July 15, 2009 - "Grease" is the word!

That's right! I know you're dying to hear (and see) about it so I won't bore you with the mundane details of my day up to this point...

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Mom, Sue, and I had a nice drive up to Philadelphia from Elkton. One thing, though, completely threw me off. I kept seeing these long lines of traffic in the turn lanes. All of a sudden I see a car facing the wrong direction at the beginning of a turn lane; it was facing me. I almost slammed on my breaks. Then I saw that no one was in any of the cars. These people actually PARK in the middle of the freakin' streets! What the hell?! Sue said, "That's South Philly for you!" Talk about bass-ackwards! Where I come from, that would get you a huge ticket and your car towed.

Anyway, we parked in the garage Sue directed us toward, walked to the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts where Sue showed us the backstage door so that we could wait for her after the show, and then we walked down the block to have dinner at Applebee's. It's not my favorite place to eat, but there was nothing else around that was affordable and semi-quick. We only had an hour before we needed to be back at the Kimmel Center for the show.

Sue told us about a wonderful restaurant across the street. A Chocolate Restaurant! Mom said she didn't need it and I am not a big chocolate eater, so we passed on that one. I had to laugh at the sign and Mom asked me to get a picture for Ben. "Chocolate by the Bald Man" it fits him!

We made it back to the theatre just in time for the doors to open. Sue had told us to look for the head usher, Frank. As luck would have it, Frank was the one who opened the doors right in front of us. He took us to another usher and asked her to tell the ushers in the area around our seats that I had my tea for medical reasons (food and drinks are not allowed).

And then we arrived at our seats. Oh My Gosh! We need to get seats from Sue more often! They were awesome! They were just above the seats on the theatre floor so nothing obstructed our view.

The cast was amazing and it was very interesting to hear new songs and see the differences between the movie and the stage production. I loved it! The part of Sandy was done by the understudy and I thought she was wonderful. I would have thought she was the lead actress.

I have to admit that during the show, I spent alot of time watching the sign language interpreters. There were three of them: one for Sandy's part, one for Danny's part, and one for the chorus. The interpreters for Danny's and Sandy's parts did the male and female parts when others were on stage. Sandy's interpreter showed such emotion in her face! Her expressions were exaggerated so as to be visible from a distance and I couldn't help but laugh at some of them. I thought she was great!

After the curtain calls I saw some flashes going off and I didn't notice any ushers rushing to take cameras away so I took out my camera to take a picture of the entire cast doing a reprise of "We Go Together" with Taylor Hicks (American Idol, season 5 winner) at center stage.

Taylor also performed a song from his new album. I have to admit that I couldn't hear all the words, but it sounded good. The song he performed was "Seven Mile Breakdown" and is available on iTunes. I apologize for the fuzziness of the picture, but the low light and the distance between the stage and my seat were too much for my little point-and-shoot to overcome.

Afterwards, Taylor went out the the lobby to sign autographs. I snapped this picture while he was there.

Mom and I went around to the backstage door to wait for Sue. She promised us a backstage tour, remember? Mom and I were both looking forward to that!

To see the full photo album, click here.

Sue was telling us that when the show first arrives, the stage is completely empty. They even bring in their own flooring. I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw Greased Lightening (the car) hanging from the ceiling amongst all the rigging. By the way, that's Kenickie on the left.


Sue showed us the women's quick-change room on the stage. There's also a makeup area behind the curtain.

It was so cool seeing they behind-the-scenes (pun intended) working of a stage production of this size.

Here's a look at more of the scenery behind the curtain. The ice cream cone is how Taylor appeared onstage. He was inside as it was lowered from above the "diner."

As we were looking around in wide-eyed amazement backstage guess who walked right towards us to get to his dressing room?!

Taylor was very gracious to stop for pictures with us. When he called Sue over, she said "I didn't expect this!" Thank you, Taylor! You made Mom's and Sue's day!




Taylor with Mom (Janice)






Taylor and Sue








Me and Taylor




I'm sure he has camera flashes going off in his face all the time, so before I took a picture I asked if it was okay with him. He continued on his way upstairs and we continued on with our tour.

Here are some of the wigs for the cast. Even the men wear them. There are two of most because there's one for the main actor/actress and one for the understudy.



This is the upstairs makeup area located with the wigs.







And this is a similar suit to the one Taylor wore onstage as Teen Angel. This one, however, belongs to his understudy.



That was my day! I was so exhausted I went to bed as soon as we got home, after calming Kasey down, of course. She wasn't happy about being left home again. I didn't want Sue to have to try to make special arrangements for her, thinking that we were going to be down on the floor. If I'd known we were going to have a box, she would have been with me.