Our Day with "Hairspray"

Yesterday John and I left Katie with my mom and went up to New York City to see "Hairspray" on Broadway! Katie and her grandma had a wonderful 16 hours together, and John and I truly enjoyed a day together with "just the two of us."

Before the show, we met up with our friends Allison and Amar for a yummy sushi lunch at Ruby Foo's. Our hour and 45 minutes with them was way too short. Allison is one of my best friends from childhood, and we attended college together as well.

Then off to the show, and "Hairspray" was simply amazing. I've become rather obsessed with the movie version that came out last summer (Katie and I have seen it at least 5-6 times by now) and the stage version, while a bit different, was no less fun. The sets and choreography were so creative. And it starred several people we knew of -- George Wendt (Norm from "Cheers") played Tracy Turnblad's mom Edna, Darlene Love (Danny Glover's wife in the "Lethal Weapon" movies and a nominee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) played Motormouth Maybelle, Tevin Campbell (who had a few R&B hits in the early 90s) played Seaweed, and Ashley Spencer (a runner-up on last year's TV competition "Grease: You're the One That I Want!") played Tracy's nemesis Amber.

I haven't been this obsessed with a musical since seeing "Wicked" four times, and I'm sure I'll want to see "Hairspray" on stage again soon. But until then I'll have to keep singing the songs to Katie (changing the words, of course; my lyrics are:

Good Morning KatieLu!
Don't you know that I love you?
Don't you know you're a movie star?
I love you just the way you are!
Good morning KatieLu!
And someday when you take to the floor
The world's gonna wake up and see
KatieLu and me!
and

Good Morning KatieLu!
Don't you know that I love you?
Don't you know you're a fantasy?
Don't you know you're God's gift to me?....
and so on).
I'll also treasure these photos!