Looking back with love…
In a matter of hours, with a flourish of the harmonica and a final ascent in the cone, “Grease” is in the books.
Taylor Hicks, Teen Angel in midnight blue glam, stores the one-of-a-kind suit and goes home to soul country.
It was a good run!
Taylor has gone from a nervous opening night of Broadway’s “Grease” at the Brooks Atkinson
Theatre on June 8, 2008, to a spectacular closing at the Palace Theatre in Cleveland today.
I had the pleasure of writing about it all.
It seems like yesterday. I could feel the excitement of Opening Night, and I was a thousand miles away. There had to be gifts to celebrate a new milestone and to share our excitement with the new Broadway star.
And that he was.
It took a bodyguard to get him in and out of the theatre and around New York City. He lived in a high rise overlooking the Hudson.
He worked the rope line at the stage door and the bottom line at the box office.
Taylor Hicks proved worthy of Times Square’s five story billboard any way you looked at it, whether it was for the sheer fun he created on the stage or the increased box office receipts he brought in. He earned his fame and keep on the Great White Way.
He had said: “Entertain or go home.” Taylor entertained.
So well, that he was asked to take it on the road in an economy when there was little discretionary spending. But people came to see “Grease.”
And he earned great reviews—“campy,” “over the top,” “most fun.” The Alabama soul singer who had never acted found his groove and created a new soulful, harmonica- wielding, “taylorized” Teen Angel.
He learned to tweet from the giant ice cream cone. He tweeted about food, airports, and weather. He was mistaken for George Clooney.
He met with countless media in countless cities across the country. He played and sang to a hound dog and a goat. He was a TV sous-chef.
He created memorable Shadow Tour shows for fans all over the country. From Chicago to Sunset Boulevard, he played where he was most at home—the stage he had grown up on. He managed to sit on a stool and sing and added acoustic concerts.
“Grease” AND a Shadow Tour concert in your city was a priceless ticket!
He met the Prime Minister of Canada and visited the White House, again. He saw blizzards, floods and rainbows over the ocean. He sang the National Anthem.
He traveled to all coasts and Canada. He released a new album, The Distance. He made his first music videos, one in a snowy Chicago and the other in sunny California and his first concert DVD, Whomp at the Warfield.
He returned to the beginning and brought down the Idol house with a country rock mix of his new single release, “Seven Mile Breakdown.” It was how you do country on American Idol!
Simon Cowell gave him a long-deserved standing ovation.
Writing about that night will remain one of my all-time personal favorites.
And all the time, he played Teen Angel eight times a week. He got the acting bug. He drank Bud with the wine drinking crowd in The City. He drank wine at dinner overlooking the Nation’s Capital.
He went home to Birmingham and created two unforgettable concert experiences at WorkPlay. He built homes and community for Habitat for Humanity. He stayed true to the music and the ethics that make him Taylor Hicks.
I had the pleasure of writing about it—even being there for some of it.
And I wouldn’t have missed it for all the ice cream flavors of the night!
Teen Angel will be missed. And how do you follow an angel?
With Taylor Hicks, songwriter and touring recording artist.
Teen Angel’s gone country? He’s got a resounding resume to hang on once-closed doors!
In a matter of hours, with a flourish of the harmonica and a final ascent in the cone, “Grease” is in the books.
Taylor Hicks, Teen Angel in midnight blue glam, stores the one-of-a-kind suit and goes home to soul country.
It was a good run!
Taylor has gone from a nervous opening night of Broadway’s “Grease” at the Brooks Atkinson
Theatre on June 8, 2008, to a spectacular closing at the Palace Theatre in Cleveland today.
I had the pleasure of writing about it all.
It seems like yesterday. I could feel the excitement of Opening Night, and I was a thousand miles away. There had to be gifts to celebrate a new milestone and to share our excitement with the new Broadway star.
And that he was.
It took a bodyguard to get him in and out of the theatre and around New York City. He lived in a high rise overlooking the Hudson.
He worked the rope line at the stage door and the bottom line at the box office.
Taylor Hicks proved worthy of Times Square’s five story billboard any way you looked at it, whether it was for the sheer fun he created on the stage or the increased box office receipts he brought in. He earned his fame and keep on the Great White Way.
He had said: “Entertain or go home.” Taylor entertained.
So well, that he was asked to take it on the road in an economy when there was little discretionary spending. But people came to see “Grease.”
