Right.
Today I'm going to review... Happy Feet... naw I'm kidding.. Sorry I'm in an odd mood.
IDINA'S LASTTT!!!
Duh.
Where should I begin? I think maybe I should rewind first to Friday. I got to the theater at about 11 (I think?) and hung out with Melissa for a while. Then, in all my wisdom, I decided I was going to camp. Not for tickets, just for the sake of camping. At this point I thought all the tickets were taken and there was no point in me asking... but I was wrong. There were about 4 left and I asked Debra if I could join the list and she said yes. Cue me DYING. I was thinking 'OH MY HELL I'M GOING TO BE IN FRONT ROW' and I was! Front row, seat 15.
And I was seeing the show that day, huge thanks to
karuna_dreamer. At that point, it was going to be my last time seeing Idina from the stalls, until of course I decided to get front row for her last. Anyway, we found out Helen and Adam weren't going to be on. I was actually pretty happy about this. I mean I LOVE Helen and I love seeing her up-close, but this was a 1 in a lifetime oppertunity - the one and only time Idina, Annalene AND Oliver were on. And plus with my new found love for Annalene (you'll hear more about this lol) I decided I really did NEED to see her. And I'm not a huge Adam fan, and I'd heard Oliver was good so I thought what the heck, this is gonna be awesome.
I was not disappointed.
Annalene = AWESOME.
I'm sorry but I've officially been converted. Some of her lines were delivered a little badly, but on a whole she was amazing. Popular was AWESOME. Seriously. I love Helen's, but Annalene's was better. A lot more hyper, a lot more Hilty-fied and just generally better. It also reminded me of Kendra in parts, and we all know how I adore her. The Thank Goodness wig is HORRIBLE though. It looks like that girl's hair from Star Wars (I'm half asleep so I don't remember her name lmao) until Annalene turns to the side and then it looks pretty :). And I really quite like how Annalene performs that song. Also she's a lotttt shorter than Oliver so it's cute when they kiss or w.e.
I was pissed cos I left the Q&A only to find out afterward that Idina was there. Fuck.
Friday night was amazing. At stage door, I, in all my wisdom decided it'd be a good idea to dance around in my sleeping bag even though it was pouring with rain. Some guy who works at the theater was like 'you're crazy. your sleeping bag is gonna be drenched' GEE Y'THINK?! Martin and Katie came over and Martin said goodnight to us campers and told us to hold on cos it was only 1 night more, and Katie waved. Yes, she was nice to us *dies of shock*. Helen told us not to get too wet, but it was a little late for that because it was pouring with rain and I was already soaked. But she waved at us from her car, bless her! And Philippa Stefani called us all nutters. Anyway, in my sleeping bag, I bounced up to the gap they'd made for Idina to get to her car and I waited for her to make her way down to us. She did, and she saw me in my sleeping bag and gave me an odd look *sigh*. I officially embarrassed myself in front of her AGAIN.
Um the night was alright... I was sleeping on the bottom steps. I was fine with that because I came last so I deserved the crappest place. Debra, though, did not deserve to be stuck there. She should have had the best place to sleep, she was there the longest!! I was very disapointed with some of the campers because of that. Anyway, Oliver decided to come and wake us up at 2am (most of us weren't sleeping.. I was half-drifting off) and he had a good laugh at us and took pictures *sigh*. I found it hilarious that a whole bunch of people turned up at like 7 thinking that they'd be able to still get day seats *snigger*. The man from Ozmopolitan took pictures of us queuing at about half 9, to which we turned around and did jazz hands :D Then we finally got our tickets and were able to go home and shower!! I was home for about an hour and then returned to the station to meet up with Liz, Hayley and Helen. Katie RJ walked past us but only I noticed.
I will skip what happened between then and the show cos I'm sure none of you are interested in us sitting in their hotel room watching The Muppets Wizard of Oz lmao.
The show. God, before it even started I was half in tears. Seriously. I sat down in my seat and I just stared. I was so close as well. I literally stood up and touched the stage just to see if this was really all happening (I'm lame). Oh that was BEFORE the show started obviously lmao. The music started and my heart sank. I knew this was the last time ever and it hit me hard. The monkeys dancing about is usually a lot longer to me. I'm usually sat there thinking 'HURRY UP AND BRING ON HELEN!' but last night it was gone in an instant. The confetti flew down for the start of NOMTW (I stole a piece :D) and within what seemed like seconds, Helen was coming down in her bubble. The crowd went mad and I was VERY happy!! She needed that applause, she really did.
I'm not going to do it song by song cos some songs just went straight over my head if you know what I mean. But I have *NEVER* heard a crowd go as mad as they did when Idina came on. I thought she'd never get to speak. The end of every song was like that, seriously. Idina practically lost it before she'd even started singing, she looked so upset.
