Chapter 117

THE NFL STADIUM TOUR (GSS #6)

1^st stop
Chicago, Illinois
Soldier Field 66,844
Chicago Bears
Talbot Hotel

The almost five-hour drive got us to the Talbot Hotel at ten am, with a performance that night. No rest for the talented. I texted everyone to meet at the buses at five pm exactly, dressed and ready to go.

With Isabel and Stuart married, we offered them to share a room with two queens with us while on the Tour. They had a quick private conversation, then my sister said, “Sure!”

However, we showed off to our closest friends. After they all had a look around, Brigitte, Tracy, Maria and Nancy gave me a kiss, then they went to their own rooms.

We had made love the previous night, so I was wanting a nice rest. Mrs. Guthrie-Thomas demanded we made out for a while first. I don’t call her that to her face, but I’m keeping that in my back pocket, just in case.

Stu and his wife simply went to sleep. I had heard some giggling, but only for a few minutes.

With my leg feeling completely healed, despite everyone telling me to be careful, I was really having fun getting ready to be on stage again.

We arrived at Soldier Field, an hour early, and found they had small dressing rooms for us after all, so I made the decision to start with the BOOK OF MORMON mini-set, so the white shirts they had on, they clipped on the metal LDS clips and each got a Book of Mormon from the box of props.

Our new mics were handed out, this time they looked gold-plated. I gave Nancy Starr, Mike Bell, and Mom two-way headsets, letting them know what was going on.

It was time ... so the orchestra got in place and you could hear rustling waiting for us to begin.

“Mike, do you hear me?”

“Loud and Clear, Boss.”

“Nancy ... do you hear me?”

“This is so cool ... yes I do, Boss, anytime?”

“Janice, can you hear me now?”

“Yes, Dear,” she said in return.

“None of you speak unless I speak to you first ... got that?”

“Got that?”

“Yeah,” came out of each of them.

“Make me hot, Stuey.” I heard a giggle from Nancy.

I went out and there were many spots all over the place.

“From the Gold Standard Society, to the oldest NFL Stadium on the planet, let us all say to you “HELLO...”

My Elders went out as the doorbell tones and their individual spotlights came on...

ELDER PRICE
Hello!
My name is Elder Price
And I would like to share with you
The most amazing book.{br}

From beginning to end, there was a voluminous sound of people. After their final Hello to the crowd, they got one back, “HELLO.”

We went from one number to the next with lots of applause and cheering for my guys. During the final applause, Stuart said, “We are all set for the FROZEN music Boss, it is going to be absolutely wicked.”

I didn’t reply, all I did was sit down and began the first number of our FROZEN subset...

As the instrumental “Whiteout” began, fireworks that looked like snow came out from everywhere along the rim of the stadium. Bitchin’!

I decided on the spot to perform the entire Vocal Music of the show ... it would take us to our break. I passed that on to everybody who could hear me. Mom, from behind the scenes, telling me “Not to worry, Michael.”

“Ready for the next number, Boss,” Stuart said.

“Go for ‘Frozen Heart’... (I was up and conducting)

Born of cold and winter air
And mountain rain combining
This icy force both foul and fair
Has a frozen heart worth mining

So cut through the heart,
cold and clear
Strike for love and strike for fear
See the beauty, sharp and sheer
Split the ice apart
And break the frozen heart

Hyup! Ho! Watch your step!
Let it go! Hyup! Ho!
Watch your step!
Let it go!

After the special effects and the applause, the kids came out to perform “Spring Pageant”. Stuart was the Director/Voice this time around. He had been wanting to do it all this time...

Winter’s gone and
Spring is springing
Shines the sun with
warmth of old
Ding-dong! Ding-dong!
Chapel bells are ringing!
We’re done with being cold

Flowers a-bloom
with odors pleasant,
All of Arendelle is glad!
Mother Earth,
we thank you for the presents!
Spring’s good and winter’s bad.

There was a huge applause and cheers for our young people in the GSSociety. After it, a Blackout and the three groups came out ready for “We Know Better,” with Sharon off stage doing the baby sounds...

Hello little baby
You’re a princess
just like me
Bet you are thinking maybe
It’s a pretty cool
thing to be

But soon you will
see that everyone
Expects a lot from you
They say that there are things
A princess should
and shouldn’t do

(baby sounds)

The lights changed with each grouping; the snow was still going. The crowd was nearly completely quiet as they were listening to these young ladies. At completion, they all stood up for their bows.

Next up was Lily Bell and Rose Newman starting out singing, “Do You Want To Build A Snowman?” This was spread out like the number before it and Lily’s light came on ... and her face appeared on all the screens around the stadium...

