Brian Boitano Skating Spectacular with Barry Manilow

Tonight I had the great pleasure to see this show at AT&T Park. I had been going back and forth on attending, but when I told a friend about it she wanted to go as well. A rink was build on the baseball field. I will write a rundown of the show to the best of my memory. The cast of skaters:

• Brian Boitano
• Dorothy Hamill
• Viktor Petrenko
• Steven Cousins
• Yuka Sato
• Jason Dungjen
• Elena Leonva/Andrei Khvalko
• Vladimir Besedin/Oleksiy Polschuk
• Musical Guest Barry Manilow
• Special Appearances by David Pelletier and Kristi Yamaguchi

The musical theme was the 70s. The cast came out to a medley of songs including a song by Boston and Play That Funky Music. I can't remember the other songs played in the intro.

Barry Manilow was introduced. He then sang The Way We Were. The skaters were Brian and Dorothy.

Next up was Steven Cousins. Barry sang It Never Rains in Southern California.

A skater in a silver suit came out and did the worm on the ice. It turned out to be David Pelletier!!! This led into Vladimir and Oleksiy skating their Amadeus number (Eine Klein Nachtmusik and Rock Me Amadeus).

Kristi Yamaguchi was introduced. She in turn introduced her friend and mentor Brian Boitano. John Lennon's Imagine was the music. Brian wore a billowy beige shirt with what appeared to be bleached jeans.

Elena Leonova and Andrei Khvalko skated to a song whose name I don't know, but it was an upbeat song that if my memory serves me right was a song Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen skated to during the Nagano Exhibition. They were dressed in shiny outfits and were carrying bags that looked like they were full of money and coins. The most amazing part was the headbanger spin while she was holding a bag!!!!

David Pelletier came back as a cowboy as a precursor to Victor Petrenko skating to Sonny and Cher's 'A Cowboy's Work is Never Done' followed by a version of Cotton Eye Joe :think:

Barry returned to sing My Eyes Adored You. The skaters were Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen. Beautiful lifts and spins. I don't remember any jumps.

Brian and Kristi came on stage to thank Barry Manilow again. Kristi said to Brian how they've had many opportunities to skate together and in different venues, but never a baseball field. Kristi then introduced Dorothy skating to one of her Barry Manilow songs - Weekend in New England. Dorothy was in a beautiful red dress.

That was the end of Act 1. Time for a refrigerator break - I'll be back with Act 2.

Herm (sk8ngnutt)

thanks for the review so far!

Can't wait to hear part two - I love what you've written so far.

Just the thought of Brian and Dorothy skating to The Way We Were almost brings tears to my eyes. It seems perfect.

I was thinking the same thing!!

(back from the fridge break....)

OK, on to Act 2

Kristi came out and introduced the four skaters (not clear on who, but included Steven and Viktor). They were dressed in Giants uniforms and were carrying bats. They skated to Cheap Trick's I Want You To Want Me. They did all sorts of fun group moves with the bats. However, in her intro Kristi warned us about the groundskeeper. Turned out to be Vladimir in a cheerleading outfit

Yuka opened the second act with her number to Gloria Estefan's Turn the Beat Around (IIRC, she skated this one season in the pro competitions). She was wearing a black miniskirt and a pink and black striped top. Gorgeous, as always

Barry returned to sing Even Now. The skaters were Elena and Andrei. The headbanger was a highlight again, but I personally thought it was a bit jarring to do in a slow number.

Viktor took the ice with Barry singing How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. He landed 2 double axels.

David came out to clean the ice for Vladimir and Oleksiy. They did their Swan number in the white tutus with all the incredible strength lifts.

Steven Cousins came out for his second number. He wore a black and white striped shirt and black pants. His music was Thunderball by Tom Jones. I think he landed a triple flip. He also did a triple toe and a triple salchow. Landings were not the best, but such the showman.

Dorothy took to the ice for her second number. She chose one of my all-time favorite songs: Time In A Bottle by Jim Croce. Her dress was either cream or pale yellow. She landed an axel and a double toe. What I loved were her deep edges and how every move fit exactly to the music - the spread eagles, the spins, the spirals. Every part of her body was in place: the tilt of her head, the point of her fingertips and toes, etc.

Brian took to the ice. There was a intro video clip. He talked about how his mother always suggested pieces of music for him to skate to, but his father didn't. When his father found out about this show, he suggested to Brian that he should skate to I Write the Songs. Brian dedicated this number to his father. As he skated and Barry sang, pictures of Brian and his parents were shown on the screen.

The cast returned for the final number: Could It Be Magic. It started out slow and ended with the dance version.