DTL was fun :D Basically, when Galinda and Boq are talking, Katie is sat right in front of where I was. So, being the weirdo I am, I decided I'd try and catch Katie's eye. Before she opened her book she looked out and I KNOW she saw me, cos I smiled and she looked away as if to think 'okay I dont want to be distracted by weirdos smiling at me'. Then every time she looked up from her book, I smiled again, bigger, and she'd immediately look back down again. It was actually pretty funny. Odd thing to note, but Nicky (sp?) had some problems with her dress lmao - it got tucked into her tights at one point lmao.
Popular was brilliant of course. Helen put everything into it, you could tell. When it got to the wand bit, which is like the most famous bit of course, firstly she did the whole 'up up up' thing with an extra tap on Idina's butt when she was already standing, which made Idina giggle for an instant, and then with the 'is this on?' she did something extra (I haven't a clue what but it was funny).
OSD was beautiful but very sad at the same time... and I know that's lame. Before the song, when they're at the train station, it was HILARIOUS. When Helen says the 'we all will' line she said it so sadly :( And then the classic moment of the night. After Idina said the 'I've heard' line, we all went mad with cheering and clapping, and then Adam got so lost in us all clapping that he forgot his lines. He gave us this look like 'umm' and I really thought I was going to have to yell his lines at him. And Helen had her head resting on his shoulder and she just stared at us, being a complete professional, but Idina cracked up. It was so awesome. And then in OSD, Helen's 'two best friends' line went on longer than it should have. The 'beeeeeeeeessssssttttt' was like never-ending and she had to cram friends in there, and she had this little sheepish smile on her face afterward.
I admit I cried at DG. Dry tears though. I think like one tear rolled off my cheek, but the rest was just me sobbing like a loser lmao. I was sat there thinking 'this is the last time she'll ever fly' and it just made me want to cry a lot. I know that's lame but I don't care :P Anyway, it was amazing. Her riffs weren't really in your face, but they were definitely there. And it was just so powerful.
Interval we went on a hunt for flyers (I'll show you what I mean later) which was uh... fun?
Thank Goodness was good... nothing special. I wasn't paying any attention until she did the 'crosseeddd' and I sort of snapped awake lmao. It's my fave song so I clapped the hell out of it, and screamed at Helen because HELLO she's amazing. Some of Pippa Higgs' costume fell on me lmao. Lots of feathers come out of that feather thing she wears *nod*. The same goes for WWOTE. I don't remember much about that, except that I now realize that when Boq turns into tinman it is in fact Jye!! Why am I so slow lmao?
The cornfield scene had me in tears because I kept thinking 'omg this is my Galinda and Elphie and I'm never going to see them again' and it just made me really upset. As we have already established, I am a freak. Ummm *tries to remember if anything else awesome happened*. Meh. NGD it is then... This song started and aproximately as soon it did, I felt a rumble in my bag and realized my phone wasn't switched off. So I put my hand inside to turn it off and what happened? A fucking usher came and took it. I wasn't too angry about the fact it was being taken because it didn't have any pics on it (apart from one from a few weeks ago or something) it was more the fact I knew I'd have to go get it after the show! But NGD itself was HAMAZING. Idina riffed and she riffed it GOOOOD. I was blown away by how amazing it was. I can't explain riffs so I'm not going to try lmao.
For Good was HORRIBLE. Idina managed to just about speak her lines, but the moment Helen started singing they were both in floods of tears. It was somewhat ruined by the people behind me screaming 'you can do it Helen' about 3 times (sorry if that was any of you lmao) but still. I cried a lot. Before Helen had even finished the first line I had tears streaming down my cheeks, and so did she. By the end, when they hugged, she had green smudges on her face and Idina's make-up seemed to have come off a little in parts (even though it's not supposed to). Elphaba's dying scene, Helen didn't need to act at all. She was a mess anyway. And she was stood right in front of me so I just wanted to hug her. The Finale, she got into her bubble, and she just broke down into a mess of tears and she was shaking so hard I thought she was going to fall out of the bubble. But they both managed to end the show, and SOMEHOW Helen even did her speech without many teary pauses!!
I really hope someone has her speech on video because it was just so amazing. It was funny, it was sweet, it was just SO Helen. The perfect way to end everything. She couldn't get through more than a sentence without our cheering stopping her lmao ('does anyone have a cigarette, we could be here a while' teehee). And everyone was stood there in this huge crowd surrounding the stage (I was right up close to the stage *squee*) and omg the applause at the end, you have never heard anything like it, I promise you.
'And on a more personal level, you'll be with me, like a handprint on my heart' *insert cheesey little grin here* Oh Helen, how I love you :P (Sorry if that's not word perfect BTW, surprisingly I can't remember it all!!)
