GH: Nurses Ball 2015 Thoughts

General Hospital's three-day extravaganza that is the Nurses Ball ended yesterday. Below are my thoughts and some highlights of the 2015 event.

Friday, May 1

This episode has the red carpet and the beginning of the ball. Britt (who is visiting) and Brad are viewing the event together. Their comments are tamer than usual for the most part. After the red carpet, they split up Brad goes to the ball as Lucas called and Britt goes to see Spencer. The only exciting thing on the carpet was when Maxie fell after Spinelli stood on the train of her dress. The rest of the event was rather tame as people were announced.

Again the event started with the "Welcome to the Nurses Ball" song. Obrecht came and did another number, which this year wasn't a shock to the organizers. Many props were on the stage as she performed "99 Red Balloons". The first verse was the original song in German, but then she started on the English version. Ric came out and started singing "Marry You", by Bruno Mars. Carly with Spinelli's technical support interrupted his performance. Liz and everyone found out that Ric lied and Jake isn't the fictional Jake Barnes. This could have been the episode's cliffhanger, but it wasn't. Liz ended her relationship with Ric, and he was upset. Molly saw all of this, though we didn't really get anything with Molly and her Dad. Nikolas told Liz the truth that Jake is actually Jason as the episode ended. Brad filled in for Ric and sang "Marry You", and shocked Lucas with a proposal.

Monday, May 4

Lucas accepted Brad's proposal. Julian welcomed Brad to the family and Lucas went to do the Magic Milo routine. This year the Magic Milo group was Milo, Nathan, Lucas, TJ, Felix and Michael like last year. They all danced around in outfits that matched their jobs so Milo was a pizza boy and Nathan a policeman for example. The song that played was "New Sensation" by INXS. Once the guys were shirtless, Ellie had fun with dancing with Nathan.

It was then the girls turn as "The Haunted Starlettes" performed "Dear Future Husband" by Meghan Trainor. Sabrina started the routine and the others Maxie, Lulu, Sam, Valerie, and Ellie joined with her. They were in "typical" suburban housewife garb of the 50s or early 60s. Maxie had on rabbit ears along with her costume.

Spencer was the phantom of the nurses ball, with his mask and interruption on the video screen. It is understandable why he likes Obrecht as they are very much alike in presentation styles. Emma and Cameron was trying to dance the tango, but the sandbags that Spencer put on the stage was one step too far as Cam and Emma could have been hurt. Spencer's family was upset and left the ball to look after him.  Duke and Anna end up filling in after everyone sees Lucy, who isn't fully dressed (fulfilling the Lucy not in clothes on stage portion of the ball). Anna and Duke dance the tango for old times sake and the program aired clips of their original tango from the 80s.

The last performance of the night was of Patrick and Emma singing an original "Nothing I Can't Do", which was stated on twitter as being written by Jason Thompson who plays Patrick. (It would be ironic if GH submitted this for a Daytime Emmy and Jason won in that category after not getting one for his work as an actor. That said it would be cool if that happened.) Liz and Nik continue to talk about the situation with Jake being Jason. She decides to tell everyone, and goes on stage as the episode ends.

Tuesday, May 5

Liz doesn't share the information about Jake, but talks about Robin and Jason. This is a bit awkward though as no one is sure where Liz is going with her comments. At the Wyndamere, Spencer sees his mother Courtney who died on the day he was born. They talk, and he gets the courage to take off his mask. He is horrified to find out that she was from Atlantic City, and a townie like Cameron. Ned sings "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Queen, though he's wearing jeans and not leather pants. Spinelli does a sedate version of "It Might Be You", by Stephen Bishop, which was originally in the movie "Tootsie". (This is extremely meta as Tootsie is about life working at a soap opera and GH was one of the shows that was parodied in the movie.) Duke and Anna had a moment by Epiphany and Sabrina end the ball with "You're Not Alone" an original that has been part of the ball since it came back. Lucy stood back and watched, but Felix led her on stage as everyone in the auditorium went up and held hands in a circle.

This year there were product placements from Aveeno as it was in the background at the red carpet, and we saw the gift bags more than once. Characters also mentioned the products doing mini-adverts.

Those were the highlights of the ball. It felt like fewer characters were involved in the ball, though since it was a day shorter that may have been part of why it felt this way. Seeing some of the cast, we don't see as often was nice. Also I did appreciate that not every performance was impromptu, though I do wish there was more interaction with the cast mingling. There were more songs this year that I liked, which was good.