I'll return with another post detailing the reshoots (since skaters never fall on TV ) and other final thoughts.

Herm (sk8ngnutt)

Thanks for the review! I'm glad someone from the boards got to go enjoy the show!!!

Sounds like a fantastic show! I'm glad you got to experience it.

awesome show... can't wait to see it on TV

Thanks for the review! :agree:

Thanks for the spectacular review! What a spectacular cast! Hats off to Brian for putting together another classy show! arty:

Went. Have photos. Will take time to process. Will write review, hopefully sooner rather than later...

A few comments:

Huge Barry Manilow fan contingent in the audience. The sections where they actually sold seats were pretty much full, all the way up to the top. Lots of "Barry! Barry!" chanting. Some of it rather obnoxious since they sometimes did it while a skater was out on the ice (this was during retakes). But yay for enthusiasm, I suppose. They also enthusiastically sang along to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and enthusiastically yelled out their love for Brian, Dorothy, and Victor, as well as Barry. Plus, the gasps during the Besedin/Polichuk's numbers were very audible, which was fun.

Tiny ice surface. It was quite impressive when Brian did a 3-jump combo (in retakes - in the show he only did two of the jumps), especially a 3-jump combo without skidding off the ice into the grass .

Dorothy Hamill has gorgeous edges. Just gorgeous. Pretty much soundless, very deep, and smooth and flowing. She's also got a lovely layback and was still trying the jumps out there - single axel, I think, and maybe some doubles?

Yuka and Jason's program to "My Eyes Adored You" was lovely. Helps that I like that song due to Jersey Boys, but they were lovely skating together. Lots of dips (ie, him dipping her) in the choreography. Yuka's solo number was very dancey and fun. She used the costume to her "Naughty Girl" number for this one.

I know skaters reuse music all the time, but as a Kurt fan, it was somewhat disconcerting to have them use "Play That Funky Music" during the opening number. Somewhat less disconcerting for Dorothy to skate to "Time in a Bottle," which was lovely.

Besedin & Polichuk are quite amazing. The strength and balance and precision required in what they do - especially b/c few of the lifts were just the one lift or flip or whatever, but so many of them were connecting from one lift to another to another, with both skaters changing position and orientation and turning while maintaining their grasps on each other and the lift... And they manage to work in very amusing personas into it. Nothing complex, but enough to be entertaining on top of their amazing acrobatics. Probably helps that I rarely see them so I can be amazed with fresh eyes.

David Pelletier has got great spread eagles - very deep edges. And he's a lot of fun on his own. Plus, he's a funny retake host. He pulled Steven Cousins out on the ice with him because he claimed as a pairs skater, it was too scary to be out there by himself, so Steven is his Jamie. Then he looked at Steven and said.."Are you ready for your death spiral? aww you haven't shaved. Never mind. I don't skate pairs with people who haven't shaved." He also made jokes at his own expense about how they gave him this mike but he's not used to being on his own, plus his English isn't even very good, he's French, etc. He said people ask him about Jesse, and that Jesse's doing really great, that he was there that evening, in the locker room. Said he was standing where Barry Bonds used to sit. He tried to get people in the audience to ask Steven questions, by skating directly over to a group of people and thrusting his microphone into their faces without warning (rather than finding out if anyone had questions) and got rejected, so he was like "Steven, you're a failure." Then he tried to hand the mike to Steven who took it, said "No" into it, and handed it back. Poor David =).

I'm a little tired of baseball numbers by now, but it kind of made sense in this case. The four skaters had Giants jerseys with their names and the year of their respective Olympics or championships on them. So "Boitano 88" "Pelletier 02" "Cousins 98" and "Dungjen 97". The number was a little weak choreographically, but it was cute, recycled a few things from the SOI baseball number, and was made much more amusing by a cross-dressing groundsweeper who joined them partway through.

Viktor was great, though required the most retakes of anyone. Possibly b/c I think he may have tried more jumps than most everyone else... His cowboy number was cute and fun, and his "How Do You Mend a Broken Heart" was lovely.

Leonova & Khvalko's first number to the Italian or whatever pop song was a bit odd, but had a lot of character. Their second number was lovely.

Steven Cousins was Steven Cousins. Big grin, one familiar program from SOI a few years back (What's New Pussycat?) and one Barry program...

Brian's "Imagine" and "I Write the Songs" programs were both gorgeous. "Imagine" had choreography I liked quite a bit but at times his turns and transitions seemed a bit jarring (as in the movement was jarring, not that it was jarring outside of the choreography). I'm thinking it's b/c of the need for such an expansive, sweeping skater to confine his movements to such a small space.

