Michael Reidel gives a reluctant nod toward "Grease" despite critics' panning of the musical. It seems Taylor Hicks has been making a positive mark on The Great White Way with his appearance in the musical. Ticket sales are elevated according to insiders, at 150,000 - that's dollars - per week since Mr. Hicks joined the cast. In fact the show has morphed somewhat to include more Teen Angel time than ever before.
Mr. Reidel writes, "Whenever Hicks whips out his harmonica, the audience goes nuts.
They're having such a blast that the "Grease" megamix at the end of the show - this is where the critics ran screaming from the theater - now runs 10 minutes, with Hicks singing the title song and then playing it on his harmonica.
Meanwhile, the producers of the show are no longer flinching from the critical blows but are starting to have fun with them."
Interesting how Broadway.TV puts it, Who Needs A Tony When You Have Taylor Hicks?. Naysayers can hold forth all they want with Taylor making a mistake taking on this role, I stand by my assertion that this is all "Win" for Taylor Hicks.
Taylor is taking a small break from the show to perform on the Capitol Fourth extravaganza. Interested Taylor Hicks fans can watch it on your local PBS stations. It will be good to see Taylor on television again.
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Great news isn't it?
ReplyDeleteA lot of new people to be interested in the Early Works CD, perhaps. Name in the news before anything drops. Taylors good at this sort of thing, I say why not?
That part where he says "this is where the critics run screaming" wouldn't that have been before Taylor turned it into a 10 minute jam. Maybe some of those same critics wouldn't run now. As Taylor said "endings are key" and he is good at them. I read that they got a standing ovation at curtain call tonight. He must really be helping them to "Whomp" up that ending. LOL
Taylor's doing the very thing many critics held wasn't possible - he's making this show much better. Many critics hate this version of "Grease" and thought Hicks would just drag it further into the negative.
ReplyDeleteI think many Broadway critics are quite surprised at how much better the "Grease" experience is, now he's in the cast. The reference 'about the time most critics would run screaming' - that's a compliment to Mr. Hicks - that once blasted ending has much improved. lol
Nothing but win here for him. Considering the Early Works dropping, add to this great exposure on the Capitol Fourth and he certainly will see a resurgence of interest, he's at the right place, right now.