Theatrics in Washington

It's very hard for shows to live up to the enormous expectations that are built up around them. "Wicked" at the Kennedy Center was very well acted, and beautifully staged. I loved the premise of the show--the "backstory" of the Wizard of Oz, explaining the genesis of almost all the characters. The characters could have been stereotypes or caricatures, but the acting was too good and the script too clever to allow for that. Unfortunately, the sound was so poor where we were sitting in the first tier that although we could see everything, we couldn't make out much of what the characters were saying and very little of what they sang. I felt terrible for dragging my parents out to a disappointing evening. Worse, the organizer of the evening who obtained the hard-to-get tickets (and gave us great seats) felt the disappointment personally, as if he were in charge of the sound system! Not true, but that's not something that can be explained. It has to be felt. Feelings are easily hurt and it's hard to undo the damage afterwards. Funny, but the intense feelings of the characters in the show were mirrored by many of us in the audience: "How could you do this to me?" "Why is the world so unjust?"

I still feel it was a memorable evening, and what we did manage to hear intelligibly we loved.
The idea of the show is very ambitious--how do people become Wicked? What does "Wicked" mean anyway? Does anyone who opposes the current powers that be qualify as Wicked? That's an important question to ask nowadays. When there's an enemy, does anyone who refuses to fight qualify as wicked? The show will stay with me--particularly the acting and the music. For the rest, I'll buy the book and read the clever lines and lyrics that we missed, due to a wicked--or perhaps just an old and failing--sound system.