The Midnight Train Crossing

First off, finding a parking space was more difficult than usual. At 6:45 on a Thursday night? Who knew?
And there are a lot of silly one -way streets down town as well, but after several tries, we finally found a place to park - and it was only two blocks away.

I bought a program and scanned the cast board just in case I would see some familiar names. I didn’t though. All well, twas worth a shot.

The theatre is set up kinda funny, the first row is AA, then BB, CC and DD, and then A, B C... etc. I got seats in row DD, so I thought, hey, fourth row, pretty good. On the side, but still, fourth row is good. Then when we got there, we discovered that row AA and BB had been taken out to make room for the orchestra pit. So instead of fourth row, we were second!

It was a *real* orchestra too! I mean, there were some keyboards and the usual percussion, but there were also an assortment of wind instruments, mostly variations on saxes, but still. :)

The main overall impression that I got of the show was that it was really really colorful. I haven't seen all that many pictures from Hairspray, so I didn't realize how fun and colorful the show is.
My personal favorites in the cast were Tracy (Keala Settle), Penny (Chandra Lee Schwartz), Edna (J. P. Dougherty), Wilber (Stephen DeRosa), Seaweed (Alan Mingo), Little Inez (Kahliah Rivers) and Motormouth Maybelle (Charlotte Crossley)
Yes I know, a long list.
Now on to the more detailed stuff

The show opens in Tracy's bedroom, she's lying in bed, but it's like a view from her ceiling. The orchestra starts up the first notes of "Good Morning Baltimore" Tracy (Keala Settle) opens her mouth to start singing and we hear... nothing. Her mike was out. I could sorta hear her because we were close, and it took a few minutes before the sound to come in, so... not a very good start.
But once her mike worked, she had a pretty good voice.

"The rats 'round my feet, who dance through the street" were funny, because they dragged prop rats across the stage. The "Flasher who lives next door" and "The bum on his bar room stool" were also pretty funny

Corny Collins (Paul Mcquillan) was really funny, he was just like how I pictured him, especially with his microphone. He really worked the microphone and had a whole lot of sarcastic comments about some of the other characters.

"Nicest Kids in Town" was cool, most of the stage was the "stage" for the Corny Collins' show, with a little raised section for the Turnblad living room, with Tracy and Penny glued to the TV.

Velma Von Tussel (Susan Henley) was brilliant as the 'villainness', making sure that the "council members" presented the best image, telling the ultra-popular heartthrob Link Larken (Serge Kushnier) not to "hog the camera" and her daughter, Amber Von Tussel (Worth Williams) to "hog the camera".
They also did a commercial for their national debut, with Amber reading the cue cards... and stumbling over the word "Daughter"
She also had the "brilliant Ad-lib" (according to Corney) "Remember, a vote for me... is a vote for me!"

One of the girls was going to be taking a "leave of absence from the show" and when Corney asked her how long, she replied cheerfully "Nine months!" before being ushered off stage.
Corney: "So if you want to be one of the members of Corney's gang, cut school tomorrow to come down to audition"
Tracy: "Oh my God! This is the dream of a life time! I have to go down there and audition!"
Penny: "Oh my God! This *is* the dream of a lifetime! I have to go down there and watch you audition!"

Edna Turnblad (Brilliantly played by J. P. Dougherty) informed Tracy that she could not audition, and had a very good line to get Penny out of the house "Penny, go home and tell your mother she wants you."
Penny: "She does? I'd better hurry!"
Penny Pingleton (Chandra Lee Schwartz) was brilliantly ditzy and silly.

Wilber Turnblad (Stephen DeRosa) enters the scene, in his bright colored plaid-jacket with matching socks. Seriously, his socks (clearly visible) always matched his jacket.
Edna tries to discourage Tracy, but Wilber tells her to "Go for it!" He says that she's gotta "Think big to be big!"

"Momma, I'm a big girl now" is the next song, with Tracy, Penny and Amber all at their vanities with their parents.
Midway through the song, Tracy's vanity rolled forward, a large mirror with the walls covered with pictures. I'm not sure when exactly this just happened, but suddenly the faces in two of the pictures had real faces sticking out of them - like two of the other actors.

The scene faded to the end of another girl's audition. I don't know enough about all of the minor characters, but this actress was wearing green, and she had a nice voice.
Link and the rest of the gang are there while Velma was doing the auditions.

Tracy and Penny were late, due to the "stupid bus crash". Penny gazed around in awe. "I always imagined what it would look like in here... This isn't it."
Link bumped into Tracy, sending her into silly-eyed shock. She turns to Penny and says "I Can Hear The Bells"
All on stage except for Penny and Tracy freeze - Link in mid-step. All through out the song, Penny is wandering around, oblivious to everything chewing her gum.
While Tracy sang, all of the girls and guys, one at a time, pulled out hand bells. The ensemble people (sorry, I know they all have names but I don't know what they are) all moved, and then Tracy 'unfroze' Link, and he acted out the parts of her song where she sings about what they'll do - their date, proposal and wedding.
Velma unfroze to play the organ. :)

When Tracy asked to audition, Velma launched into her song "(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs". Every time she said the word "Crabs" she wiggled her fingers like antenna. It was funny. Some of the guys lifted her up and set her on some moveable set, where she would pose.

Link is the only one of the council that doesn't gang up on Tracy, he tries to stop Amber, but finally just kinda walks off disgusted while Velma and the others tell Tracy that she has no chance.