Wicked + "Genie" Weekend Roundup, 5th ed.
First and foremost, I saw Wicked again this weekend. My brother hadn't seen it and after having forced the books on him (although the book and the musical were practically separate entities), he wanted to see it when it hit San Diego again. I'd never seen anything in the Civic Theater before. Its balcony's 45 degree grade gave me momentary vertigo but I wasn't blocked by anyone in front of me because of it! I do think the mics needed to be turned up; the orchestra nearly drowned out the singers at points. It wasn't like the experience in LA where the music hit you hard and loud. =/ I know all the songs, so it wasn't a problem for me, but I think people who were seeing and hearing it for the first time might've had trouble understanding the words. =(
Our Glinda (Katie Rose Clarke) was so over-the-top in Act I, especially the "Popular" scene, that I wasn't quite buying it (she also had this Southern twang that kept emerging), but she made up for that in Act II. She couldn't hit that amazing note Chenoweth set in "No One Mourns the Wicked" but that didn't detract from the show she gave us. She made me all teary ("For Good"! ;_;--actually, I was kind of sad watching the opening number because the second time around you understand what place, mentally and emotionally, Glinda is in). =D Speaking of the opening, I always liked how Kristin Chenoweth would do that thing where she "reaches" for Elphaba as we take a trip down memory lane. Our Elphaba (Donna Vivino) didn't do the mocking delivery of "wonderful!" in the catfight, which made me kind of sad. There were some line deliveries that came out a lot differently than when I had last seen it and the way Vivino timed the words to "No Good Deed" was interesting. Again, the mics needed to be blasted up so that I could've fully enjoyed the angsting out. Our Boq (Ben Liebert) was so cute in his introduction with his nervous mannerisms before Galinda.
I think Clarke carried a lot of the emotional weight of the Glinda-Elphaba relationship in Act II. Her emotional ups and downs on stage, even from all the way up in the nosebleed balcony, could be seen so clearly as she worked through her illusions, a broken heart, and her way to understanding her place and the decisions made around her and the ones that she had to make. I often wonder who gets more spotlight in Wicked, Elphaba or Glinda. Who's journey is it that we're watching?
I tried to pay more attention to the ensemble this time but, really, the costuming is so spot-on to take your attention to the main cast. I love how sparkly Glinda is under the lights in Act II. And "For Good"! Gets me every time. I heard the sniffles and saw the person in front of me wiping away tears, which was kind of funny to me because after Act I, she said she was confused, "When and how does the Wicked Witch become wicked?" LOL.
Seeing it again made me realize that a) there's a lot of mangling of the English language, far more than I remembered, and b) it's sad to watch it knowing where it all leads. Go read ainsleyaisling's amazing musicalverse fanfic to cheer yourself up!
Just a note to theater-goers: Please don't open your cell phones during the show. The sudden light from the screens is distracting. RAWR!
I actually streamed Music Core and Inkigayo live this weekend 'cause people were throwing out links in SSF's shout box and I was still up. I half-watched most of the time but it was interesting listening to all the songs for the first time. I can't believe there were no commercial breaks! The streams weren't very good quality, though, so prot and SmoothyEco are still the answer.
This is definitely not everything that aired this weekend. The radio show that SooYoung and YuRi appeared on was cute: they tried to teach the hosts "Genie" and "Juliette" and were prank called by SHINee's Jonghyun, lol! I haven't watched everything here closely or more than once, which would have been the day they aired, but I'll comment on what I did notice.
"Song Battle" aired earlier this week, 07-30-09. Jessica, YuRi, SooYoung, Sunny, and SeoHyun appeared. Their cuts were pretty amazing and fun. Parts 1, 2, 3. KARA got some free (old) promotion, as two of their songs were used.
Sketchbook 07-31-09:
→ "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)"
→ Interview - LOL, the random hyper dude. I want to note, too, that Hyo's necklace says "Sexy." I sincerely hope that that was a gift from someone because LOLOLOLOLOLOL.
→ "Etude"
→ "Gee"
-- Sketchbook was all about fanservice!
The show that Sunny hosts, The M, features individual cameras for every member during "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)"!
