Wicked at the Schuster Center

When my husband was deployed in 2008, I took my younger brother & sister to Chicago for the day. I love being in big cities, but I’m not so great with driving through them. Part of me just wanted to be able to say I was a big girl and drive there by myself. We roamed the streets for a little while enjoying all the usual sights, Millennium Park, the amazing Cloud Gate {large Jellybean sculpture}, & all the shops. Then something green & black caught my eye. I thought it was some kind of Halloween decoration, since it was October.
I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but I liked it:

As the days grew colder and lonelier, I found that taking 2 1/2 year old Kevin to Barnes & Noble was an excellent idea. He would play with the wooden Thomas the Train tracks while I would indulge in a book. One evening, something green & black caught my eye. A huge table displayed the same artwork I saw in Chicago. Although it wasn’t a Halloween decoration.
It was Wicked.

I eagerly bought the book and was deliciously surprised by Gregory Maguire’s imagination. I fell in love with the real Elphaba & her unfortunate circumstances that lead others to misunderstand her. I was amazed at the intricacies in his fable, the motifs he carried into Son of A Witch so fluidly. I told Rock about my new obsession and he bought me the third book, A Lion Among Men, for Christmas when he came home. This year, he surprised me with tickets to see Wicked the Musical at the Schuster Center here in Dayton. I was swooning with enthusiasm by the time we sat down {in the third row!} Sunday evening. I was enchanted with the huge map curtain & the ticking dragon overhead. I felt as if someone took one of my favorite things and made it tangible.

Then the curtain rose & the music began…

There were some slight, then severe differences from the book.

I knew there would be, but I almost felt like it wasn’t even the same Animal {if you will}.

Once I stopped trying to figure out why they changed it and appreciate it as if I never read the book, I liked it for what it was. The whole point of the book is that the legend of Oz is different than what is portrayed in other books & movies. They still carried that theme rather well. I will also say that the ending was kinder to the characters than it had been in the book {that we know of}. Who doesn’t mind a nice happily ever after?

It’s like ordering cake & getting cheesecake. If you expect & enjoy cake, it could potentially be disappointing. However, if you are craving something sweet & you try cheesecake… even though it’s different you could definitely appreciate it for being a decadent dessert.
You just wouldn’t even bother to compare them as the exact same thing.

I know a lot of you have had the chance to see it, what do you think? The book or the musical? Both?

Our little man enjoyed it. We were seated near the orchestra pit and he danced throughout the entire musical. Rock was able to feel him moving and I won’t forget how his face lit up after one especially hard kick. As the next deployment draws nearer, I find myself wanting every beautiful moment to last forever.