No One Mourns The Wicked

Chapter 25

The theatre was massive. The entirety of Storybrooke Elementary, High and the college could fit inside. It would take up an entire block of Regina's small town.

They stood in line outside the box office, hoping to get some tickets, but it soon became clear that they were turning people away.

"We could try scalpers," Robin said, but one look at the price and he thought again "I didn't think it would be so hard to get in," he muttered. It was just a play!

He sighed and set Morrighan a text, saying they had made it to the city but could not get tickets.

She replied almost instantly, attaching two tickets. Comps, she messaged, should have told me you were coming.

Grinning at each other, they went to the entrance. The usher scanned Robin's phone, telling him they had third-row orchestra tickets and instructing them what hallways and stairwells to take to end up on the right level.

"Are those good?" Regina asked.

"The best," the usher replied.

Everything was magnificent; the decorations, the merchandise stands. The fancy ornamental seats excited teenagers were posing in while their parents took a picture. It was not some school play; it was an event. In New York City. The stage itself was just as grant, with a large looming dragon animatronic above them. They were so close to the stage.

Regina took a look behind her to see balconies full of people moving around and talking, suddenly feeling small. She was the queen of Storybrooke, and here, she was just another face in a sea of people. People who just kept coming and coming, filling in on either side of them until it seemed like there was not a single seat left in the entire house.

Probably because there was not. It was sold out.

"Welcome to tonight's performance of Wicked!" A deep male voice said over the intercom. "For this performance, the role of the Galinda Upland will be played by Morrighan Westen..." and he droned on, listing off the names of covers that were not on the playbill or the small slip they had been provided with. "Please silence your phone, unwrap your candies, and turn off all small, annoying devices. Enjoy the show."

The applause rumbled the theatre. Morrighan had not been kidding. Regina shivered as the music started and men dressed as a monkey came on the stage. She yelped when the dragon above them moved, smoke billowing from its nostrils.

As the cast moved around and danced to the opening numbers, Regina kept her eyes fixed on the wings, waiting for her niece to enter.

"Look, it's Glinda!" someone shouted, and Regina waited for an entrance that did not come.

"It's good to see me isn't' it?" she heard her niece say. Where- oh.

Oh my. She was above them in a mechanical circle, bubbles flying from it in a glittering sea of colours.

The crowd cheered again, long, making Morrighan look a bit uncomfortable as it kept going.

"Ozians," she muttered quietly. "Ozians, Ozians," she said loudly, putting her hands up. "No need to respond, that was rhetorical." The music recommenced and she went into a monologue about the witch being dead as the song the villagers had been signing before recommended.

But Regina was confused, except for when she sang her line, Morrighan seemed... sad. Was something wrong? Regina could not figure how that was acting, since the wicked witch was dead.

"Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?" Glinda asked the munchkins, and Regina felt herself getting drawn in as the scene progressed to a flashback.

"Glinda, was it true you were her friend?" That line brought Regina back out.

"Well, um, ja," Morrighan said, her accent showing through. "Well, it depends on what you mean by 'friend'. I did know her. That is, our paths did cross... at school. But you must understand, it was a long time ago and we were both very young."

The music changed and a green woman ran on stage, holding a suitcase and looking hopeful while the audience applause again. She was looking out at the audience while Glinda looked at her mournfully, then ran off the stage.

After that, Regina found herself lost in the story. She applauded after The Wizard and I. Even more so after popular, where Morrighan had mucked the lyrics up the beginning, singing the first few bars in the wrong language. But after that mess-up, something came over her and Regina was hard-pressed to see her niece in the face before her. Whatever it was that clicked as the line "I'll teach you the proper ploys/When you talk to boys" was sung, Morrighan's struggle was gone and she bounced around the stage, loud and confident, fully embodying a hyper college student.

Regina blinked as the house lights rose during intermission, trying to process what she had just seen. Her hands were red and raw from applause, and her brain empty trying to sort the events in order.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom," Robin said.

"Be quick," Regina said, kissing his cheek.

"That was amazing," Robin said, grinning ear to ear. "I was not expecting that."

"Me neither," Regina replied, and robin left.

She looked around her. The girl, maybe fourteen, was talking to her mom, words flying a mile a minute. "I was so worried about the Glinda actress mom," the girl started. "I saw online, they like flew her in from somewhere and she got like an hour of rehearsals and like she was struggling in front of three thousand people then she stopped and she's so talented. I want to play Glinda one day." Regina listened as the girl went on, talking about how much she loved Glinda's character. "She's good, but she not nice," the girl continued. "And so many people don't see that. And it's like Into the Woods when the witch has that song about good and nice not being the same thing..." and she did not stop talking.

Regina tried to think about what she had seen, formulate some semblance of an opinion. But all she saw was black and white still. It felt like watching a propaganda piece, not a fictional story to be analyzed.

An announcement was made that intermission might be closer to half-hour due to a costume malfunction.

Regina took her phone out and sent a message to her niece. No reply, not even the mark that she had seen it, so Regina checked her social media. There was nothing but a silent video of her being raised into the bubble that had been posted around five minutes before the curtain rose. She was probably busy. And she was working, Regina reminded herself. She would have been mad had Morrighan replied to her while she was supposed to be working at the pawnshop, so the same rules should apply here.

Robin returned and they talked quietly amongst each other.

"It's interesting how they use the same music over and over again," Robin said, "And repeat some lines.

Regina nodded along. "I guess that's good writing."

Eventually, the house went dark again, and the stage was lit.

When the curtain call started, people were standing as Nessarose and Boq (or was it Mock? Regina had thought she had heard a few people say it differently) ran on and did their bows. When the cast parted down the middle, the cheering amped up even before the clock opened and Glinda and Elphaba ran out, arm in arm and grinning, and they both took their bows together, then in turn, then hugged before bowing with the full cast. Morrighan was blowing kisses and waving as they walked back in unison until the curtain fell.

It was over, that was it. Some music played over the house speakers and people filled out.

Changed for the better, changed for good rattled around in Regina's head. That song had made her weep.