Upon watching 'Wicked'

Watched the musical 'Wicked'. Had gone brainwashed with sky-high expectations and spectacular reviews. Wicked matched every expectation, except for those that it surpassed. When Elphaba soars up the stage with her transformation complete as the Wicked Witch of the West...there was magic then. When Glinda comments frothily about the Emerald Island: "It's so Ozmopolitan", there was magic there. The choreography, the music, the message of that musical...it was all magic, magic, magic! There's this proximity to brilliance within touching distance that a stage show brings that a movie - with all its 3-D effects and whatever else - will never compare with. When you watch something great on stage, you know that it hasn't been 'managed' or 'edited' or 'crafted'. You know that it has been brought forth that moment only for you. As an audience of a good film, I feel happy. As an audience of a good stage show, though, I feel privileged. As for Wicked...it was most certainly an honour.