to see WICKED

On January 17th me and mommy went to go see WICKED at the Oriental Theatre in downtown Chicago. The musical is by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman and its a story about a girl named Elphaba and how she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, but it is also a story about how a girl named Glinda becomes Glinda the Good. I know these characters from the Wizard of Oz.

The shows starts with the ensemble singing NO ONE MOURNS THE WICKED because the Wicked Witch of the West is dead and Glinda (played by Ginna Claire Mason) comes down from the sky in a bubble and tells the story of how Glinda and Elphaba became friends at school. Glinda has so many bags and all of the friends when she gets to school and Elphaba has just one bag, green skin and a sister in a wheelchair named, Nessarose when she gets to school.

We know Elphaba (played by Mary Kate Morrissey) has magic powers when she tries to protect her sister.  Madame Morrible (played by Tregoney Shepherd) tells Elphaba she's going to meet the Wizard.  Elphaba and Glinda share a room with a blue bed and a pink bed and they don't like each other.  Glinda gave Elphaba an ugly hat as a joke and Elphaba thought it was a gift, so in return she gave Glinda a training wand and a chance to train with Madame Morrible. When Glinda found this out she felt happy but sad that she was mean to Elphaba so when Elphaba gets laughed at for wearing an ugly hat to the ball, Glinda teaches Elphaba how to dance and they become friends.

Dr. Dillamond (played by Harry Bouvy), the goat professor, was losing his voice and when Elphaba and Glinda got to the Emerald City to see the wizard of Oz they found out that he was the one taking away his voice. The wizard had asked her to give his monkeys wings which was when she learned that he had no real powers so Elphaba took his book and decided to fly away, Glinda wanted to fly with her but she decided not to because she was maybe scared. And from then on Elphaba was known as the Wicked Witch of the West.

I loved ALL of the costumes, designed by Susan Hilferty,  because they were all so fancy and princess and prince-like. My favorite costume was the blue and silver Cinderella-like one that Glinda wears in the beginning and the end because she looks like a beautiful beautiful princess.

The songs by Stephen Schwartz were so good. I really liked "One Short Day," "What is this feeling," "Dancing through Life," "For Good," but my favorite song was "Popular" because Glinda was so funny especially when she taught Elphaba how to toss-toss her hair and she screamed with glee, this was my favorite part of the whole show.

If there was something I didn't like it was the dragon on the set because I thought he might blow fire and he moved and his eyes were red. I also didn't like the mist on the stage because it made me a little scared.

This show taught me that you can learn to be anyone's friend no matter what if you just show kindness to them.

I think that everyone in the whole world should see this show because its so cool and fun, well everyone expect babies, because babies would be really scared of the dragon (and their babysitters should stay home with them).

 I give this show 200-ZILLION POINTS because it is so AWESOME!

Love,
Gunnar

It was so cool meeting everybody after the show thanks to my friend Greg!

to Newsies (National Broadway Tour)

On Friday we went to see a musical called Newsies directed by Jeff Calhoun.  Mommy, Aunt Kerry and I went to a gigantic theatre in Milwaukee called the Marcus Center to see it.  When we walked in we had to go up five sets of stairs and when we walked in we sat in seats and I noticed a railing in front of me and the stage was down below us. There was a screen like a tv and on it was the word "Newsies."

The tv screen could move forward and backward and the screen is actually 3 huge levels of steel with 9 boxes that each have screens that can disappear when the kids are dancing. There were also moveable steel stairs with a bridge on top that could make different shapes on stage.

When the play started the screen backs up and shows a new picture of New York City, the bridge comes in with Jack and Crutchie and clothes hanging on strings came down from above. Jack Kelly (Joey Barreiro) and Crutchie (Zachary Sayle) are newsies who are kids that sell papes (or newspapers) for one cent per pape. The newsies buy 10 papes for 5 cents and hope to sell them all.  And one day Pulitzer (the chief and owner of 'The World' newspaper) said he wanted more money so he asked the newsies to spend 6 cents for 10 papes. The newsies were sad mad and they decided to STRIKE so they wouldn't give any of their money to Pulitzer (played by Steve Blanchard).  And a girl journalist named Katherine (Morgan Keene) helps them fight Pulitzer by writing a story about the newsies in a different paper.

Newsies is a musical with a lot of dancing. My favorite songs were "Carrying the Banner",  "The World Will Know" and "Seize the Day".  My favorite character is Jack Kelly who is the leader of the Newsies, and he wears a blue shirt. Davey (Stephen Michael Langton) and his brother Les (Ethan Steiner) are new newsies but they become selling partners with Jack and when the newsies go on strike Davey tells Jack all of the things to say and Jack says it in a way that make the newsies listen.

My favorite part is when Jack, Davey and Les go in the big door to talk to Pulitzer and then they get thrown out and Les and Jack Kelly are yelling at the door as its closing. I also liked any time they were dancing because the newsies could jump really high and leap in the air at the same time and do tricks and stuff. Mommy says dancing in musicals is called choreography and we should say that Christopher Gattelli did a really good job teaching the newsies how to dance.

The musical is different from the movie because in the movie there is a boy journalist and in the musical its a girl.  And there is more singing and dancing in the musical and some different songs.

I really liked the show but it was a little long and I was very sleepy because it was past my bedtime. People who would like the this show are Jordan, Jasper, Jacob, Jo and Wesley.  Other people who will like this show might be people who like really good dancing and great music and people who like history because this is based on a true story!

3 POINTS!


Gunnar's Point System: 
10 points: I loved Everything about it
  3 points: I liked some and didn't like some
  1 point:   I only liked a little
  0 points: I didn't like it at all