The Gershwin Theater, 222 W 51st St, New York, NY 10019. John Watson had the address memorized by heart now, though he hardly needed it; all he had to do was step into a taxi that morning and say 'Gershwin Theater', and the cabbie had him there in no time. Still, his dream was coming true and John was determined to commit every single detail to heart.

He stood outside the building, looking up at the marquee in stunned silence. Wicked. It was all happening so fast. One moment he had been entering Uni as a theater major, the next moment, he had gotten the call to report here at 3PM on a Monday to run the sound board for his dream musical. Tightening the strap on his messenger bag, John went in through a side door and found himself standing in the seam shop amid the rush of the final stages of set designing and building. People were everywhere, moving set pieces, painting things, using power tools; it was a loud, messy sight to walk into for his first time working on Broadway. "Excuse me?" John tapped a scene painter on the shoulder. "I'm looking for Brandi? The Stage Manager?"

"She's over there." The painter pointed to a brunette woman giving orders to a group of people who were building what appeared to be a statue.

John weaved his way through the maze of power tools and construction and waited for Brandi to stop answering the question of the statue builders before saying, "Hi! I'm John Watson."

"Ah, yes! Our lead sound technician! I'm the Stage Manager, Brandi." They shook hands, then, looking at her watch, she said, "You're really early, John."

"Yeah, I was so excited to get started that I just kind of showed up early."

Brandi smiled. "First time in the big leagues?" John nodded. "Well, I'll put you to work." She laughed. "That's an interesting accent, by the way. Where are you from?"

"London, actually. Born and raised."

"Awesome! Our male lead is from London, too."

"Really?"

"Yes. You'll meet him tomorrow, though, when all the actors come in for the first mic'd stage rehearsal. C'mon. I'll show you around."

Brandi took him on a short tour of the theater, showing him the costume shop and dressing rooms, as well as the prop room and other aspects of Gershwin, before ending at the sound board. "And here is where you will be spending all of your time over the next several months."

"It's beautiful." John set his bag down and ran his hands lightly over the sound board. The lights and knobs and switches glittered like new, but somehow felt familiar under John's capable hands.

Brandi laughed a little. "I'll leave you two to get acquainted. Your sound team should be here soon and you all can get started prepping for the actors and getting to know the system. By the end of today, you should have labels on mics and a list of any sound repairs that need to be made. There shouldn't be any, but you never know. As of tomorrow, we only have one month until opening night. Tomorrow is when the madness will begin." And with that, Brandi left him alone to play with the sound board.

For the next half hour, John pressed buttons on the pre-programmed portion of the board, making a list in his notebook of which sounds correlated with which buttons for future reference. When he had gotten that list done and was about to move on to sound checking the mics, his crew showed up. James, Kelly, and Jessica didn't seem like much at first glance, but John knew from the first few minutes of talking to them that it was going to be a good show.

"Can you believe we're actually here?" Jessica, his 'second in command' asked while Kelly and Nick were on stage saying 'check one, two, three' into the pimple mics.

John smiled teasingly. "Why are you so sure this is my first time in a Broadway theater?"

"Because I read your bio." Jessica smiled back. "It's impressive, all the work you've done for the bigger university theaters in London and Paris. Why New York, now? Why not West End?"

"My mum took me to see The Music Man in this very theater when I was about ten years old. We sat right over there." He pointed to the right side balcony. "I fell in love with Theater here, and it's always been a dream of mine to someday work for a production here. I still can't believe I nailed a job here. And Wicked of all musicals!"

"I know right!" Jessica giggled. "It's all so exciting."

"It's unreal. However, I feel like it's going to get very real, very fast once we get actors tomorrow." John laughed. "But for now, I'm going to enjoy an empty theater and this gorgeous sound board."

"London, though." Jessica whistled through her teeth and adjusted the levels on the board of the mic Kelly was currently testing. "I've always wanted to go there."

"When you grow up there, it's not as impressive as is it if you visit. I heard the actor for Fiyero is from London, though."

"I heard that, too. I also heard he's an ice king. I mean, this is only his first role on Broadway, so you know he's good, and I guess some of the other male cast members don't like him so much. That'd make me cold, too, I guess. But my friend Gabrielle is the choreographer and she said he was a little odd to begin with, so maybe that's just who he is."

"Well, I'm the mic-er for the leads, so if he is as 'cold' as everyone says, I already know I'm going to get yelled at a lot." John rolled his eyes.

"Stars always forget that techies can completely throw their performance off, though. So, if he's a dick, just turn his mic off during a dramatic part."

John laughed. "And we get to blame those on technology, too. Stars don't get blame mistakes on robots." Jessica smiled, still fiddling with the board. "But, I guess we'll find out tomorrow who this 'Fiyero' guy is and whether or not I'll be shutting his mics off."