Behind the emerald curtain

I know that I have spoken, more than once, of my love for the Broadway musical Wicked. In fact, I’m sure I have brought it up on several occasions. I am just so drawn to this magical adventure and this magical story that even just thinking about it makes me light up and have that amazing yellow-brick-road-feeling all over again. I think it is because I love the core story of The Wizard of Oz so much that seeing it in this new and very different light was such a novel idea to me.

I have shared this passion with so many people close to me. Luckily, I have friends with similar tastes and friends who are open minded to new experiences (and not fed up with hearing me talk about it again and again and again.) It’s always been a dream of mine to get all my friends together who love the musical as much as I do and watch it together. While that may be a logistical nightmare (and way to expensive I might add), I still do enjoy getting to share it with my loved ones one by one.

I took Nino to see Wicked while we were in New York a little while back and getting tickets to it was the first of many little adventures we had. Some people had told us that since it was the recession, prices were dropping for some of the Broadway shows and not to worry about booking tickets ahead of time as we might be able to get better prices nearer to the day itself. Now, while that may be true for some shows, Wicked is not one of them; it was still virtually sold out when we arrived in the Big Apple with a waiting list at the box office almost around the block!

Luckily, with a little online searching and lot of help from someone up there, I was able to find us really good seats (Front Orchestra) for a very reasonable rate. I didn’t hesitate to purchase them on the spot and it was while I was looking for these that I came across the “Wicked: Behind the Emerald Curtain” tour on the same site.

The “Behind the Emerald Curtain” tour is a tour headed and created by some of the cast members of Wicked and invites viewers and fans backstage to one of the biggest musicals currently running on Broadway. Offered during the Saturday mornings there are shows, the tour brings people through a beautiful museum-like display of costumes, props, and scenery and shows them what it takes it keep this amazing and mind-blowing production running every night.

Needless to say, I was stoked to find out about the tour and immediately needed to go. I picked up a ticket for Nino and I and looked forward to our double bill of “Emerald Curtain” tour in the morning and watching matinee of Wicked in the afternoon. Does life get any better than this?

Saturday morning, bright and early, we headed to the Gershwin Theater with the other tour folks and got in a line of about 50 to 60 people. Once inside, the cast and crew for the tour divided us into batches of about 30 before beginning (one batch inside the theater first and the other batch in the museum setup and then vice versa).

It was like a dream come true. As I walked around the museum setup snapping photos I was treated to an up-close encounter with some of Susan Hilferty’s costumes with beautiful details that are not visible to the audience during the show. I saw the early production notes, props and costumes that have been changed through time and an elaborate map of all the talented men and women who have performed on the Wicked stage including my personal favorites original cast members Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenowith.

It was such a treat! My heart must have skipped a beat when I saw Elpheba’s broom on display in the cabinet it was in during the “Defying Gravity” scene. Just brought back so many memories for me about falling in love with the musical the first time and being there again was sort of like coming full circle. As we waited for our turn to watch the videos and see the inside of the theater and the stage, cast member Anthony Glade, who has been with Wicked since 2004, shared funny anecdotes and stories with us about the production and the 125 people it takes to keep the show up and running every day. (Believe me, when I found out how much it costs to run Wicked for a week, I stopped thinking the tickets were pricey!)

After about 30 to 40 minutes, it was our turn inside the theater. Now it was not my first time in the Gershwin, but every time I step foot inside it, I get butterflies all over again. And this was a new experience, watching the videos of the production staff and cast, seeing the stage and set in full lighting, and having the mechanics of the set design explained to me by Anthony and his cast mate Sean McCourt, who is an original cast member of Wicked. They showed us how the lights work, where the techs are, why they chose certain types of lighting for certain scenes and looks and how all the special effects work.

Some people may think this would remove some of the “magic” from the show, but I didn’t feel that way at all. As a matter of fact, it made me appreciate it more. Knowing where the side-lighting guy sits and that he eats chips throughout the show was something I thought was very “human” and endearing about the production, and sure enough, when we caught the show that afternoon I looked up and saw him sitting there with his trusty bag of chips. It made me feel like I was part of an inside secret known only to a few members of the audience.

Needless to say, the show was excellent, but even more than that, I was so happy to have been able to go on the tour. For those of you who love the show as much as I do, I highly recommend it. Even if you have already seen the play, you can still go on the tour the next time you are in New York. Fair warning though, it will make you want to watch again!