I love musicals.

You can blame my mom for that one, she got me "Meet Me in St. Louis" with Judy Garland from the library once to watch and I wore that tape out, getting it every chance I could. In fact, when I got old enough to drive and had my own library card, I rented it, kept it, and paid the cost for never returning it! And so I fell in love with Judy Garland, and eventually "The Wizard of Oz" even though I had to shut my eyes anytime that mean old witch or those crazy flying monkeys came across the screen.

So about a year ago when I found out "Wicked" was coming through town with a traveling Broadway cast, I was determined to go see it. I waited 'til tickets went on sale, bought 3^rd row seats months in advance, and was able to see with a couple of friends this past weekend. And man was it AMAZING! (By the way - the flying monkeys are even creepier in person!)

The story is of Elphaba (who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (who becomes Glinda the Good Witch) and what happened in Oz before Dorothy and Toto dropped in.

Here's a clip of one of the fun songs from the play. Galinda decides to make Elphaba her project and give her a makeover, thus making Elphaba more popular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY2_HAAoqqA

The scene also has one of my favorite lines. Galinda attempts to turn Elphaba's outfit into a ballgown, and fails (she's still learning her craft, after all!), to which Galinda concludes that Elphaba should "Just wear the frock - it's pretty!"

The premise of Wicked is that we've all assumed something to be true when it isn't.that the green lady in the pointy hat was actually wicked, when instead she was just often misunderstood. In fact, there really wasn't anything wicked about her at all.

I have gotten pretty good at the art of assuming - at any time, in any circumstance, I jump to conclusions without knowing the whole story first. In fact, I just did it a few days ago - I got upset over a situation that was quickly resolved when I learned the truth. I assume people's motives, and I even assume their responses in conversations that have yet to come to pass!

I've looked a couple times, and I can't find "Love always assumes" in 1 Corinthians 13. Nope, definitely not in there. What is in there is that love is patient, it's not proud or rude, it's not easily angered, it always trusts, and it always hopes. That's quite a bit different then what assuming brings out in me, and I definitely want to be known for my love, and not for my assuming.

And I'm pretty sure love would have seen Elphaba as a beautiful girl, who happened to have green skin, rather than an ugly, old, wicked witch.

Emily

Labels: Emily