Music Bank 07-31-09:
→ "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)" -- camou outfits. Random old pictures of some members popped up. Sounds like YuRi giggled at some point in the chorus, lol. Hyo's hair seriousy flying around unbound. I can see Hyo happily snapping away behind Taeng @2:29. Sunny and Hyo dorkily give a belated salute.
→ Ending Cut -- Winner: 2NE1. HyoYeon-Nicole hug!
Music Core 08-01-09 (lol, the boat stage!):
→ Special Stage: "In Summer" -- Sunny, HyoYeon, SooYoung, SeoHyun, YuRi, YoonA. Hyo messes up the choreo. Good job, Hyo! Apparently short overalls are in, as I keep seeing everyone in Korea wearing them on and off stage.
→ Special Stage: Jessica & ONew - "1 Year Later" -- Jessica looked so amazing here. I'm not a big fan of this song, but they sounded good although ONew cracked at one point and people are saying Jessica lip-synched her high note.
→ "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)" -- I think of these as the "Chocolate" outfit, lol. Everyone has blinged out pesonalized mics. Damn, I'm loving the sweep of Hyo's bangs here and how they went flying during her solo.
→ YuRi & Tiffany MC cuts -- I usually don't include these because I don't watch them but since I saw the stream, I actually heard them MCing, lol. "Put the heat do~~~wn!" LOL
Inkigayo 08-02-09 (Summer Dance Special):
→ Special Stage: "3! 4!" -- I suspect Hyo messed up the choreography here somewhere, too. Hyo, what is up? Except for SooYoung's leggings, I like everyone's outfits here. They look ready to hit up the town for some casual shopping spree or drop by a club to just dance (rather than pick someone up). TaeYeon is sporting some odangos, lol. Jessica looks like a little kid with pigtails, lol.
→ "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)" -- red sailor outfit w/red shorts. Braided bangs, NO! Fany sporting extensions. Who is that I'm hearing so clearly in the chorus? YuRi? Tiffany?
→ Ending Cut -- Winner: 2NE1 (third and final win). KARA Generation! SeoHyun and Nicole! I'm so surprised to see SeoHyun calling over Nicole and then coaxing over Hara. Was she doing the "Genie" come-hither hand movement? LOL
Open Concert:
→ "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)" -- brown army outfits w/skirts. Whoa, moving stage. ARGH, braided bang and middle parts, NO! LOL, the tongue of Hyo's belt isn't tucked in. The placement of the lyrics covers the girls in the wide shots. LOL, fail! Whoa, Hyo pulled out her old solo! Unexpected.
→ "Gee" -- What the heck was that sound during SooYoung's part/the YoonHyo high-five? Wow, I can better see the effect of this choreo with a really big stage and a wide camera shot.
→ "Every Night" w/In Suni(?) -- this looks like a lot of fun. You get down and boogie, Hyo! Some JeTi? Some YoonSun holding hands. =D What a cute ending.
General comments:
-- Much, much livelier their performances overall than they were last weekend. Yay!
-- Braided bangs are still a no-no! NO! Add middle parts to the list of hair-don'ts!
-- Hyo stopped "popping" into the hands-on-hips move quite a while ago. I think it's interesting that she's made the decision to keep the choreography uniform, but doesn't surprise me at all since she says that choreography is what she monitors.
-- 2NE1's "I Don't Care" should have either been never remixed or remixed better.
-- Hyo, what is up with all the goofed up choreo? Not enough time to practice? She needs to get tips from SooYoung who absorbs choreography super quickly (and, according to her, forgets it super quickly, lol). And you're not going to change up any of that choreo again, are you?
-- Hyo stopped popping and SooYoung started popping and never stopped, lol!
-- Cameramen actually giving Hyo some love?
-- So many special stages! When do these girls rest?
-- Watched Inkigayo with a stream that had a chatbox. Hyo-bashing made me sad. It wasn't really bashing just . . . it makes me sad to see people thinking that replacing her would garner SNSD more popularity (not that they aren't insanely popular as it is).
