Sydney Fashion Hunter: A Wicked Night Out With Mum

What do you do at 9pm on Xmas eve when you don't have a present to put under the tree for your Mum? Online shopping of course! But it couldn't just be any kind of online shopping it had to be something instant which narrowed the options considerably. So basically because I am such a slack arse in the gift buying department (yes arse not ass I am Australian after all!), I found myself on a very special date last night with my Mum at the Capitol Theatre. Read on for all the details ...

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By now you'll know how much I love a bargain and the best way to get a bargain dinner is with a voucher deal. I love All The Deals because it simplifies the hunting process by summarising the offers all in one place. I was already online anyway getting the Theatre tickets so I figured I may as well go all the way and thrown in dinner. Let me just say, my Mother is the fussiest eater on the planet and she definitely does not like any of that "funny stuff", by which she means basically anything that isn't meat and three veg. And with no sauce thank you very much! This makes eating out with her an epic challenge so I made sure I perused all the menus very carefully to check there would be at least one thing on the menu that she would eat. With this in mind I opted for a voucher for The Canopy. I'm pretty sure it was $55 for a two course meal (any main + any entree or dessert) for two people and a glass of house wine each. Pretty damn good value I reckon. We both had the scotch fillet and mash for main. Mine was a little overdone. I ordered it medium well and there was no light pink centre as I would normally expect but given it was melt in the mouth tender and the pepper sauce was so lovely smothering the mash I forgave them. For dessert I chose the Orange and Macadamia creme Brulee while Mum opted for the Vanilla Cheesecake. She was slightly freaked out by the maple glazed banana, salted caramel sauce and candied peanuts it was served with but I convinced her she could scrape it off if need be. She didn't look convinced but went with it anyway. She seemed to enjoy it and ate all the accompaniments despite her protestations, My Brulee didn't "crack" as much as I would have liked and was cold in the middle but I simply didn't have time to return it as we had to get to the theatre. The biscotti was delish though :) The staff were polite, efficient and very attentive and overall we had a pleasant dining experience. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the mains I was starving and forget to take them lol.

On to the show! I have seen Wicked before (with The Co-Conspirator in 2009) so I knew what to expect but Mum was a Wicked virgin. Covering the back story of the Witches of Oz, Glinda the Good and of course The Wicked Witch of The West, Wicked is a international sensation and has played non stop on Broadway since 2003. The Australian version stars Jemma Rix (Elphaba), Lucy Durack (Glinda), Reg Livermore (Oz) and Maggie Kirkpatrick (Madame Morrible). The cast takes you on a wonderful journey to Oz long before the cyclone that bought Dorothy and Toto to town. The story has many twists and turns while weaving in some subtle (and some not so subtle!) references to the movie, including each of Dorothy's cohorts, The Scarecrow, The Tin Man and The Cowardly Lion. No show would be complete without a love story and Wicked delivers one in spades when the witches find themselves both in love with the same man. Well I'm not going to give at all away, you'll just have to see it yourself to find out what happens!

The musical score is exceptional and without a doubt the headline song of the show is Defying Gravity. Ever since I walked out of the show I have been singing or humming it unconsciously. This has not gone down well with Mr SFH who keeps telling me to quit it! If you have haven't been lucky enough to hear Rix and Durack belt it out I suggest you do yourself a favour and have a listen here. Amazing! And maybe they do it just slightly better than me lol.