TRACY MILLERS LAST SHOW REVIEW

Hiiii guys,

So i think a bunch of us were there, considering the loud screams for tracy every time she came onstage :)

First of all, for those of you that don't know, the reason this "goodbye" performance was extra emotional was because not only is Tracy leaving Hairspray, but Tracy is moving to California extremely soon, to pursue television i think. So imagine not only losing your friend in a show, but knowing they are moving so far away! Oh MAN it was Sad!!!!

Before the show, about 30 min prior to curtain, the cast was back there maybe doing some sort of "goodbye" ceremony for Tracy. Did anyone else hear this or know what they were chanting? It sounded like chanting at first, then some sort of silly song, and then tons of clapping and cheering. :)

Basically, the show was Amazing. This was my 9th time seeing it since June, and this was by far my favorite. It was so much fun to see how much everyone (cast and audience and fans) love Tracy.

Besides the basic awesomeness of the show that you already know if you have seen it, here were the highlights tonight, inspired by Tracy's last show-ness. (get it? like the line from the show..."special ed-ness?" anyone? i try.):

-screams of love and appreciation when tracy entered as penny for the first time with her line "but my mother says i'm not allowed to perspiiiire"

-if you watched tracy in any scene, she was obviously having so much fun with her adlibs...in "I Can Hear The Bells", she was literally talking to herself like the ENTIRE time (more than usual)...saying "i really just don't hear any bells...ok...i dont know what she's hearing" etc...it was hilarious

-perhaps my FAVORITE...during "Run and Tell That", when Tevin (Seaweed) got to the very end of the song, and is supposed to kind of improv his last line to penny, "you've got to run and telllll that", INSTEAD he sang to her "you're going to hollllyyywoood".....it was SO CUTE, and she got this huge grin on her face and grabbed his shoulders and they both started jumping up and down together. ADORABLE.

-at almost any given moment in the show, if you watched tracy interact with other cast members, it seemed as if they were all giving her extra long hugs or squeezes as they passed her.

-During "I Know Where I've Been"...oh my god, how do i even describe this scene? (other people who were there...help me out). Basically, the beginning of the song was amazing as usual but nothing out of the ordinary...but obviously as it started building, Darlene was getting more into it and everyone onstage is ALREADY supposed to act very emotional. well. at one point in the song, tracy miller is supposed to kind of lean on shannon durig (tracy turnblad) and hug her, as she's listening to Darlene sing to them. Obviously as tracy hugged shannon during this Amazingly powerful part of the song, you could tell it was starting to get a little tough for them. Then, Shannon turned to Tracy (and they are like centerstage), and mouthes something to her... i think it was "love you" (?) and Tracy kind of bit her lip and nodded and mouthed back something, and they just squeezed each other and started crying. Then Shannon had to turn her back to the audience for like 10 seconds because i guess she had started to really cry pretty hard, and at this point, Tevin is hugging Tracy and she has pretty much lost it as well. Then Darlene really started directing little pieces of the song at Tracy, ("there's a dream in the future" and "use that pride in our hearts") etc etc, and basically from then on the whole cast was singing SO powerfully and emotionally, people were crying onstage and in the audience, and it was like nothing i've ever experienced before as an audience member. The reason it was so amazing was because they were way beyond "acting" at this point...everyone on that stage was completely in the moment and knew they were losing someone important to them.

-finally, the finale came, tracy sang her heart out in the last number, her fans cheered in the middle of the song yet again :) when bows came, tracy started to cry again, and when she came up to bow LOTS of the audience stood for her. Then when Shannon is supposed to stop the audience's applause and say "Now everybody...let's DANCE!"....she changed the line to, "Now everybody...WE LOVE YOU TRACY....let's DANCE!" it was really cute. When the dance was over and the audience was applauding, all the cast members clapped and pointed to tracy.

-And finally, when Becky (Amber) is supposed to give the crown to Shannon before they all run off stage, Tracy started leaving with the rest of the cast, but Shannon kept beckoning her back on. She was laughing and shaking her head (like "no no i can't do that!") until Shannon ran offstage and pulled her back on with her while Becky gave her the crown.

Whew. I think that's everything important. Overall, it's hard to explain in this little (and poorly written) message how amazing it was to see the love and chemistry going on in that cast. Everyone else who was there, chime in! (Anyone else in the front row with me??)


