Thanks LVA! The $25 Wicked tickets were front row.

So there I was in the front row, with nothing between me and Glenda – except the orchestra pit and maybe 16 musicians. She seemed to enjoy it too.

For those who don’t recall, a few weeks ago, this site front-paged a special offer for those who wanted to see Wicked at the beautiful Smith Center. Namely, show up 2-2 ½ hours early, and enter a contest to be eligible to pay $25 for orchestra seats. It turns out they do this with ten pairs of front row seats for all ten performances every week. Ordinarily these seats are in the $150-ish range. If you're going to be in town, the show closes in about a month, and it’s a great show with really great music. I saw it previously in New York, and this production was comparable to the original on Broadway. My wife liked it better.

Based on the number of entrants, my friends and I won the drawing at 500% of the predicted EV, and we even ended up turning down the right to buy some tickets. All entry forms were folded twice, but maybe our success had something to do with the way we all folded our entries. I’d sure like to think so.

Nice! Wicked is my favorite play.

Well done!

Now is this more like it around here.

Wow! thats close enough to get peed on by a flying monkey.
Good score.

Not quite. But I was close enough to notice a few interesting things:

1. The orchestra had about 16 musicians, consisting of a full brass and rhythm sections, no strings at all, and four keyboard players. And each musician had a small video monitor above the score displaying the conductor.
2. The women in the show had their wireless mics attached to the top of their foreheads. Looked like a big mole at first, and took some getting use to.
3. Glenda was hot.

I had third row center seats a few nights later for former Go-Go...and Playboy model - Belinda Carlisle, but due to a scheduling conflict I had to give them up. Can't win them all.