Kristi Yamaguchi was there to do some hosting but really was out there very minimally. They mostly had an announcer's voice announcing everyone and she only really came out to introduce like 2 or 3 things. She looks great, though.

OK I guess that was longer than I meant to write, if not a super-concrete review...

Thanks to both reviewers -- I'm looking forward to this on TV.

AT&T PARK!!!!!
That's my hometown. Hahaha

Sounds like a wonderful show.
Thank you so much for the recap!

I know skaters reuse music all the time, but as a Kurt fan, it was somewhat disconcerting to have them use "Play That Funky Music" during the opening number. Somewhat less disconcerting for Dorothy to skate to "Time in a Bottle," which was lovely.

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I wasn't going to say anything since I hadn't seen it, but since you said it I'll just say I agree (though Dorothy is not a favorite of mine, and I really like Kurt's program so it'll be hard/annoying to watch lol)

Kurt and Brian competed against each other and Kurt used PTFM!!! So not right (Brian 'unfairly' beat him too with Wild Elephants! WUZ ROBBED! )

Great review, Teenes. Thank you. Is this going to be on TV?

yes... it's in place of his skating spectacular that's normally on new years day... IIRC it's supposed to air around Christmas ?

Tina, thanks for your great review, too. Very much looking forward to your pictures. arty:

Check out Heather's Figure Skating Schedule for the airdates of this show here:

http://heatherw.com/mk/sch.htm

Thanks for the reviews and I'm glad you all had a great time!

Loved the second half of your review.......I can't wait to see this one. I'm sad to hear it was on small ice and Brian and Dorothy are not "small ice" skaters. They both have the most beautiful edges and Dorothy's body positions are first rate.

This sounds like a classic Brian show.

I went to the show, too -- I thought it was absolutely great. The weather was really pretty nice -- I didn't get cold. I sprang for the on-field seats and was glad I did -- my friends opted for the stadium seats and they said it was pretty dark and you couldn't see much -- the big screen was good, but so elongated that it cut off the skaters' heads when it zoomed in. The setting looked good on the screen, though, so it'll look nice on TV -- and it looked GREAT from my seats on the field (I got on the second tier of on-ice seats -- really, really good, thought I wouldn't have wanted to sit on the second row on each level -- for some reason, they had two rows of seats on the same level on each tier -- I'd guess the people sitting behind me would have had a hard time seeing over my head.

Hope Teenes doesn't mind me using her review as a guide so I don't have to do my own complete one -- she's already done a great job.

Teenes said:

Tiny ice surface. It was quite impressive when Brian did a 3-jump combo (in retakes - in the show he only did two of the jumps), especially a 3-jump combo without skidding off the ice into the grass .

Dorothy Hamill has gorgeous edges. Just gorgeous. Pretty much soundless, very deep, and smooth and flowing. She's also got a lovely layback and was still trying the jumps out there - single axel, I think, and maybe some doubles?

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Yeah, pretty darn small. Brian, at least, needs more space to really show off his speed, power and edges, but he did all right on this (being so close, he really whizzed past quickly!). It was impressive to see him so close and get a feel for the speed, the depth of the edges, his complete control of those edges and his power. Dorothy is so elegant and beautiful, but I thought this size ice suited her, because she could show off her edges and speed without having to cover a huge rink -- anything much bigger and the fact that she does rather lack jumps may have been more obvious. On this surface, everything else that she did that was so beautiful (lovely, lovely Ina Bauers, still some of the best-centered spins in the business, lovely layback, gorgeous smiles, elegant arm movements) that any lacks were basically unnoticeable.

Teenes said:

Yuka and Jason's program to "My Eyes Adored You" was lovely. Helps that I like that song due to Jersey Boys, but they were lovely skating together. Lots of dips (ie, him dipping her) in the choreography. Yuka's solo number was very dancey and fun. She used the costume to her "Naughty Girl" number for this one.

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I loved "My Eyes Adored You." So perfect for them, and really a lovely skate. I think Yuka's solo was to "Turn the Beat Around." Very cute and sassy. I can't think of a time I haven't enjoyed Yuka's skate. She is so smooth and just looks like she loves being out there. Love her skating.

Teenes said:

I know skaters reuse music all the time, but as a Kurt fan, it was somewhat disconcerting to have them use "Play That Funky Music" during the opening number. Somewhat less disconcerting for Dorothy to skate to "Time in a Bottle," which was lovely.

