Perhaps I'm a terrible citizen of the world for this confession: prior to two weeks ago, I had heard absolutely nothing about Jean Valjean and his struggles for redemption during the Paris uprising of 1832. My only exposure to this renown musical was a song I was assigned to sing during a short stint of voice lessons in high school - On My Own. I had also seen the haunting face of young Cosette outside of the theater on Broadway in New York City 3 years ago.
So after listening to a lecture at the National Gallery and watching a life-size chess match in Trafalgar Square, I found myself in The Queen's Theater ready for this experience - my experience. Sitting inside the theater, I suddenly had visions of "Honey I Shrunk The Kids". It felt like I had been shrunk to about a centimeter small and placed in the inside of a tin can with tiny little velvet seats glued all around the inside - me being in the very top row and the actors on the very bottom. We sat towards the front of the highest balcony and it seemed like an 80º angle to see the stage. On top of all of this, two rows in front of me at the front of the balcony was an eastern-European family (that didn't speak English) sitting on the edge of their seats, leaning as far forward as they possibly could.
Needless to say - I didn't catch much of the first act. However, after intermission the kind gentleman sitting next to me gestured to them trying to explain that we couldn't see and for the most part, during the last half, they did so. The second act was filled with dramatic, empowering songs, soft, intimate ballads, and exciting choreography. I went home satisfied.
Wicked
This being my third Wicked experience in the past year I was incredibly excited to see the magical production again - and with accents this time around. The musical was at the Apollo theater in London previously hosting The Sound of Music and Fiddler On The Roof. We had great seats this time around. On the ground level roughly in the middle of the floor, we had nearly a clear shot to the stage in this spacious theater.
Kasyn outside the Apollo Theater
I had heard a little about the leading actors of the West End production and listened to a few clips on YouTube but nothing could have prepared me for this. Alexia Khadime held the leading role of Elphaba - the wicked witch of the west. Before this she had played Nala in The Lion King on the West End and all before she was 26 (which is fairly young in musical theater years). But the best thing she has going for her is that she's black. The songs Elphaba sings are usually very powerful, requiring an extremely talented vocalist, especially to hit the high notes in full chest voice, notes this girl was born to sing. On the loud notes, her pitch didn't waver and the softer ones only gave her more room to show off her vocal abilities with deviations from the normal melody line.
The stage
Our seats
The theater
An interesting note on the show here was that every character was overall less physically expressive. The other leading-lady, Glinda, is usually portrayed in a very physically involved way with a lot of slap-stick humor, throwing her body around the stage a little - but while her vocal performance was fantastic, her mannerisms appeared stiff. But this was a common trend among all the characters, giving a relatively reserved performance. I spoke with a few people here who have seen this show (and several others) many times and they just said that that is how the West End is done. Theater-goers aren't amused by over-expressive, physical performances.
Every song was jaw-dropping. At the end of the evening, a friend took me outside to the stage door where we met and got autographs from most of the leads.
Alexia Khadime (Elphaba) and me
I managed to record the audio of a few numbers for those interested:
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