From the walk in the front door of the Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee to the greetings at the staircase by the Executive Director and her counterpart (who had on a spectacular green dress), I felt like I had gone in the right direction to leave a snow-covered neighborhood and venture toward a musical OZ! I was correct. The quick entry allowing patrons to enter from the cold, the check of cellphones, purses, body scans was accomplished with a minimum of effort and the Tennessee Theatre smacked me in the face with the beauty of the lobby and the smell of freshly popped corn. Upstairs, while the doors to the theatre weren't ready to be opened, the ushers made the attendees feel as if they had been waiting all night for them to appear, so they could show them to their seats and hand out a program. In at 7:00 on the dot with the performance beginning at exactly 7:30 and after a wonderful warm-up by the orchestra, we were off! The performance never let me down. The singers were ALL performers and in full voice with such clarity to their diction, I felt as if they were sitting or standing right beside or in front of me rather than my being in Row HH12 at the top in the balcony. Full kudos to the sound production people, staging personnel, costuming which only added to the excellence of the main characters in WICKED. After exactly 10 minutes, the orchestra began again. This is my eighth time to see WICKED - this production, crew, and cast rival all I have seen in the past. Thank you for not cancelling my evening's performance even though there was eight inches of snow in my yard, the roads were narrowed to one lane in spots and I held my breath as I drove off the interstate onto ramps that were slippery, snowy and unplowed. It was worth every moment to this music teacher!