SD was crazy. I went out there and I thought 'shit this crowd is big' and then I had to go collect my phone and when I got back it was even worse! Thank God for Lisa, Debra, Liz etc. who 'saved' a space (Okay I just pushed past some people to get next to them lmao) but I still didn't get to talk to Idina and certainly didn't have a picture (7 of the campers did apparently... damn them). I got a tiny video of her. It's 57 seconds long or something, but she's only in it for about 20 lmao. I also got the chance to yell at Oliver for waking us up ;)
Then MJ disappeared and I found her talking to Adam rofl. She asked him if he liked Pokemon, which is this long running joke we've had since September lmao. And he was all 'It's okay but I prefer Manga' rofl. I was so happy she moved to there though because it was this huge space and I got to talk to Adam (and have a picture finally), have a picture with Katie (who was again in a good mood... who else thinks she's been abducted by aliens?) and have a picture and convo with Helen!!!!!! I was SO happy. I had a picture with her, and then MJ did and then my brother did too and I was like 'Thank you so much. You were amazing tonight' and she gave me a genuine smile and said thank you (not one of those 'moving onto the next person so I don't know what you said but I'll smile anyway' kind of smiles, a proper one) and I said that she held it together really well and she smiled and I said that her speech was beautiful and she said something like 'Not too long?' or something lmao. Then she was gone.
Had a few pictures with random people (Campers and non campers) and jumped in on Caroline's group picture (then introduced myself to her lmao). Said goodbye to some people who I seriously think I may never see again. And then it was off home for me. We got into the station and I couldn't stop crying. It was actually kinda embarassing.
Then I got into bed and started to cry again. I really do need help lmao.
Sorry that went on for so long! And it should probably have a lj-cut but I can't be bothered. Time for pictures me thinks:
27th December [pre-show]
With Annalene :D (Me, Annalene, Shar and her brother... and this random old man who scares me).
We told Annalene about the site I have for her, and she signed my Wicked song book (also said that my name is weird, which is rude considering what her name is!) anddd I gave her a Christmas card hehe.
Melissa (
karuna_dreamer), MJ, me and Shar :D
30th December [camping!!]
My bedroom for Friday night!! It doesn't look as crazy as it was because a lot of people had woken up and grabbed food or whatever and this is only a tiny bit of the stairs. I was sleeping where that white plastic bag is (using it as a pillow). Petra is the one in the blue sleeping bag fast asleep and (hopefully she won't kill me for showing this pic) Debra is the one who looks kind of dead lmao (sorry!!) wrapped in a brown blanket. Melissa is the one wide-awake and grinning at the camera. She slept better than everyone else because Idina blew her a kiss goodnight :P
The amazing view from my bed ;) That is also the queue of people who thought turning up at 5 was going to get them a ticket haha. I should have taken pics of the idiots who thought turning up at 10 was acceptable too rofl.
30th December [after Idina Menzel's last EVER show... as Elphaba... probably lol]
Don't judge how I look in these pictures. I couldn't be bothered to sort red-eye. I look a mess because I had been crying so much and I hadn't slept properly and it was such a busy day. And I got drenched earlier in the day, so yeah I look awful.
Me with Adam Garcia. Awful picture because my camera takes soo long to take a picture that he thought it was taken already but meh whatever.
Me with Katie, who was being very sweet. And I love her mocking all the people clapping during Helen's speech haha.
Quite probably one of the worst pictures of me... but taduh I'm with Helen!! She had so many people wanting pics and she was in a bit of a rush so it's not the greatest one of her either... but her hair looked so pretty (and soft ;))
Some of the campers. Not many of them.. only about 5 people here actually camped lmao. There's me, (looking rather dead too) and I camped for only 1 night... next to me (pink coat) is Gillian... she camped... ish. And she offered me her sleeping bag about 20 times lmao. Then Bella... everyone knows Bella lol (I don't think I've even been introduced to her before and I still know her) and huge apologies to the people next to her cos I don't know who they are or if they camped lmao. Down the front, looking very drunk with her arms out is Debra and to her left (in front of me) is Lisa ;) Standing leaning over Debra is Caroline (I have no idea how Lisa knows her because I only met her for all of 5 seconds). MJ (my best mate for those who still don't know haha) is stood next to me :) There are about 3 of these on my computer, all slightly different and in each one we look slightly more idiotic haha.
There are Idina pictures to come but they're on my brother's camera so we'll have to wait til tomorrow to see those :( I do have a video though... Idina's only in the very end, but you will hear me cursing someone's programme and just generally complaining ;)
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=44qwd8x And here's my ticket (ignore the fact it's on my programme):
That isn't just random crap with it, that's confetti from NOMTW and a twig from the set which fell off and I stole from the stage ;)
A little fold out booklet thing with the cast on it. We had to find this at the interval (huge thanks to Debra for a.) telling me about it and b.) helping me find it!) and they're only given out last night and on press night ;)
Other campers have better pictures than me (including some that Oliver took lmao) because I was only there one night and didn't want to waste my battery :)
I can't believe it's all over and I'll probably never see her ever again. I know I sound so lame, but so much of the past 4 months of my life have been dedicated to going to see her that it's like I don't know what to do now lmao.
I'm sure you flist is going to be glad of the break from 'OMG IDINA THIS' and 'OMG IDINA THAT' though haha ;)
PS: public so I can post it at WOO ;)