Hopelessly Devoted to Grease Lightning

Whitney M.

May 7, 2009 - 11:43 AM

Collin and I went to see Grease at the Keller Auditorium in Portland a few weeks ago. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a performing artist and work on Broadway, so going to see the musical was really special for me. Actually, on my 19th birthday, Collin and I went to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Keller Auditorium. He keeps getting tricked into seeing musicals with me, which is fine because I have been to basketball games and track meets.

The performance was great, and American Idol winner Taylor Hicks played the guardian angel who sings "Beauty School Drop-Out."

Even some of the scenes that I don't really like in the movie were fantastic, and the props for the car transformation were stunning. I was really impressed to see how they manipulated their limitations of on-set spaces to dress the car up with cardboard to make it look junky, then removing the cardboard to expose "Grease Lightning."

When I told Collin that I liked the "Stranded at the Drive In" performance better than in the movie, he said he had no point of reference because he had never seen the movie!

NEVER SEEN GREASE?!?!!?

I spent all day every day during the summers of my childhood watching Grease over and over again. My best friend and I know each scene by heart, and I have "Hopelessly Devoted" on my iPod.

So of course, I made Collin watch Grease with me, and he said that it was the best musical that he had ever seen. He is hard to please when it comes to musical theater, so this was quite an accomplishment on the parts of Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, who, by the way, will never lose his status in my eyes as the greatest sex symbol since Adonis.

Every time I see a musical production my heart yearns to be on stage. I love to sing, Broadway style: at the top of my lungs. But now that I am older, it seems so out of reach. Plus, I have crippling stage fright. I sang God Bless America and the Star Spangled Banner at basketball games while I was in boarding school, and I had one phenomenal performance, but the others were riddled with a trembling voice that matched my knees.

I guess that I will have to live out my dreams vicariously by getting to the Keller as often as I can, as well as belting tunes as loud as I can when no one is home. (God bless the neighbors.)