Dancing with the Stars Tour

On Sunday night, Pat and I went to see the Dancing with the Stars tour at Mohegan Sun. Sadly, it was not one of the five shows on the tour that Apolo appeared in. As it turns out, I was pretty pleased with the star who was dancing with Julianne in his place: Joey McIntyre. I knew he was going to be on the tour and I wasn't overly excited because he was never my favorite New Kid and I didn't watch the season of DWTS that he was on. That changed pretty much the second he came on stage and I realized I was fulfilling my lifelong dream of seeing a New Kid live (okay, the dream is to see all of the New Kids, but that's clearly not gonna happen). It was all I could do to not scream like a teenage girl. I was pretty much a pile of mush. As it turns out, he's actually a pretty good dancer, too, so I really wasn't missing Apolo at all. And then...he sang. Twice!!

I couldn't get Pat to understand just how much it meant to me to see a New Kid. Jonathan Knight was my first celebrity boyfriend (although my second celebrity crush after Patrick Swayze) and the New Kids were my only true celebrity obsession ever. I had a sleeping bag, sheets, the buttons the size of my face...the list goes on and on. And, in fact, it was because of the New Kids that I first learned that the people we idolize aren't perfect (of course, on reflection, idolizing a boy band was probably not a great choice in the first place, but I was 6 when Hangin' Tough was released). I remember reading in the paper that Donnie Wahlberg had busted up a hotel room and did drugs. I was crushed. In my world, doing drugs was the worst possible offense.

But, back to the show...The highlight of the night: Forgot the dancing! Joey Mac, Joey Fatone (of N*Sync, my other favorite boy band), Joey Lawrence (whoa!), and Drew Lachey all sang a Rat Pack medley together. I told Pat it was the best thing that ever happened to me. On reflection, I may have been a little too caught up in the moment, but it was still pretty damn good. I think I was one of the few people in the audience that was just the right age to have been a fan of both New Kids on the Block and N*Sync. There were a lot of old ladies and teenage girls in the house.

Okay, I should probably talk about the dancing at least a little. They did some of my favorite numbers from the only season I watched, including Joey and Kim's jive and their freestyle, as well as Apolo (played by Joey Mac) and Julianne's dance to I Like to Move It. They also did Drew and Cheryl's freestyle (Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy) and their paso doble (Thriller). The group numbers were fantastic, as well. I especially enjoyed the one they did with Joey Lawrence and four of the female professionals and the group one to Luck be a Lady. Julianne and Louis did a pretty steamy...rumba, I think it was. I mix them up. But it was really amazing.

Another highlight: They had local ballroom dancers do a mini dance-off and had the audience vote on a favorite. When one of the dancers introduce himself, he mentioned he was single. Not surprisingly, he and his partner were the winning dancers.

I wish I could dance.