So I promised my "Amy" I would take her to see Wicked as her birthday/Christmas gift. Well ticket prices are a billion dollars, so it was time to get crafty. TicketZoom, eBay, Craigslist, you name it, I tried it. Every deal I found, someone would beat me to it! I almost felt defeated, when a seller mentioned the Wicked ticket lottery held daily. Say what?!
I never thought "Amy" would go for it, but she did! We would both enter our names and double our chances! We found great parking by the Capitol Records building, joked about the random stars on Vine and Yucca (i.e. Tina Turner), and made our way to the Pantages Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. We arrived not knowing how this would play out, and convinced we were going to win...
I failed to mention the actual prize. Thirteen lucky names will be called for the opportunity of a lifetime. If you win the lottery, you get up to two front row seats for $25! That is like $225 off! Totally worth the chance.
Anywhoodles, we get in a semi-long line and they started passing out the rules. Most of you know I barely read, so I skimmed over the half sheet. We have so many side conversations, and start talking to our neighbors, but realize our conversations were safer as just the two of us. I let "Amy" know that I am Elphaba - duh, and she is Galinda, with a "gaa." And I think I burst into song a time or two! We are in our casual clothes so we are good either way, but there were people dressed up - like girls in gowns! What if you do not win?!
Finally, we are just a few feet away from the table to fill out the lottery tickets. They are rushing people along to get through the line. The house manager yells out, "Fill out your name and how many tickets. Do not write down your email address. Cash only." Okay, we are ready! We approach the table, and they hand my friend a slip. She quickly begins to fill it out. I wait for them to hand me one, and my friend is almost done with hers. I get a slip and start filling it out, and was pressed to add my email just because they said don't. I told you I am immature! And I did it in like seven seconds!
As I'm speed filling out my slip, "Amy" says she wrote my name down on her slip. We both laugh and brush it off. It's no big deal, right? The more we think about it, the more we begin to worry. I opened the rules back up, and BOOM at the bottom, "no duplicates...tickets will be cancelled!" [Insert dramatic organ DUNH DUNH DUNH]
"Amy" is anxious, I'm pretending to be unbothered. She is urging that we say something immediately so we don't get in trouble because we are definitely going to win because of the controversy. We toggle with the notion for a while, and finally decide we will say something when our name is called...
As each name is called, we know the next one will be my name...okay the next one...the next one...then this lady wins - let's call her Aretha. Aretha hollars, with her Popeye's chicken bag and drink in hand! She only asked for one, but offered a ticket to someone if they were a single. Crickets from the crowd. On to the next one...and the next one...and we are now down to two names.
They call the first one. No response. The crowd screams his name. "Going once, going twice, gone." The crowd roars with cheer - two more chances to win! A new name is called..."Ho Chin?" And Ho Chin responds! The supportive audience applauds his victory parade, all the way to the ticket counter. Time for the last name. Drum roll. Crazy anticipation creeps down my spine...who is it...it wasn't my name. The crowd quickly exits the foyer in all directions. We stand there, devastated, but not defeated. We are then advised to go to the ticket counter in case there are extra seats for $45 - cool! Then the house manager announces, we only have single seats available. We finally walk away.
Seems like a sad end to the story, but we were in great spirits from the adventure and excitement to try it all over again! With all the green magic out of focus, we realized we were hungry. We set off on a new adventure down Vine to Sunset, and mozy into a little NY'esque bar, the Bowery. Yum! Fade to black.
