The Wicked Army and I!

Sad Mark :-(

Fellow Ozians...

Here we are in week three of my Wicked themed and inspired blog. What a week I have had in terms of Wicked related things going on!

The first thing I must do is hand an acknowledgment out to the creator of the Louise Dearman pic I used in last weeks blog, Liam Jefford is the creative genius behind the image of Louise being green - great stuff Liam and THANK YOU!!

Last week some of you may have seen that the wonderful Mark Evans (our current Fiyero) had his iPhone stolen right out of his hands whilst travelling on the tube! This made Mark sad, something that should never happen! 
Then a fantastic idea was born, two of Wicked's biggest fans (Twitter users @campmotha & @babygumm07) came up with a cunning plan! Code named #MakeMarkSmile they used the power of Twitter (Other social networking sites are available!)
to collect messages from other fans, including me, to put in a handmade card that Becky (@babygumm07) would hand deliver to Mark when she went to see the Weds matinee this week (more on that later!)

A large amount of messages were collected, if you sent one then THANK YOU, and they did indeed manage to Make Mark Smile! Along of course with receiving a new iPhone!

Happy Mark :-)

The Card Itself!!

How do I know this? Well aside from the tweets from the man himself (@MarkHEvans if you're not following on twitter - which you should be!) and all of us getting a mention on his blog http://markevansonline.blogspot.com/, Becky decided to get a video of Mark accepting the card in order to thank everyone for their messages.

Somehow the first attempt at recording failed, leaving the very existence of a thank you video in doubt!? Cue once again the power of Twitter as Becky, unable to @reply Mark as she was on her phone tweeting, asked her followers to request that Mark re-record the video.
Due to our persitence and of course the lovliness of Mark the video was recorded again succesfully and for those who havent seen it, here is the result...(All turn heads to left NOW!)



I'm glad that we managed to make Mark smile, and I'm sure everyone will join me in wishing nothing like this happens to him or anyone else again - if your'e on the train guys keep your phone and other stuff safe!


Tuesday night provided another Wicked landmark in my week, I'm normally an early to bed kinda girl but due to me having to sleep on the sofa bed (badly sprained ankle unable to climb stairs :-()I was awke later than usual.
This turned out to be a good thing as it weas during this time that I found myself being enlisted into an Army. The Wicked Army that is. It somehow came a out on twitter that a few of us were like a Wicked Army.
@SarahSwims15, @LauraKatharineX, @xcaz1210x, @babygumm07, @campmotha and myself became the founding members of a new twitter Wicked fanpage called @TheWickedArmy - go follow it now!!!

I receieved word on Wednesday, again via the medium of Twitter (this time @castiels_angel), which has kinda become my sanctuary for all things Oz, that Tuesday nights performance was a 'No Fly' for Rachel Tucker.
I had often wondered what the protocol was if for any reason the lift malfunction. I have heard various rumour over the last few years: 1. The actress playing Elphaba simply runs forward and all the guards fall at her feet as if she has cast some sort of spell on them.
2. The song continues as normal with the actress still in the lift. 3. The performance is halted until the malfunction has been rectified. This last one I thought only happened if there was a danger to the actress in the lift, there is an audio of Kerry Ellis getting trapped in the lift out there on youtube, I'm not including it here because it scares me every time I hear it, she sounds in real pain! Glad no lasting damage was done!
It would seem that in Tuesdays performance the lift moved forward but did not go up - I honestly dont know what my reaction would be if I was at one of those performances, its the crescendo of the show and for it not to happen...well it doesnt bear thinking about!
Rachel apparantley got out of the lift came forward and shouted 'It's Me' and then just said 'No' instead of singing the wonderful 'It's meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'. Chloe (who was on as Glinda) was called and the curtains closed followed by an announcement to the audience.
The show was stopped for ten minutes while the lift was sorted (option 2) and then they carried on from 'It's meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' again! 
I dont know which I would prefer, the break in the show for me I think would ruin the whole flow and it would be difficult to get back into - i wonder if thats what it feels like for the actors? i think I would prefer Elphaba to run forward and perform DG from there, but hey thats just my opinion and one of someone who has indeed seen her fly more than once!

I promised earlier in this post there would be more about Becky's trip to Wicked and indeed 'Thrill Me' (Tristan Bates Theatre) which is directed my the one and only Guy Retallack who just happens to be the husband of the sensational Rachel Tucker!
I was told I could edit the review of her day as much or little as I liked, I'm not going to edit anything I think what she has written is perfect and should be read by all!!

WARNING WHAT FOLLOWS MAY MAKE YOU A JEALOUS WICKED FAN!!