-- KARA Generation! For some reason seeing the two groups being friends gives is WAFFy. It's even more noticeable now that the stage is crowded with girl girls. I guess 2nd Gen K-pop girl groups are sticking together.
-- ZOMG, why so many links?!
BONUS GIF:
HUGGLES! (Who is the tall, white-hatted lady who seems to reach out and pat HyoYeon on the back? Lot of Hyo-lovin' going on here.)
Our Glinda (Katie Rose Clarke) was so over-the-top in Act I, especially the "Popular" scene, that I wasn't quite buying it (she also had this Southern twang that kept emerging), but she made up for that in Act II. She couldn't hit that amazing note Chenoweth set in "No One Mourns the Wicked" but that didn't detract from the show she gave us. She made me all teary ("For Good"! ;_;--actually, I was kind of sad watching the opening number because the second time around you understand what place, mentally and emotionally, Glinda is in). =D Speaking of the opening, I always liked how Kristin Chenoweth would do that thing where she "reaches" for Elphaba as we take a trip down memory lane. Our Elphaba (Donna Vivino) didn't do the mocking delivery of "wonderful!" in the catfight, which made me kind of sad. There were some line deliveries that came out a lot differently than when I had last seen it and the way Vivino timed the words to "No Good Deed" was interesting. Again, the mics needed to be blasted up so that I could've fully enjoyed the angsting out. Our Boq (Ben Liebert) was so cute in his introduction with his nervous mannerisms before Galinda.
I think Clarke carried a lot of the emotional weight of the Glinda-Elphaba relationship in Act II. Her emotional ups and downs on stage, even from all the way up in the nosebleed balcony, could be seen so clearly as she worked through her illusions, a broken heart, and her way to understanding her place and the decisions made around her and the ones that she had to make. I often wonder who gets more spotlight in Wicked, Elphaba or Glinda. Who's journey is it that we're watching?
I tried to pay more attention to the ensemble this time but, really, the costuming is so spot-on to take your attention to the main cast. I love how sparkly Glinda is under the lights in Act II. And "For Good"! Gets me every time. I heard the sniffles and saw the person in front of me wiping away tears, which was kind of funny to me because after Act I, she said she was confused, "When and how does the Wicked Witch become wicked?" LOL.
Seeing it again made me realize that a) there's a lot of mangling of the English language, far more than I remembered, and b) it's sad to watch it knowing where it all leads. Go read ainsleyaisling's amazing musicalverse fanfic to cheer yourself up!
Just a note to theater-goers: Please don't open your cell phones during the show. The sudden light from the screens is distracting. RAWR!
I actually streamed Music Core and Inkigayo live this weekend 'cause people were throwing out links in SSF's shout box and I was still up. I half-watched most of the time but it was interesting listening to all the songs for the first time. I can't believe there were no commercial breaks! The streams weren't very good quality, though, so prot and SmoothyEco are still the answer.
This is definitely not everything that aired this weekend. The radio show that SooYoung and YuRi appeared on was cute: they tried to teach the hosts "Genie" and "Juliette" and were prank called by SHINee's Jonghyun, lol! I haven't watched everything here closely or more than once, which would have been the day they aired, but I'll comment on what I did notice.
"Song Battle" aired earlier this week, 07-30-09. Jessica, YuRi, SooYoung, Sunny, and SeoHyun appeared. Their cuts were pretty amazing and fun. Parts 1, 2, 3. KARA got some free (old) promotion, as two of their songs were used.
Sketchbook 07-31-09:
→ "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)"
→ Interview - LOL, the random hyper dude. I want to note, too, that Hyo's necklace says "Sexy." I sincerely hope that that was a gift from someone because LOLOLOLOLOLOL.
→ "Etude"
→ "Gee"
-- Sketchbook was all about fanservice!
The show that Sunny hosts, The M, features individual cameras for every member during "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)"!
Music Bank 07-31-09:
→ "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)" -- camou outfits. Random old pictures of some members popped up. Sounds like YuRi giggled at some point in the chorus, lol. Hyo's hair seriousy flying around unbound. I can see Hyo happily snapping away behind Taeng @2:29. Sunny and Hyo dorkily give a belated salute.
