Sorry, I don't have pics yet too much to do, and not enough hours in the day.
My recap-Grease & Meeting Taylor
Ok now that I have recovered from complete exhaustion & life is getting back to semi normal here’s my recap. I’m not going to bore anyone with details of the trip from Iowa to Chicago, that’s already been covered. So I’ll just get to the point of this crazy adventure in the first place….seeing “Grease” & our Teen Angel….Mr. Taylor Hicks.
I have been a fan of the movie version of “Grease” for as long as I can remember. I know all the music and can recite various dialogs from memory. So I was pleasantly surprised how much the stage production differs for the movie. All the songs I know and love were there just in different spots in the production. The T-Birds and Pink Ladies in the cast was absolutely wonderful. The standouts vocally in my opinion were Sandy and Rizzo.
When Taylor’s part came halfway through the second, we find Frenchy pondering what to do after just dropping out of beauty school. Overhead is a giant ice cream cone topped with chocolate sauce. It opens and our Teen Angel appears, crooning the opening lines…”Your story sad to tell….”I’m sitting between Denise and Shari, who teasingly grabs my arm shaking it, “There he is, there he is .” I felt the biggest smile on my face, I replied, “He’s just so sparkly.” I was grinning like an idiot the whole performance. He came out of the ice cream cone giving the crowd a little butt wiggle. My favorite part was when he was on the far left side and “fixed” his hair while Frenchy slowly approached him giving him a little “booty bump.” He gave Frenchy a once over and she pointed to her behind and made a sizzling sound to indicate “that’s hot”, which was very sexy. Before his exit back into rock-n-roll heaven Frenchy cuddles up next to him rubs his open shirt and coo’s, “I vooted for you.”, getting a huge amount of claps & cheers. Back in the ice cream cone, he got out his harmonica bluesing the number up before his grand ascend
into heaven. Taylor later returned for the curtain call to sing, “Grease is the Word” and “Handjive” with the rest of the cast. Overall the was great and Taylor was his awesome self. The audience loved him whether you were a Taylor fan or not. I even heard some people behind me commenting on how good he was and that he should have had a bigger roll. YES!!!!, I thought to myself let’s Taylorize them one at a time.
Then it was off to the meet & greet after a quick bathroom break one of Taylor’s security reps took us to meet Taylor. I’ll be the first to admit the butterflies in my stomach were very busy. We waited for maybe five minutes, but it seemed longer than Taylor came in behind a guy that I assume was a bodyguard. He was wearing a gray sweater, jeans, black boots, his new trademark: blue & gray scarf . Pictures do not do him justice, he is very handsome. I think he was a bit taken back by the size of our group since then were 9 of us, but he was still very polite and soft spoken. I waited patiently to approach him. I had brought 3 things for him to sign: my 2009 KOPS calendar, my “Heart Full of Soul” book, and a picture I took of him at a concert in Council Bluff in June ‘07. When I got to him I gave him my book to sign first and he did. I went to hand him my calendar and picture, but he needed a silver sharpie, so one of the security went to get him one. In the meantime, we took group and individual pictures. It came my turn and the person doing the pictures used Connie’s camera by mistake. I told his which one was mine and he took another picture. So I have two pictures with Taylor! Taylor his arm around me and his hand on my back. My brain screamed OH MY GOD YOUR STANDING NEXT TO TAYLOR HICKS AND HE IS TOUCHING YOU!!!!!!. He leaned into me and he was so warm. When Taylor had the silver sharpie in hand I had him sign my calendar on the October page, I told him we shared the same birthday month, he asked if I was a Libra, I said I was, he replied “That’s cool.” I gave him the picture to sign. He wanted to know where it came from. I said that I had taken it at a concert in Council Bluffs, IA in June ‘07. He said he remembered that show. I told him it was one of my favorites from that show and I had not posted anywhere, because I wanted him to sign it. He signed with my name to it which really meant a lot to me cause he asked my name.
Hope you enjoyed my little recap. My first impression of Taylor from this meet & greet is that he true gentleman. He seems to really want to be in touch with his fans and is grateful to be able to entertain people. My respect for him is beyond words. My time with him was brief but I valued every second. Thank you Taylor for the time you take with your fans, and for just being you.