02/12/10 Last night, I caught a press preview of the musical “Grease” at the National Theater starring American Idol’s Taylor Hicks.

I guess I’m the only person in America to have never seen American Idol because I had to be told that the male lead Ace Young was also a contestant on the show. [CORRECTION: I posted earlier that Young was a winner on the show. That seems to have upset some fans of Hicks. Whoops. Like I said people, I’ve gone out of my way to avoid watching that program and I hope to die never having seen it. My bad.]  The kids in the audience clearly knew. It was a very polished high energy production and it was good to break the snow bound cabin fever with some light entertainment.

The funny thing about the musical is that they would never write one like it today. The moral of the story seems to be “succumb to peer pressure!” If you think about it – the happy ending the play provides is that “good girl” Sandy D. embraces her inner hottie so she can roll with the gangs at her new high school. Hah!

Taylor Hicks signed copies of his CD post show.  He also did a solo encore after the final curtain.

Lauren Ashley Zakrin, who plays Sandy D in the show, signs autographs for fans outside the stage door. That’s Laura D’Andre, who plays Rizzo, signing autographs in the background. After the play there was a cast party at the Hard Rock Café a couple blocks away.