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SO we started our rehearsal a bit earlier to make room for a meet and greet with the whole cast and creative team.  I am so excited for Hairspray and all the incredible talent involved!  Lyric managed to hold on to the hugely talented Barb Schoenhofer and Monte Riegel Wheeler for one more show!  They will be playing Velma Von Tussle and Male authority figure, respectively.  You might remember them from their early performances this summer as “The Sowerberries” in Oliver!  Inga Ballard will be playing Motormouth Maybelle and she is no stranger to the role, having played it numerous times across the country! Erick Devine returns to Lyric and Oklahoma to portray Edna Turnblad, the full figured matriarch of the Turnblad clan!  It was wonderful to meet him and have his warm familiar face back!! Lastly we have the wildly talented new comer, Liz Froio, as our young and curvaceous heroine, Tracy Turnblad!  Liz is a Jersey girl livin in the big apple that has already played Tracy twice before!  And get ready cause this beautiful and hilarious firecracker can sing!!    

Well after our meet and greet we plunged head first into the giant undertaking that is HAIRSPRAY!!!   We have our work cut out for us because this show never stops.  But we are more then ready for the challenge!!! SO the ensemble started with the opening number “Good Morning Baltimore” and we went right up until our lunch break.  Then after lunch we learned a dance number that unless you have seen the musical before, will be new to you, “The Madison.”  It takes place on the Corny Collins show.  Once we had that under belts.  We learned what I had really been waiting for all day “Nicest Kids In Town.”  It is such a fun sequence.  There are 10 “Nicest Kids” and I play Fender.  We ran out of time though, so it will have to be worked into the schedule later this week for us to finish.  Now I have to switch gears and head back to “Oliver” land.  We have our second performance tonight!!! Break a leg everybody!!!

Until tomorrow,
Ryan