Tapping to Wicked

I’m sorry I’m a day late! To be honest, Monday and Tuesday were pretty much written off with pain and sleep, and yesterday (Wednesday i.e. blog day!) my sister, Nicola, and I went to see the West End show Wicked and by the time we got home, I was in enough pain to warrant a dinner and bed!

Wicked!

Wicked, the hit West End/Broadway show is mesmerising and about to go on a tour. The storyline hones in on the unlikely friendship between the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, and Glinda the Good from the epic Wizard of OZ books/films. 

Speaking of unlikely friendships, our trip to see the show largely came from my own one. You see our day out was planned by TAP Events who organise matinee outings to big shows in London. TAP is owned and run by Martin and Karen.

I've known Karen for 16 years, and the reason our friendship is an unusual one, is that Karen is my ex-boyfriends Mum. My ex and I split up 12 years ago and yet Karen and I remained friends. Some think it's a tad odd but Karen is one of my closest friends who I love, respect and enjoy spending time with, however unlikely our friendship is!

Anyway...

Getting to London is a sore subject with me. I adore our capital and city of my birth, but getting around in a wheelchair is difficult in such a historic and busy place. The excellent thing about Tap Events is that being a Southend local company, they collect patrons at pick up points all around town and they're happy to take wheelchairs! 

I was treating my sister to the show, as her Birthday present, as I've seen the show before. The coach dropped us right outside the theatre but we had a couple of hours to explore, get lunch and shop. 

At 2:30, we were greeted at the theatre doors by Kara, Victoria Apollo's, assistances coordinator, who explained where we were seated, where the disabled loo's were, and then took us in via platform lifts to our dress circle seats, where we had an amazing view of the whole stage.

The show is no less incredible than the first time I saw it. In fact, Wicked get better each time, I think I was so enthralled the first time that I didn't fully take it in. The music, the voices, the costumes and set design were all mesmerising, I adore the way Wicked plot weaves effortlessly into the well known OZ tales and I found myself getting a tad emotional in parts because it is such a beautiful, emotive funny show. 

Luckily, since this was Nicola's Birthday gift, she loved the show, which by the way was her first foray into the West End, and said that she has caught the theatre bug. When I asked her what she thought of the show she simply said Wicked... what more can you say?

Nicola and I

After the show, the lovely Kara came and escorted us through the theatre back outside into the chilly February night, where our coach was waiting for us and although by this point I was exhausted and in agony,  we were both on the wonderful high show's like Wicked put you on. 

A huge thanks to Martin and Karen at Tap Events, I cannot recommend their service enough, they look after you every step of the trip, competitive prices for the shows are standard and you don't have to faff around on the trains and tubes. You do have to be able to take a few steps on and off the coach but every one helps to you and let you take your time (and boy do I take my time). I'll be using their services a lot in the future.

Go see Wicked!

Until next Wednesday,
L xxx