I went to my first yoga class this morning. I’ve needed it — I’ve needed to relax, and I’ve needed to get more in touch with my body.
I was the only male in the room. The instructor and the other 9 attendees were all female.
I contorted my body into unfamiliar, difficult poses. I became aware of muscles I didn’t even know I had. The instructor would walk around the room, and she kept having to adjust my body because I was getting many of the poses wrong. She’d say to the class, soothingly, “Now go back into the blah blah position,” and I’d forgotten what position that was, so she’d come by again and readjust my body. But this was all okay.
At one point she told me that I’m pretty flexible for a guy. (Ahem.)
“What do you do?” she said.
“I’m a lawyer,” I said.
“I mean, what do you do physically?”
Oh.
“Nothing, really,” I said.
The class ended with each of us lying on our backs with bolster pillows underneath us. Calming meditation music played on a stereo. One by one, the instructor placed a blanket over each of us.
It was heaven. I’m definitely going back.
Then in the afternoon I saw “Wicked,” which I’d been looking forward to for a while. And it was terrific. A little long, and it gets a bit amorphous in Act II, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can’t wait to buy the cast album when it comes out. I’ve loved Idina Menzel and her voice ever since I first listened to “Rent,” and Kristen Chenoweth — well, she’s Broadway gold. I couldn’t stop thinking of Elle Woods while watching her, though.
And I smiled a big smile, of course, when the Tin Man appeared.
I’m curious if you read the novel “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire. I found the musical enjoyable but I was terribly conflicted about the changes they made from the book, which I loved. They skipped big sections of the book and left out a lot of plot. Not that this is surprising; they must cut to keep the musical a reasonable length. I’m just not convinced they cut the right parts. And I think the changes they made cheapened the story. One thing I liked about the novel was there was very little overlap with events from the movie version of the Wizard of Oz. The witches’ story stood on it’s own quite well without all the movie tie-ins. Perhaps they added the movie elements to reach the surprise twist at the end. In any case, I really enjoyed the show but had extremely mixed emotions about all the changes made to the source material.
I actually haven’t read the book, but I want to. I guess if I’d read it before seeing the musical, I’d be aware of the changes and I might be troubled by them. I’ve heard that Glinda has a bigger role in the musical because that’s what Kristen Chenoweth wanted. At any rate, adaptation is a difficult process, from what I hear.
I read the book after seeing the musical, too, and it was fairly disorienting. I think you’ll enjoy them both, Jeff, but as variations on a theme, which is what Maguire’s all about, anyway – I recommend his other books, too. (Hmm, past time for me to run out and pick up “Mirror, Mirror.”)
I”ve read the bokk and obsessivley listened to the soundtrack, but haven’t seen the play. The music, in my opinion, is just incrediable, and Idina Menzel’s talent’s are unmatched. With the apparent changes made from the book, however, someone in my situation is left with no idea what happens in the gaps between songs. (If anyone has any information where I can find a great song-by-song summary, please email me!) Until then, I’ll have to find someway to get to NYC.