In 2004 I visited New York City with my daughters. It was a couple of years after the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Centre and you could still sense the disruption and destruction it had caused. Being theatre fans, we visited the half-price ticket booth in Times Square. We were amazed to discover that we could have tickets for the hottest musical in town for that very evening. The musical was Wicked which had opened there the previous year. My daughters sat downstairs but I sat alone in the middle of the second row of the circle.
I loved the music and story. I’ve always been a fan of the composer Stephen Schwartz right back to the days of Godspell and Pippin. The excitement of the audience was powerful even before the curtain went up but nothing prepared me for the end of Act One when Idina Menzel suddenly rose to belt out Defying Gravity. It seemed that a huge surge of singing, colour and movement threw itself at us the audience. It seemed to pass through me as a force of energy and then suddenly it was gone, the lights went up for the interval and I just sat there shocked. It’s not often in the theatre that you experience such a thing, the only time I had felt it before was in a preview performance for the original Les Mis.
So, when I heard that the show was to open in the West End in 2006 I made sure I saw a preview. Like a lot of people, I enjoy the story and can’t get the music out of my head. I love the fight between the forces of good and those not-so-good.
So recently I just had to go and see the film. It was long, at 2 hours and 40 minutes the first instalment was longer than the whole stage production. The stars were great, especially Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and there were some spectacular dance numbers. And yet I missed something. I think it was spoilt a bit for me because we watched a TV programme the night before with many clips from the film so I saw in advance many of the best moments and knew what was coming.
But there’s something about live theatre, about being at the event, about sharing it with the performers. I don’t think that powerful blast of feeling I felt on Broadway could ever be reproduced on film. I think it has to do with being part of an audience and knowing it is live.
Although I did have such a moment when I saw Jaws and the whole audience at one point jumped in their seats.
Wicked is still a great film and I’m sure I’ll watch part two when it comes out next year at this time but for me, the stage performance has a stronger grasp on my feelings and will live longer in my head.
