San Francisco's Wicked Homecoming

Narrowly escaping death by bus, we find a parking garage spot, pack up the stroller and follow the giant, black "Wicked" balloons to Union Square. Upon arriving at the bubble filled city square, we were treated to cookies frosted in pink for Glinda, the good witch of Oz, and green for Elphaba, the green witch of Oz. As Glinda says, "Pink goes good with green." Of course, Gio was happy to get some treats right off the bat.

After realizing the lead characters wouldn't be performing for two hours, we decide it would be better to check out the festivities, rather than go galloping around downtown San Francisco. Turns out this was a great decision, as there were plenty of Wicked goodies to stand in line for, including sunscreen, tatoos, pins, bubbles, chap stick and water.

First, we got in the tee shirt/hat line. Basically, they were giving away black "Wicked" tee shirts and baseball caps, to anyone who could correctly answer "Wicked" trivia questions. Contestants were allowed to work together as a team, and I turned out to be the expert of my team. Big surprise.


When all the caps and tee shirts had been given away, the line magically transformed into the book/CD line. "Wicked," the novel by Gregory Maguire, and "Wicked the Musical" soundtrack, became the goodies. Yes, I got in line twice and came home with a hat, a book, and a CD.



Gio chose the next line, Wicked Makeovers, aka face painting, that would have made Glinda the Good proud. This was the longest line. After waiting 15 minutes and asking the people behind us to, "please save our spots," we left. By the time Gio reminded me to go back saying, "I want my face painted," our place holders were gone.

The funny thing about standing in line is, the line doesn't seem to move until I get out of the line. And then the line moves quickly. Yesterday, Dan accurately diagnosed me as having "line attention deficit disorder." Every time I got in one line, another line always seemed to be pulling me in a different direction.

Anyways, after some mild begging we got our place back in line, which at this point, was the very front. Randy, the makeup artist, gave Gio green Ozian eyebrows, and all he could say was, "I didn't get my face painted."

"Yes, your eyebrows are green and really big," I say reminding him, thinking he must have forgotten since he can't see his eyes.


"Those are my eyes, not my face," he says reminding me of the inherent truth. Structurally, I believe anatomists consider the eyes as part of the face. However, I didn't want to bring this up with him because, one, he doesn't care what anatomists think and, two, I don't want him accusing me of splitting hairs.

Randy The MakeUp Artist Guy, gave me an awesome witch's broom on my right arm, which turns out to be the side I always hold Gio on and the way I like to turn when driving my car. Anyways, by the time we came home, my witch's broom, looked more like a bruise and less like a broom, according to my Mom.


Other lines we didn't get in were Wicked karaoke; although, I considered signing up for this, since the prize was tickets to the show. But I didn't want to subject the crowd to my singing. Besides, everyone who did participate actually could sing. Everyone in the Wicked Makeover line agreed the little girl was the best; however, I have no idea who won.



There was also a costume contest, and, of course, I have no idea who won that either. My vote was for Elphaba, not pictured.


Some of the hoopla included city officials proclaiming Wicked Day (tba) throughout all of San Francisco, and a producer sharing some inspiring words on his journey along Wicked's Emerald Green Road. Afterwards, the two lead characters came on stage to sing songs from the Broadway musical, Wicked.

Emily Rozek as Glinda left, Cassie Levy as Elphaba.

While I have to say they weren't Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, original Broadway leads, they did a fine job of bringing the characters Glinda and Elphaba to life, capturing the essence of both. And when they sang, "For Good," the song in the musical when the two witches realize they may never see each other again, they had chemistry and a strong connection that brought tears to my eyes.

Up until that song, I wasn't sure if I was returning to San Francisco for the musicale's return in January 2009, but at that moment I realized the characters of Glinda and Elphaba have a spirit of their own that will enchant any actress playing them.