then we met also Martin and Lauren outside stage door and all together we waited. Gosh, I was excited!

In the wait!

I didn’t get any new signature from other ensemble people or other cast members, because I was mainly concentrating on Emma. She finally came out around 10.50pm and she was soooo adorable *_* Despite feeling like I could freeze and not talk to her, I managed to speak because I was in the middle of fans who were actually talking to her... I am so glad the others were there! I told her that she had been amazing and that it was my first time seeing her. So she asked me “Have you seen the show before?” and I was like “Yes, twice, but you are my favourite Elphaba!”... and she was the cutest person ever and smiled and answered “Aww that’s good to know!”. Then I gave her the card I had written for her (written before the show, but with an addition made during the interval – the first part only talked about her singing and the expectations I had on her, then during the interval I added how much I loved her acting, which I couldn’t know before as I had never seen her) and took a couple of pictures :) Sophie was so nice as to take a photo of us with her little Polaroid and this pretty little picture came out of it and I already have a tiny printed photo with Emma *_* Also, Emma signed both the standby sheet I handed to her (adding “Much love” before the signature!) and the programme, in the page where there’s a little paragraph about her :)

 

While Emma was still there, Savannah came out as well and she stopped for pictures with us and for a little chat – so sweet :D

Right, I think this is all I have to say, I am still excited and over the moon but I’d better try and get some sleep! I am so looking forward to the next time I see the show (31/01) and especially to the next time I see Emma (2/02) :D And I also can’t wait to see these lovely twitter people again, Cecilia and Sophie especially, as we promised one another we’ll keep in touch and meet up soon!