OHHHH AND PS!!!! Diana Degarmo and Michelle Dowdy (Tracy Turnblad understudy) were totally sitting in the first box for the entire first half of the show. They were cracking up and having a lot of fun up there (although i heard some people mention how "distracting" they were). One funny thing I noticed with them was that when Link says that harsh line.."Amber...GO", Diana and Michelle started quietly clapping, which caught on and made the audience actually clap for Link standing up to Amber. It was funny because Diana and Michelle thought it was HILARIOUS that their plan worked and they were both laughing about it for like 5 more minutes (obviously they had been TRYING to start up the whole "clapping" thing, probably just as a joke on Becky...cuz having an audience clap for you to "GO" is pretty funny if you think about it :)

ANYWAYS.....YAY TRACY MILLER

longest post ive ever written, there's probably 5 others already sent by now, peace out :P

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I was there tonight too, but there isn't much I can add to that review- it was pretty complete! But it was an incredible show and Tracy really is an amazing performer. I'm glad I was able to go to her last show, and she will definitely be missed at Hairspray!

You forgot one of the best bits!

During "Without Love", when the lights go off on Penny and Seaweed for the second time (after "I've found my blue-eyed soul"), instead of just laying back down, Tracy flipped Tevin over and jumped on top of him. It was really funny, and they were both cracking up while Link and Tracy were doing their bit.

Also, during "The Madison" when Fender is supposed to kind of kick Penny off to the side, he started hitting on her instead. I laughed.

*I* almost cried during "I Know Where I've Been".

Tracy is such a sweetheart. And so friggin' adorable. And talented, did I mention talented? I'm going to miss her. I told her she should come back to New York and do something again someday so I can SEE her. She laughed and said "Maybe!".

Updated On: 2/6/06 at 01:22 AM

I was there too...and that was a pretty complete review. Tracy will definitely be missed SO much, but I think last night was made really special for her, not only by the cast but by the audience as well. She seemed to enjoy it.

Does anyone think it was kinda disrespectful for Diana DeGarmo to be there? It was Tracy's night, and Diana being there taking attention away from Tracy was rude and unprofessional.

Anyway, post something in the Tracy Miller Love Thread because I'm gonna print it out and send it to her since she doesn't read message boards. So if you have anything you want to say to her (and she will definitely read it, I promise) then write something.

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Apparently there is an unwritten rule in theater that the actor taking over a role is supposed to stay away from the theater on the leaving actor's last night. That's what I was told by someone in the cast. So just her presence there was disrespectful. But the fact that Diana and Michelle Dowdy were drawing attention to themselves made it even worse. I'm sure Diana didn't mean any disrespect...she probably didn't know any better. But if she really stopped to think about how Tracy would feel, she probably would've stayed away.

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Not to defend Diana (she was distracting me too) but isn't there also a rule that a replacement has to watch the show for a certain number of performances before he/she can take over? Maybe she hadn't reached that number, and I personally think the more times she watched Tracy as Penny and learned things from her, the better.

And also, maybe she had become friends with Tracy (it's possible, I guess, cause it seemed she was friends with Michelle) and wanted to watch her last performance. Who knows.

I was relieved, though, when Diana and Michelle moved out of that front box for the second act...

Kudos and best wishes to Tracey, the best Penny I ever saw! Good Luck in Hollywood, the are lucky to get you! And by the way, I saw the Tour many times as well as the Broadway show several times, and I never did NOT see the audience cheer and clap when Link told Amber to "go"! Just FYI.

" never did NOT see the audience cheer and clap when Link told Amber to "go"! Just FYI"

It's a hit or miss on Broadway. Sometimes the audience applauds, sometimes they don't. There is, however, always an audible gasp. I wasn't distracted by them at all. I think they were just being enthusiastic.

"The audience cheers on Link's "Amber...GO" line on bway ALL the time. "

well, ive seen the bway show 8 times (5 of those in the past month and a half), and i've actually only heard them cheer once! so to me, it is a surprise when they do it. And i like when they do it! I think it shows how into the show everyone is getting! I didnt at all mean i thought it was a bad thing...but i DID notice how diana and michelle had STARTED it up...and they thought it was hilarious since they were laughing for 5 minutes afterwards! i thought it was funny, i wasn't trying to say it was a bad thing.....

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I see the show often, and they rarely applaud. There's always an audible gasp. Always. But not always applause.

Just adding that last night was amazing and very emotional. As soon as I saw Tracy and Shannon crying during "I Know Where I've Been", I got choked up. The song is emotionally charged to begin with, but it being Tracy's last performance, that just put it over the top!

And I wanted to mention another ad-lib by Shannon. During "You Can't Stop The Beat", when she says "Amber, this is MY dance, and it's dedicated to EVERYBODY!", she added on "and Penny!", which was met with even more cheers for Tracy.

Who was the person at the stagedoor who gave her two packs of gum? :)

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She started October 19th, 2004. So she was in the show for around 15 1/2 months.

A few other things/ad-libs I'd forgotten about:
-During "Without Love", when Tracy has her high solo bit near the end ("I don't wanna live without love, love, love" etc.), Tevin grabbed her and hoisted her up into the air to sing her part.
-During "Big Dollhouse", Tracy and Shannon kept doing silly things and making stupid faces at eachother. They kept nearly cracking up.