LILY
Elsa?
(Knocks)

ELSA
Go away, Anna.
(Jenn off stage)
LILY
Okay, bye... {br}

(The music goes on as the first light goes off and next one goes on)

ROSE (Knocks)
Do you want to
build a snowman?
Or ride our bikes
around the halls?
I think some
company is overdue
I have started talking to
The pictures on the walls!
(Hang in there, Joan.)
It gets a little lonely
All these empty rooms
Just watching
the hours tick by...
tick-tock tick-tock
tick-tock tick-tock{br}

(No music was cut from this point on ... and it changed moods wonderfully)

PRINCESS
(Walking into her light, like a pro, knocking)
Elsa, please...
I know you are in there
People are asking
where you have been
They say, “Have courage”
and I’m trying to
I’m right out here for you...
just let me in

We only have each other
It’s just you and me
What are we gonna do?
Do you want to
build a snowman?

As the applause started, they all bunched up together for a single bow! Attagirl Mom. Boy, did the added violins come through in this big old wonderful stadium? The applause wouldn’t stop, so starting with Lily, she did a curtsey, then Rose and after that my glowing redheaded sister whose face was all over the place on the large screens. The camera loves her almost as much as I do!

We went through “More Than Just The Spare,” “For The First Time In Forever,” “You’re You,” “Love Is An Open Door” and ‘The North Mountain.’ These all set up for my wife to come out in her silver dress and the snowing and spotlights moving all around, as Nancy began the haunting melody...

All the lights were lower except the one on her upper body. I had a hunch Stu had something in the works.

The snow glows white
on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen
A kingdom of isolation,
and it looks like I’m a Queen.
The wind is howling
like this swirling storm inside
couldn’t keep it in,
heaven knows I tried

(Three white pinpoint lights hit her dress from all sides turning it into something of a disco ball ... Wow! What precision!)

Don’t let them in,
don’t let them see
Be the good girl
you always have to be

Conceal, don’t feel,
don’t let them know
Well, now they know

(Stu had been holding back ... there were flashes of light moving all over the stage somehow?)

Let it go, let it go
Can’t hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and
slam the door
I don’t care
What they’re going to say
Let the storm rage on,
The cold never
bothered me anyway

(She’s walking around, and the lights are staying perfectly with her!)

It’s funny how some distance
Makes everything seem small
And the fears that
once controlled me
Can’t get to me at all...
It’s time to see
what I can do
To test the limits
and break through
No right, no wrong,
no rules for me
I’m free
Let it go, let it go
I’m one with
the wind and sky
Let it go, let it go
You’ll never see me cry{br}

Here I stand
And here I’ll stay
Let the storm rage on

(The rim fireworks began again.)

My power flurries through
the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in
frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes
like an icy blast
I’m never going back,
The past is in the past

Let it go, let it go
When I’ll rise like
the break of dawn
Let it go, let it go
That perfect girl is gone{br}

Here I stand
In the light of day
Let the storm rage on,

THE COLD NEVER
BOTHERED ME ANYWAY

Nobody sings like my wife does, sorry Idina.

I had never heard a sound like the roar of the people who stood up for her. I went up to her saying, “This is my wife, Jennifer Thomas...”

The sound got even bigger as I kissed her, and she walked off the stage. Poor Peter, he had to follow that with the short version of ‘Reindeers.’”

I didn’t start the music right away as he put out his Sven hand and used his other hand to calm down the crowd. I wondered what he had planned.

Sven spoke first, “You know Kristoff, she sings really nicely, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Peter said, “And she is quite beautiful as well. Don’t you agree, Sven?”

All Sven did was roll his eyes and say, “I wouldn’t kick her out of the stable ... If you know what I mean?”

That got quite the roar of laughter from our crowd, then Peter said, “Would you like to sing a song, Buddy?”

“Hit it Michael,” Sven said...

KRISTOFF
Reindeers are better than people
Sven, don’t you think that’s true?{br}

SVEN
Yeah, people will beat you
and curse you and cheat you
Every one of them’s bad, except you
KRISTOFF
Oh, thanks buddy
But people smell better than reindeers
Sven, don’t you think that I’m right?{br}

SVEN
That’s once again true,
for all except you
KRISTOFF
You got me, let’s call it a night
SVEN
Good night
KRISTOFF
Don’t let the frostbite bite

As the crowd was coming back down from their high point, I said to Stu only, “Does he realize that what he said inferred bestiality?”

“They liked it, you are the only one who went there. Is there something I should know about, Boss?”

With our stage being a solid flat surface, I had told Charles that skates were OK...

(Spoken)
KRISTOFF
Really? I’m guessing you don’t have much experience with heat.

OLAF
Nope! But sometimes I like to close my eyes and imagine what it’d be like when summer does come.