And he earned great reviews—“campy,” “over the top,” “most fun.” The Alabama soul singer who had never acted found his groove and created a new soulful, harmonica- wielding, “taylorized” Teen Angel.
He learned to tweet from the giant ice cream cone. He tweeted about food, airports, and weather. He was mistaken for George Clooney.
He met with countless media in countless cities across the country. He played and sang to a hound dog and a goat. He was a TV sous-chef.
He created memorable Shadow Tour shows for fans all over the country. From Chicago to Sunset Boulevard, he played where he was most at home—the stage he had grown up on. He managed to sit on a stool and sing and added acoustic concerts.
“Grease” AND a Shadow Tour concert in your city was a priceless ticket!
He met the Prime Minister of Canada and visited the White House, again. He saw blizzards, floods and rainbows over the ocean. He sang the National Anthem.
He traveled to all coasts and Canada. He released a new album, The Distance. He made his first music videos, one in a snowy Chicago and the other in sunny California and his first concert DVD, Whomp at the Warfield.
He returned to the beginning and brought down the Idol house with a country rock mix of his new single release, “Seven Mile Breakdown.” It was how you do country on American Idol!
Simon Cowell gave him a long-deserved standing ovation.
Writing about that night will remain one of my all-time personal favorites.
And all the time, he played Teen Angel eight times a week. He got the acting bug. He drank Bud with the wine drinking crowd in The City. He drank wine at dinner overlooking the Nation’s Capital.
He went home to Birmingham and created two unforgettable concert experiences at WorkPlay. He built homes and community for Habitat for Humanity. He stayed true to the music and the ethics that make him Taylor Hicks.
I had the pleasure of writing about it—even being there for some of it.
And I wouldn’t have missed it for all the ice cream flavors of the night!
Teen Angel will be missed. And how do you follow an angel?
With Taylor Hicks, songwriter and touring recording artist.
Teen Angel’s gone country? He’s got a resounding resume to hang on once-closed doors!
~A final reflection
It was early Sunday morning in Tucson, Arizona. We had two more “Grease” shows to see. I am a morning person, especially on Sundays. The peace and silence of Sunday morning compels me to be there. I would never sleep through it.
I was walking around the beautiful theatre and entertainment complex in the perfect spring weather of the Southwest. The sun was shining in the glass of the front windows of the theatre. It caught a perfect frame of Teen Angel. I stared for a long time at the smiling angelic face and moved to see it as shadows crept across the glass.
What were the chances this young man would make it from the raucous bars on Saturday night to this giant Broadway poster shining in the sun on a beautiful Sunday morning?
I remember very vividly in that warm, quiet moment, that everything just felt “right.”
Looking back, “Grease” seemed right for Taylor Hicks on so many levels for so many reasons. It felt right as it was happening—just as it did this Sunday morning in Tucson.
At least it did to me.
This was my “Grease” moment. Somehow, it also seemed significant for the smiling Teen Angel in the window.
I’m a thousand miles away again. With all that Taylor has accomplished in the past two years on the “Grease” stage, today feels much more like another opening than a closing—another beginning, another exciting adventure for Taylor and for us.
CONGRATULATIONS, TAYLOR! YOU MADE THE NEON LIGHTS ON BROADWAY SHINE BRIGHTER.
MAY THE NEXT RUN BE JUST AS SPECTACULAR AND JUST AS RIGHT!
God speed home and to wherever your heart and music take you…
We will be there….
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3 comments:
Dear Teen Angel,
What am I to do? It's almost June and "Summer Nights" will soon be upon us. "Freddy My Love" will be taking me on a night out so I won't be "Alone at the Drive-In".; although I suppose " There Are Worse Things I Could Do".
" Look at Me" !! I'm "Hopelessly Devoted" to that guy Freddy. " Your the One That I Want" , Freddy because " We Go Togehter" like bread and butter.
I've asked"Sandy" , " My Friend" , what I should do and she said I should ask you . I just can't stop "Mooning " over this guy.
Signed: "Beauty School Dropout"
Dear " Beauty School Dropout"
Go back to High School Darlin'. You weren't "Born to Hand Jive" with that jive turkey , Freddy.
Signed: Teen Angel
That was so beautifully written! Bravo :)
Thank you.
It is a joy to write about something or someone you are passionate about. It's always a pleasure to write about Taylor because he is passionate about his music.
I can't wait to know what's next!
San
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