Having arrived at about 7am in Victoria, we pottered about London, killing time, watching the changing of the guard etc, before getting to the SD at about 12, but there wasn't anyone for ages! At first it was just me and then a little girl with her dad showed up cause she wanted to see Rachel! She was such a sweetie!

I recognised quite a few people from the ensemble going in, and eventually Zoe Rainey arrived! She was so gracious and signed Wicked for me. She asked me where I was from and when I replied 'Dundee', she told me she'd spent the whole of last summer there for a musical called 'Sunshine on Leith' that played at Dundee Rep. It's an amazing show and I had seen it (unfortunately before her appearance in it) so we had a bonding moment over that and the weather up here.

About half an hour passed and in the distance I saw someone with long brown curly hair. Now ANYONE with similar hair had immediately caught my attention since I arrived in London, and I always studied every face to make sure it wasn't who I thought it was. But this time, THIS TIME, all the boxes were checked.

It was Rachel Tucker.

Looking an awful lot smaller and more vulnerable than I remembered! Carrying her lunch and looking lovely and summery, she smiled at me and said hello but of course spoke to the little girl first. She asked Rachel about musical theatre and how she wants to be in Wicked too - it was all very cute and Rachel reminded her to work hard, especially on dancing. She said "A lot of it's to do with luck; right place, right time. That's what happened for me." . . . or thereabouts. Then she came over to me!

I immediately handed her the (incredibly early) birthday present! And she was very grateful and smiley! She said "You know what, I'm not gonna open this now" [to which I of course protested about two times before giving up!] "because it's not my birthday. But this is my first one, my first birthday present - so you get that title [cute Rachel laugh]" I said thanks and that I thought it might be a good time to give the gifts because it's a month before hers but a month after Louise's [cute Rachel laugh]. "But d'you know what, are you on twitter?" yes. "what's your name?" babygumm07. "Ah right well - wait, oh my husband mentioned you! About Thrill Me, he said you'd seen it?" I'm going to see it tonight! "Right! Well, I'll tweet you when I open this!" Thanks so much!

She signed my Wicked copy (whilst telling me that Lou was, in fact, not on). I asked her if she would mind giving Lou's gift to her for me and she said 'course not'. She let me have a photo with her and then went inside amongst a shower of 'thank yous' from me!

Thank god a while passed before anyone else came because I was too giddy to form words! I hadn't seen her since June last year and it was so lovely to meet her again! She is proper small! Like a really tiny build as well. If I'm honest she looked really tired and was speaking in lowered tones to the little girl but perked up a bit when I gave her the gift lol.

Another half hour or so passed and I met Niall Sheehy who sighed Wicked and gave me a pic (which I posted to twitter) and I saw some other ensemble members. Loved playing spot the witch-hunter!

Eventually, after almost every other possible performer or staff member had entered the building, I suddenly turned and there was an incredibly tall Mark standing in front of me! Cue ridiculously large head tilt towards the sky so I could see his face lol.

"Mark!" Yes? "Sorry, I've been waiting a long time for you [a bit stalkerish yes but I was giddy and it just came out]! I have a gift for you" Oh, wow, really? *hands him gift bag with card wrapped in tissue paper* "Um, would you mind if I filmed you opening this? It's for the fans who helped me with it." Uh no, sure! I'm actually a little bit frightened. "Oh don't worry it's nothing bad. It's about your iphone incident." Oh! Oh I'm gonna re-use this [the tissue paper] 'cos I'm a cheapskate like that [laugh]. Oh my god, what is this? no way! Oh my god, there's welsh in here! "yup." And did you write all this out? "Yes. So I take credit for any mistakes!" Are these all from the fans? "Yes. They sent in messages since Saturday to support you." Oh wow, this'll make for some very interesting reading when I'm backstage today! Oh well, *turns to camera that is not actually recording [sorry!]* thank you guys so much and I'm gonna go through all of these today and . . . wow that's so lovely thank you! *I put down ph and heart drops with realisation that it hasn't worked. But I say nothing and hatch plan "ask people on twitter if he wouldn't mind coming out again" [thank you again!]

He takes a pic of me and then goes in.

Now for the show.

Well. A SHIZ load had changed since I was last there, of course. It was weird as hell seeing Chloe as Galinda/Glinda and not Louise. Naturally she was very good, but I longed for the Dearman belt and it never came. Gutted to say the least. Then Rachel came on and needless to say made us laugh with dry sarcasm and gave us all shivers with WAI for which she achieved the performances first 'whoops' and 'yays' etc etc. This was a pattern that continued for most of the show by the way. Any song that Rachel was in brought the house down. Of course Mark was an instant success. Possibly due to his rigourous dance experience, his choreography was much tighter and he seemed to be able to convey a sense of sincerity from the start, without allowing it to overtake the shallow aspect but in fact meaning that later on, when he was maturing a bit and showing interest in Elphaba, it didn't seem weird of OOC, it seemed natural. Like that was the way he was always supposed to be.

