Cynthia goes home

I knew nothing about Wicked before I saw the movie last year – and I went with the best possible person, the most theatre kid in my life, Duana. For many of us, loving something means wanting to share the thing that you love with people you love. For a theatre kid, multiply that by a thousand. A theatre kid loves nothing more than to push what she loves onto you, LOL. Duana, I think, spent just as much time watching me watching Wicked as she spent watching Wicked herself. And she was delighted by my delight. I LOVED THE MOVIE, like properly evangelised by it. 

But I remember saying to Duana coming out of the theatre, singing the last part of “Defying Gravity” at the top of my lungs, LOL, “That was the best song, what are they going to do in the second movie when the signature song has already been done?” And she said back to me, smugly (and theatre kid smuggy is a peculiar kind of ego – there’s always a deep breath that precedes the “well, actually”), that I’d yet to hear her favourite song from Wicked, with the full confidence that it would eventually become mine: “For Good”. 

I was this morning years old when I heard “For Good” for the first time. And I’ll never regret how – not performed by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande but by a group of students at Cynthia’s old school, before they were surprised by Cynthia’s visit. Now it’s my turn to share with Duana, someone I love, something I love. My text was basically… I AM SOBBING!

 

It’s the joy of the students to be in the company of a star, but even more than that, it’s that they truly feel seen by her, that is what makes the moment so special – in the exchange of emotion between them and Cynthia; not only are they moved by her arrival, she is moved by them. And then the way she centers them, hears them, appreciates their performance. Afterwards she encourages them in the pursuit of their goals, the most personal of interactions. She is gentle but direct, SO stately but also approachable. Then she starts singing and, like, can you imagine what this experience must have been like for these students?!

Cynthia was in London last night for the GQ Men of the Year party wearing an incredible coat. This is from Louise Trotter’s unbelievable first collection at Bottega Veneta, and one of the standout features in several of the pieces was this recycled fibreglass “fur” that came in several colours, with the effect that the colours look different in different light. Here’s what the coat looked like on the runway. 

And it looks like that in some of the pap shots of Cynthia outside the venue. But on the carpet, it turns blue-green. 

Jason Bolden shared some finer detail shots of Cynthia’s look on Instagram where you can really appreciate the texture. At times it looks soft, furry, and feathery. Flip to the next slide and there’s an almost plastic effect. Fibreglass! Come on! Honestly, the style feast these two have been serving is unreal.