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This didn't disconcert me at all, but then, I'm not that much acquainted with Kurt's repertoire. I've felt that way about sometimes when other skaters re-use of ideas and music used by my favorite skater, however, so can sympathize to a point (although I never really feel anyone "owns" a piece of music and figure that most of the time you could go back and find a skater who had used something my favorite was well-known for way before he/she did -- shrug). A short clip in an opening medley of songs isn't much of a "re-use" of music, I think. And the baseball number's music ("I Want You To Want Me") had been used by Brian already in an earlier show (Skating Romance II) as part of a medley in an opening number.

Teenes said:

Besedin & Polichuk are quite amazing. The strength and balance and precision required in what they do - especially b/c few of the lifts were just the one lift or flip or whatever, but so many of them were connecting from one lift to another to another, with both skaters changing position and orientation and turning while maintaining their grasps on each other and the lift... And they manage to work in very amusing personas into it. Nothing complex, but enough to be entertaining on top of their amazing acrobatics. Probably helps that I rarely see them so I can be amazed with fresh eyes.

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It's been awhile since I've seen them, so it was easy to enjoy them, moreso because my guest at the show had never seen them (and hadn't seen much skating ever) and thoroughly enjoyed them. However, they, like most of the pro skaters, are starting to show their age a bit (most of the pros have been at it a long time, since there's really nobody going pro anymore) -- their moves that used to be rock-solid are a bit shakey now and I could see them wobbling more than a bit here and there -- and it seemed they'd taken out several moves in the swan number, and the first number really didn't have that many big moves in it. They're still unique, however, and plenty entertaining.

Teenes said:

David Pelletier has got great spread eagles - very deep edges. And he's a lot of fun on his own. Plus, he's a funny retake host. He pulled Steven Cousins out on the ice with him because he claimed as a pairs skater, it was too scary to be out there by himself, so Steven is his Jamie. Then he looked at Steven and said.."Are you ready for your death spiral? aww you haven't shaved. Never mind. I don't skate pairs with people who haven't shaved." He also made jokes at his own expense about how they gave him this mike but he's not used to being on his own, plus his English isn't even very good, he's French, etc. He said people ask him about Jesse, and that Jesse's doing really great, that he was there that evening, in the locker room. Said he was standing where Barry Bonds used to sit. He tried to get people in the audience to ask Steven questions, by skating directly over to a group of people and thrusting his microphone into their faces without warning (rather than finding out if anyone had questions) and got rejected, so he was like "Steven, you're a failure." Then he tried to hand the mike to Steven who took it, said "No" into it, and handed it back. Poor David =).

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David was a lot of fun and very charming -- and did a good job with his fairly lengthy solo in the first part of the finale -- landed a double axel and did a pretty good death drop along with the spread eagle, and was quite a "character" in his other little bits to lead into the acrobats, Viktor's first number, etc. Brian's done this in the past (brought in a pair guy to skate without his partner -- John Zimmerman, Andre Khvalko) and usually had a bit more for them to do, but with everything that was going on with having this outdoors, I thought he did pretty well getting David involved and letting him show off his own skills. A lot of fun.

Teenes said:

I'm a little tired of baseball numbers by now, but it kind of made sense in this case. The four skaters had Giants jerseys with their names and the year of their respective Olympics or championships on them. So "Boitano 88" "Pelletier 02" "Cousins 98" and "Dungjen 97". The number was a little weak choreographically, but it was cute, recycled a few things from the SOI baseball number, and was made much more amusing by a cross-dressing groundsweeper who joined them partway through.

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Having not seen a baseball number before, I wasn't blase at all about this one. I thought it was pretty cute and well-done. The guys (particularly Brian) were all laughing throughout and having a great time, and I thought they did pretty well with the choreography. The cross-dressing groundsweeper was (I thought) a representation of Morgana -- anyone remember the buxom woman who got famous for a year or two by jumping out of the stands at various baseball games and kissing players. His getup was pretty reminiscent, so I figured that's what he was representing. Whatever, I enjoyed it, and it certainly was appropriate in the ballpark (the crowd didn't even need the scoreboard to flash the words of the song -- when it started playing, they started singing).

Teenes said:

Viktor was great, though required the most retakes of anyone. Possibly b/c I think he may have tried more jumps than most everyone else... His cowboy number was cute and fun, and his "How Do You Mend a Broken Heart" was lovely.

