Simply Wicked

Who would have thought that the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch were at one time best friends?  As the promotional poster for the musical Wicked teases us, "So Much Happened Before Dorothy Dropped In."  If you've been privileged enough to enjoy a performance of this blockbuster Broadway musical, you will fully understand why I nearly had a conniption fit when I heard it was going to be coming to my local venue, The Overture Center in Madison, WI.  Thanks to the generosity of my in-laws, I was fortunate enough to see this show in Chicago a couple years back and I was blown away. 

Still have no clue why I would be so jazzed to see a show about a couple of witches?  Take a moment to watch this trailer and then come on back.  Go ahead.  I'll wait.



You dig my jive now?  Rocking show, trust me.  Anywho, Wicked is coming to Madison and I could think of very little I would rather do on a date night with the hubs than to go see it.  However, just as our green-skinned friend was never meant to be homecoming queen or wear sparkly red magic shoes, it was not in the stars that I should be able to enjoy her story once more.

Thanks to the efforts of a bunch of scalpers who swooped in on the early large group ticket sales window, the prices of tickets for Wicked have soared through the roof, as if they were defying gravity (ha ha ha!!!).  The Overture Center made tickets available for large groups early on, so these people bought up a bunch of tickets at lower prices and now are selling them on StubHub and eBay at astronomical rates.  Tickets for the rest of us became available on Saturday and the only ones even remotely in my price range were so far back it would be like watching the show from a hot air balloon (I can just keep going with The Wizard of Oz references!).  But, if I were to try an alternative ticket source, I would end up paying even more!!

For example, according to an article in The Wisconsin State Journal, "A recent search on eBay turned up tickets in the orchestra section for a Friday night show on Oct. 8 — priced by Overture at $86 — selling for up to $288 per ticket including tax and shipping."

OUCH.

Thanks to the scalpers, this Broadway Baby will be staying home.  To read the rest of the article, click here.  If you're fortunate enough to go see this show, enjoy it for me.  But, come on Overture Center.  There must be something you can do to avoid this in the future! It's simply wicked.