(Singing)
Bees will buzz;
kids will blow dandelion fuzz
And I’ll be doing whatever
snow does in summer.
A drink in my hand,
my snow up against
the burning sand
Prob’ly getting gorgeously
tanned in summer.

(He was really moving around the stage this time like he didn’t have a care in the world - with two lights on him)

I will finally see a summer breeze,
blow away a winter storm.
And find out what happens
to solid water
when it gets warm!

And I can’t wait to see,
what my buddies all think of me.
Just imagine how much cooler
I’ll be in summer.

Dah dah, da doo, uh
bah bah bah bah bah boo
(Coming out of a spin)

The hot and the cold
are both so intense,
Put ‘em together...
it just makes sense!

Rrr Raht da daht dah dah
dah dah dah dah dah dah doo
(Coming out of a spin from the other direction)

Winter’s a good time
to stay in and cuddle,
But, put me in summer
and I will be a —
happy snowman!

When life gets rough,
I like to hold on to my dream,
Of relaxing in the summer sun,
just lettin’ off steam.

Oh the sky would be blue,
and you guys will be there too
When I finally do what
frozen things do in summer.

(He skated to the front of the stage, dropping to the seat of his pants, and slid til his legs dangled over, like a little kid. Once, Kristoff, started speaking, he yanked off his carrot nose, and took a bite!)

KRISTOFF
I’m gonna tell him.

ANNA
Don’t you dare!

OLAF (He barely finished the bite to sing)
In summer!

They must have been waiting for that, because Charles stayed in character, and took another bite to the roars of the audience.

The crowd was cheering and applauding loudly for this extroverted and possibly hyperactive young man.

We got to the end of the Remix and I said, “We’re taking a fifteen-minute break, be right back.” Lights went up, and we were slapping one another on the back. I told Peter what his adlib could have been misconstrued as, but he said that my mother liked it.

One hundred minutes later, we were done to a resounding super applause. During it, Stuart said in my ear, “You set a record for a concert in this place 65,388 ... the other guys in the booth with me all said they were all going to download all of our music.”

As things quieted down and the lights all went up, everybody was giving us a big wave all around the stadium. Cool!

With a check in hand for $6,620,535, I suddenly realized something. We are a phenomenon, excuse me ... the GSS is a phenomenon.

With only a single event down, everyone had earned very nearly $40,000 each. Apparently, the seats on the field went for a hefty $375 ticket price, even more for the scalped ones.

[Rt3: In case you were wondering how I figure out the breakdown, it works something like this;

$6,620,535 - Check given to the GSS
$4,964,402 – Amount left after GSS takes 25%
$39,000 – Previous Amount divided by total people on this tour, plus the Planks (131)]

On the bus to Green Bay, with Mike Bell having me on speaker phone, I told them what they made, and I could hear whoops and cheers over the phone.

Tracy, who had become an official bus driver said, “Shut up and sit down, Michael.”

Somewhere behind where Jenn and I were sitting, I heard Janice say, “How I have wanted to say those exact words to him ... for soooo long.”

Everybody laughed at that.

Quietly, except to Jennifer who could see what I was doing, I began trying to figure out the trek our 50-State Tour would likely take.

“I thought you were joking about that,” she said to me.

“I did at first, but it started gnawing on my brain, so I’m trying to work it out. The Mansion might be open before we go back out, if we do.”

“Cool,” she said. “I love you, hubby.”

“I love you wife ... can you even believe that only four years after we first met that we would be married?”

“I knew it the moment we met, when I first sang for you,” she said, “I dreamed my dream ... and it came true.”

I couldn’t think of anything clever to say, so I just went on with what I was doing. She was quietly helping me as I went along. Not all capital cities are very big. I skipped Alaska and Hawaii the first time through to determine how much driving was involved without them. With all the miles we have been putting on these buses, we may need to replace one or both of them first.

Jenn pointed out that from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Little Rock, Arkansas we could slip into Jackson, Mississippi. I gave her a nice kiss for that.

“It’s not a state, but what about Washington DC?” she asked.

“Where would they have space for a sports stadium?” I asked stone-faced.

She got her laptop, and was quick to show me National Park, where a team called the Washington Nationals played baseball. I had no idea. I looked it up ... it holds 41,418 people. Who knew?

My wife also showed me the Verizon Center, where the Washington Wizards played with a basketball capacity of 20,308.

Apparently, I wasn’t only invisible back in the day, I hadn’t been keeping up with professional sports much at all.

So, I put the District of Columbia in the loop, between Richmond, Virginia and Annapolis, Maryland. Fortunately, the states and their capitals are in closer proximity to each other in the East, for a longer break between performances.