→ Ending Cut -- Winner: 2NE1. HyoYeon-Nicole hug!
Music Core 08-01-09 (lol, the boat stage!):
→ Special Stage: "In Summer" -- Sunny, HyoYeon, SooYoung, SeoHyun, YuRi, YoonA. Hyo messes up the choreo. Good job, Hyo! Apparently short overalls are in, as I keep seeing everyone in Korea wearing them on and off stage.
→ Special Stage: Jessica & ONew - "1 Year Later" -- Jessica looked so amazing here. I'm not a big fan of this song, but they sounded good although ONew cracked at one point and people are saying Jessica lip-synched her high note.
→ "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)" -- I think of these as the "Chocolate" outfit, lol. Everyone has blinged out pesonalized mics. Damn, I'm loving the sweep of Hyo's bangs here and how they went flying during her solo.
→ YuRi & Tiffany MC cuts -- I usually don't include these because I don't watch them but since I saw the stream, I actually heard them MCing, lol. "Put the heat do~~~wn!" LOL
Inkigayo 08-02-09 (Summer Dance Special):
→ Special Stage: "3! 4!" -- I suspect Hyo messed up the choreography here somewhere, too. Hyo, what is up? Except for SooYoung's leggings, I like everyone's outfits here. They look ready to hit up the town for some casual shopping spree or drop by a club to just dance (rather than pick someone up). TaeYeon is sporting some odangos, lol. Jessica looks like a little kid with pigtails, lol.
→ "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)" -- red sailor outfit w/red shorts. Braided bangs, NO! Fany sporting extensions. Who is that I'm hearing so clearly in the chorus? YuRi? Tiffany?
→ Ending Cut -- Winner: 2NE1 (third and final win). KARA Generation! SeoHyun and Nicole! I'm so surprised to see SeoHyun calling over Nicole and then coaxing over Hara. Was she doing the "Genie" come-hither hand movement? LOL
Open Concert:
→ "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)" -- brown army outfits w/skirts. Whoa, moving stage. ARGH, braided bang and middle parts, NO! LOL, the tongue of Hyo's belt isn't tucked in. The placement of the lyrics covers the girls in the wide shots. LOL, fail! Whoa, Hyo pulled out her old solo! Unexpected.
→ "Gee" -- What the heck was that sound during SooYoung's part/the YoonHyo high-five? Wow, I can better see the effect of this choreo with a really big stage and a wide camera shot.
→ "Every Night" w/In Suni(?) -- this looks like a lot of fun. You get down and boogie, Hyo! Some JeTi? Some YoonSun holding hands. =D What a cute ending.
General comments:
-- Much, much livelier their performances overall than they were last weekend. Yay!
-- Braided bangs are still a no-no! NO! Add middle parts to the list of hair-don'ts!
-- Hyo stopped "popping" into the hands-on-hips move quite a while ago. I think it's interesting that she's made the decision to keep the choreography uniform, but doesn't surprise me at all since she says that choreography is what she monitors.
-- 2NE1's "I Don't Care" should have either been never remixed or remixed better.
-- Hyo, what is up with all the goofed up choreo? Not enough time to practice? She needs to get tips from SooYoung who absorbs choreography super quickly (and, according to her, forgets it super quickly, lol). And you're not going to change up any of that choreo again, are you?
-- Hyo stopped popping and SooYoung started popping and never stopped, lol!
-- Cameramen actually giving Hyo some love?
-- So many special stages! When do these girls rest?
-- Watched Inkigayo with a stream that had a chatbox. Hyo-bashing made me sad. It wasn't really bashing just . . . it makes me sad to see people thinking that replacing her would garner SNSD more popularity (not that they aren't insanely popular as it is).
-- KARA Generation! For some reason seeing the two groups being friends gives is WAFFy. It's even more noticeable now that the stage is crowded with girl girls. I guess 2nd Gen K-pop girl groups are sticking together.
-- ZOMG, why so many links?!
BONUS GIF:
HUGGLES! (Who is the tall, white-hatted lady who seems to reach out and pat HyoYeon on the back? Lot of Hyo-lovin' going on here.)