The Best Weekend Ever (or close to it) Part 1

I don’t live for the weekends. I was never one of those people who felt the need to let loose all of their bottled up stress from the week and let it loose for two days. Having fun on the weekend was important but be rested and relaxed was also just as important. Going back to work on a Monday jus as exhausted as you were on Friday is about as much fun a day full of deskwarming in a air conditioner-less room. Bonus points for misery if you were still hung over Monday morning.

Just like a day at work, there is also no guarantee that every weekend would be a perfect weekend. Sometimes things would go wrong, plans would fizzle out and changes would have to be made. This was a common occurrence in my life. It never bothered me, but was something that I was simply aware of and flexible to. I never hyped myself up for a perfect weekend, because I always knew there was simply no such thing.

This past weekend came awfully close to be perfect. It wasn’t a full weekend, nor was it anything too terribly exciting but, the amount of fun I had and the people I spent it with will probably last for a long time. Just thinking about it puts a huge smile on my face.

The week leading up to the weekend was an absolute disaster, a swirling mass of chaos that enveloped my school for the entire week and caught all of the teachers and students in its trap. Missing tests, missing grades, confused students and frustrated teachers made for a generally unpleasant environment to be in. 

Every day seemed to get slightly worse. I’m sure the super hot teacher’s office didn’t help matters. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Do the Right Thing” you will have a close idea. Just replace the themes of racism with missing papers, and you’re half way there.

I was excited and practically jumping at the opportunity to leave the school. A weekend break sounded like the perfect thing to clear my mind. In truth though, this weekend had been planed many weeks before. This was the weekend I was going to watch Wicked.

I was never a person who avidly watched musicals. I had no distaste towards them; in fact a majority of my middle school years was spent with musicals, whether acting in them or working behind the scenes. Where I lived, the number of musicals that were available to see was severely limited. Even community productions were in short supply as the community theater in my town only held a handful of productions a year.

I lived close to Chicago where a large variety of musicals would end up. One of the most noticeable ones was Wicked, based on the novel by Gregory Maguire. In it, the story of the Land of Oz from the Wizard of Oz and the origins of iconic characters such as The Wicked Witch and the Good Witch are explained. It was a musical I had always heard of but never actually made my way to see it. My sister and brothers saw it.  A majority of my friends saw it, but I never did. I always assumed that I would see it one day when the opportunity developed.

When I found out that Wicked would be coming to Seoul, I jumped at the opportunity. Eventually I made plans to see Wicked in Seoul along with two close friends living in Korea.  Tired, sweaty from the humidity and itching to leave my small town behind for the weekend, I boarded my train after school and began the ride towards Seoul and an evening at the theater.

I arrived at Seoul about an hour early, making sure that I had enough time to meet up with my friends and make my way to the theater. After meeting up we excitedly claimed out tickets and found our seats. The seats were on the third floor with a bird’s eye view overlooking the stage. At first I was worried a seat so far away from the stage would hamper my enjoyment, but it actually was a good view. The stage, despite being small, was loaded with large props and details that were able to be made out from even far away. The musical was in English, with the cast from the New York production performing. For all the Koreans in the audience, subtitles were on the side of the stages so they could follow along. 

I don’t claim to be a reliable or reputable source on musicals, but watching Wicked was one of the most enjoyable and engaging entertainment experiences in my life. Wicked had great music, excellent performances from all of the actors and a story that gave backgrounds on characters and the world of Oz without ruining the reputation of the original Wizard of Oz. I would even go as far to say that if you were going to make it a prequel, borrow a page from Wicked. It was that good. 

I remember feeling such a vivid flux of emotions and during the course of the musical, not necessarily from sadness or happiness, but through the delivery of the songs and the nuance from each character. It was so well done it inspired a raw emotive response that I rarely if ever feel from any entertainment medium. Like I said, I may be wrong; this may be a fairly mediocre to bad musical from a connoisseur’s perspective, but what I do know for sure is that I enjoyed it to death and would take an opportunity to watch it again in a heartbeat. Hopefully one day, I will. 

A good musical seen with good friends. A night I will never forget.