Friends - part 2

... & new friends

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 16^th 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 16^th 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 16^th 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 16^th 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.

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.