He has a stunningly powerful belt too, and amazing energy. His chemistry with Rachel was brilliant! Even in the lion-cub scene and especially in the train station scene you could see his transformation. I definitely felt by this point that Rachel was carrying the show, along with Mark when he was on. Chloe is really good but I think her inexperience shows a bit; there's a special relationship between Lou and Rach that just makes the whole thing a little more realistic.

DG - I don't need to tell you. Even though it was sans any major riffs (she did do a little bit) Rachel still totally rocked it. Cue massive applause and cheering.

TG I missed Louise soooo much! Her 'there are bridges you cross . . ." is phenomenal and I kinda played it in my head as if Lou was there . . .

OH! Zoe is amazing! What a pelt! Very very good Nessa and I'd love to see her again! and again! I managed to see the whole fake heart attack thing that Clive does that I'd heard about and it was actually really good - got a few strong laughs! As did the line 'Well it was . . . it wasn't' audience loved that!

ALAYM. Now I had heard about Mark's version and I was not disappointed! They had changed where they were sitting, stage right instead of left, and there were sort of boughs or ropes that hing down as well - made the atmosphere much better onstage. Anyway, Mark was much more emotive than Lee. They sort of stood back during the reprise of INTG, and they were just staring at each other. Needless to say I'm not sure anyone was looking at Chloe. I wasn't.

There followed proper hand-kissing, face touching, Mark and Rachel kept sitting down then up to be closer to each other. Also the (previously mentioned to me) hands moving up and down her body that occured several times. Not a person in the place could possibly have mistaken what they were hinting. The whole thing screamed sex lol. Kiss was very very passionate and long, amidst 'aawws' and wolf whistles. From that point, there wasn't a moment when they weren't in constant contact. I really really really wanted to be Rachel. :)

Cornfield was bloody hilarious!! Rachel CACKLE! My god it was brilliant! Almost stopped the bloody show. One girl near me exclaimed "how does she do that?!" lol.

NGD - riffless, but passionate and with long notes and chilling growls from Rachel which earned her such a huge round of applause at the end.

The scene where Fiyero comes back to the trap door, obviously a lot of people didn't know what was about to happen, and Mark sat for a moment just holding her hat so people thought he was mourning. Nice one. Then he opened the door and for about three long seconds Rach didn't appear. Must have been interminable if you didn't know she was alive. Lots of 'ohs' and 'yays' when she came up!

Bows were fab, Rachel did a whole dancey thing where she sort of sunk along with the curtain and kept waving til the blackout! And of course, a standing ovation.

So back to the SD, and I'm on a high, but feeling rubbish about having to ask Mark to do it again! I think there were other people there that he actually knew so he was talking to them for a while before he came up to me and opened with a smile and - "what did you do?" [lol. it was being told off by my big brother. i misunderstood him though and thought he meant the msgs] Oh, did you read the card? "Yes it was amazing!" Oh you mean the video! "Yes!" I don't really know, it just didn;t record. [head shakes and smiles] Would you mind doing another one? "Course not!" [see video for next bit!] Thank you, that's definitely worked! "You're welcome and thank you so much for coming down! Where are you from? "Dundee. It's 11hours on the bus." oh, wow,  well thank you! and I hope you get home safely. [hug, and A KISS] I about collapsed lol.

When we were leaving brother said "Beck, you should have seen the dirty looks you were getting!" I don't think the other girls liked me very much . . . they didn't know about the card in all fairness.

Anyway! So that was that! Oh I saw Guy at Thrill Me! That was pretty cool! He has a very posh english accent! Also, seriously, Thrill Me is so so so so good! I can't think of the best adjectives! SUCH a contrast to Wicked, but it just shows that brilliance comes in so many different shapes and sizes! Please go see it! Rach and Guy are one hell of a major power couple!

Oh and it was on the way back to the station to get some food before the bus that we walked back through the AV and I saw that Nikki was on. Totally not surprised she didn't stay - must have taken the last of it out of her! But the fact that she was still astounding increases my respect for her. She was ab fab and not even at the top of her game!


It would seem Becky had a great day, I am officially jealous (even more so as one of my facebook friends has just 'checked in' at the AV!) I will leave you there for now folks, me sat here GREEN with envy and hoping all those off to see Kerry Ellis at the RAH tonight have a magical time!


Until next week,
The Green Girl x