Hiya!
I met Idina when she was appearing in Wicked in London.
My friend Bella and I were totally obsessed with Wicked and Idina at the time (we still are) and we used to go and see it alot. Consequentially we befriended Martin Ball who played Dr Dillamond. He invited us for a backstage tour after we had seen the matinee performance of the show.
He showed us around the dressing rooms and then to the Green Room where lo and behold there sat Idina. She hadn’t been on for the matinee as she had been poorly. He introduced us to her and she apologised for not being on in the afternoon! We told her that wasn’t a problem as we were seeing the evening performance too and we hoped she felt better.
I told her about my being picked to sing at Wicked Day in London and that I had my lucky mascot Chistery ( a flying monkey toy) and that I’d like her to have it for her dressing room. She told me I was so sweet and asked if I was sure I wanted to give away my lucky mascot. I told her I hoped it would bring her luck- not that she needed it.
She was so sweet and stayed chatting to us for about 10 minutes even though she was feeling poorly. She had to leave to go and warm up before the evening’s performance and hoped we’d enjoy the show.
Such a lovely person, I still admire her :)