After one of us showed up an hour late and missed the beginning of the play over the summer, we were thrilled to come back to find that the first show of the FUSA Broadway Series would be “Wicked.” After paying a friend to wait in line for tickets while we went to class, we were two of 90 lucky Fairfield students that got to see “Wicked” last Thursday night.
“Wicked” is based on the book with the same title by Gregory Maguire and tells the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and how she became “wicked.”
The story begins with Elphaba, a green witch starting school at Shiz University, and follows her relationship with good witch Glinda until Elphaba is melted by an ignorant Dorothy.
The play is full of powerful musical numbers such as “Defying Gravity,” “No Good Deed” and “For Good” Within a few minutes, the audience is mesmerized by the voices of Shoshana Bean as Elphaba and Megan Hilty as Glinda.
Almost as good as the music is an energetic cast that adds great comedic scenes and plenty of “Wizard of Oz” references, including one describing a delicious punch as being full of “lemons and melons and pears, oh my!”
An added perk to the night was that the role of Madame Morrible, a professor who acts as Elphaba’s mentor, was played by Rue McClanahan, formerly Blanche of “The Golden Girls.”
FUSA’s Broadway Series allows students to purchase tickets to popular plays and provides transportation to the theatre for only $30. This year students are also allowed to use their Stagbucks to buy tickets, making it very convenient.
“It was amazing and completely worth the wait. It was a great kickoff to the Broadway series,” said FUSA President Jess DiBuono, who was one of the students who waited several hours for tickets.
According to DiBuono, Caitlin Conway, the executive director of Programming, decided to buy twice the number of tickets normally ordered for a show in the Broadway Series because she predicted an overwhelming turnout when tickets went on sale. As expected, students began showing up at 9 a.m. for the 2 p.m. ticket sale and many students still left the campus center without tickets.
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