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I havne't seen Viktor for a few years, and didn't like some of the stuff I had seen lately, but I thought he was excellent in this show. The cowboy number "A Cowboy's Work is Never Done") was outstanding -- cute without being cutesy -- and he did a slew of double axels in both numbers -- I think he tried just the one triple toe, but overall, did a lot of jumps and had lots of content with other things. I appreciated that the crowd responded very warmly to him when he first came out in the opening (Brian was first to skate in the opening and, of course, got a huge cheer, but the audience, although it didn't seem to be a particularly skate-centric one, obviously recognized and appreciated Viktor, too) and I really appreciated his skating!

Teenes said:

Leonova & Khvalko's first number to the Italian or whatever pop song was a bit odd, but had a lot of character. Their second number was lovely.

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I admit to being a big baffled by their first humber -- the music sounded like some sort of mexican/latin type music (maybe Italian, I don't know), but they were in western-type garb and had bandana masks with bags of money to start with, with a definite "heist" theme to the program. It was very well done and enjoyable, I just didn't understand the reason for the theme. Maybe if I knew what the music was (could it have been from a 70's movie I should recognize?) I'd have a better idea of the why. Their second number was to Manilow singing "Even Now," and, as Teenes said, it was lovely. They redid a throw double axel that she two-footed, but both their numbers were great.

Teenes said:

Steven Cousins was Steven Cousins. Big grin, one familiar program from SOI a few years back (What's New Pussycat?) and one Barry program...

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Steve actually tried a bunch of triples, I think -- I think he doubled a toe loop in his first number (to Barry singing ... something-or-other, I can't remember what, but I think it was off his 70s CD, not his greatest hits. The second number was "Thunderball," the theme from an old James Bond movie, and I think he hit two or three triple toes. His skating seems to have fallen off a bit lately, but he did a good job in this show.

Teenes said:

Brian's "Imagine" and "I Write the Songs" programs were both gorgeous. "Imagine" had choreography I liked quite a bit but at times his turns and transitions seemed a bit jarring (as in the movement was jarring, not that it was jarring outside of the choreography). I'm thinking it's b/c of the need for such an expansive, sweeping skater to confine his movements to such a small space.

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I absolutely loved both these programs -- the choreography in the first one was very interesting and a bit different for Brian, but I thought it worked very well. I would like to see it on a bigger ice surface, but this one worked well enough and he could manage triple toe and salchow. And I loved the costume (soft light blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt with blues graduating up into white). And the second number was beautiful -- a lot of his "signature" moves, a couple of triples, combined with long, sweeping moves (not enough room to completely "sweep," but still beautiful) and the video montage with pictures of his dad was lovely. From where I sat, he appeared to be really trying to "hold it together" before the program began, and he did it very well. He was kinda funny in retakes, because he wanted to get that triple-double-double in, although there'd been nothing wrong with the triple-double other than that he ran out of space to do the third jump. THEN he insisted on re-doing the double axel, too, although there'd really been nothing wrong with it -- guess he was dissatisfied with the slightly less-than-smooth landing and wanted it to be perfect for dad! A lady a bit down from me was wondering aloud what in the world he was there to re-do in that number, since it had been perfect to start with. After his last retake, he took the microphone and kind of gasped out (he was out of breath from the retake) a very heartfelt message about how much he appreciated everybody, how magical it and been, and "Thank you, San Francisco").

Teenes said:

Kristi Yamaguchi was there to do some hosting but really was out there very minimally. They mostly had an announcer's voice announcing everyone and she only really came out to introduce like 2 or 3 things. She looks great, though.

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Yes, she did look great and she said some very nice things about Brian in her introduction of him, and about Dorothy, when she introduced her. Both have been her "heroes" and her "mentors," and it was fun to see her there. Barry did a nice job, too, seemed happy to be there and sang well for the most part. He came out once to do a "retake" with Viktor, although it appeared he basically just lip-synched the retake so they could get shots of Viktor in front of him, i guess.

Anyway, for me, a great, great show -- I enjoyed every number and it was well-skated (the retakes were basically to add a revolution here and there -- Dorothy, Viktor and Elena had some two-foots to re-do -- and most of that could be attributed to the small surface -- and everyone hit their retakes first try completely flawlessly).

One funny thing -- at intermission, instead of the tiny zamboni coming out to resurface, all of a sudden there were 3-4 people out there with snow shovels "shaving" the top of the ice, then they attached a hose to one of the field spiggots and sprayed the ice and then squeegied the water around to smooth it out. The Zamboni was sitting off to the side and was eventually pushed away -- I asked one of the people who were out on the ice what was going on, and they said the zamboni broke down and this was the only way they had to resurface the ice! I've never seen it done that way, and it wasn't perfect, but it did do the job and the skaters handled it like pros. It was pretty funny to watch.

Oops, this turned out to be way long -- I guess I really did enjoy the show!