Grease

We were pleasantly surprised to see Eddie Mekka 'Carmine' from Laverne & Shirley take the stage and warm up the crowd.  We didn't know he was in the musical. He sang and announced that next year is the 40th anniversary of Grease. The show is timeless and we were ecstatic to finally see the musical version of Grease!

For the most part, the scenes were very close to the movie. The first scene featured the theme song 'Grease' with the whole cast including T-Birds & Pink Ladies. Second scene was 'Summer Nights' which introduced us to Danny and Sandy at Rydell High.

The 'Greased Lightning' scene featured a rocking red convertible with flames on it which the T-Birds restored on stage. However, (unlike the movie), the song was lead by Kenickie instead of Danny. The choreography was spectacular and exceeded our expectations.

Eddie Mekka played two characters. The first was Vince Fontaine from the WAXX radio station at the dance as well as the Teen Angel who sang ‘Beauty School Drop Out’ to Frenchie (with pink hair). Our favorite cast member was Rizzo. She had Stockard Channing's character traits of a bad-girl down pat. She exuded attitude as she sang ‘Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee’ and ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’.

The musical ended similar to the movie with Sandy getting a fabulous makeover by Frenchie to the ‘Tell me about it…stud’.  Like the movie Sandy and Danny and everyone are together in the end. The final two songs were 'You're the One that I Want' and 'We Go Together'.  They received a standing ovation.

Keith Urban

Keith Urban performed a free concert at West Edmonton Mall to promote his new album “Get Closer”.  It was the only Canadian promotional show.  There were 3,000 people in attendance and a lot of screaming women.  He joked that the last time he did a free show in 2001, only four people showed up; he was glad more showed up this time!  He had his acoustic guitar and a drum machine; not everyone is talented enough to pull that off.

He played 7 songs.  His set list included ‘Days Go By’, his new single ‘Put You In a Song’, ‘Making Memories of Us’, ‘Kiss a Girl, (where he brought up a teenage fan to come up and do a duet with him), ‘Stupid Boy’, a cover of ‘The Joker’ by Steve Miller band, and ‘Somebody Like You’.  He was supposed to do 5 songs, and said twice, “This is my last song”.

He did a meet and greet after the show for the 200 fans that went to buy his new album the day before at HMV.  Some loyal fans stayed overnight just to have the chance to meet him.  His upcoming Canadian September 2011 tour was announced for shows in Ottawa, Toronto, London, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver.  Tickets go on sale March 4 at 10:00 am.

http://www.keithurban.net/