childfreegirl said:
Has anybody seen this show? I happened to find out today that it'll be in my neck of the woods on Dec. 30th with Dorothy Hamil. I'm thinking about buying tickets for mom and myself for Christmas. Of course I'd have to have front row. Would the $45/each be worth it? Although it's right after Christmas and right before Nats, I figure if I buy the tickets now I can swing it.
Any opinions?
I saw last year's show -- it had rotating guest stars and I saw a version that had Brian Boitano and Deborah Gibson as the skating/singing stars. I really enjoyed it (and talking to some of the production people afterward, I heard that it was a great show with Dorothy Hamill and also with Oksana Baiul/Rudy Galindo as the skating stars). It's definitely a different type of skating than full arena shows -- the ice is TINY (like about 60x45 or something like that), but the skaters do an amazing amount of real skating on the small ice. It's on a theater stage, so every seat is really good (although the front row is BEST -- I sat there for one show, and even though I ended up looking "up" at the performers a bit, ti was a great place to sit, because you were really right on top of them -- lots of fun! -- but I sat back 3-4 rows for the evening show -- the first was a matinee -- and it was also really good). There was a fun mix of "theater" and skating -- Deborah Gibson did a three-song set all by herself (wearing high heels and walking up and down the ice at times -- she said she had "cleats" on her shoes so she could do that), and Boitano did a three solos and several ensemble bits (I was surprised that he could do so well on small ice, but he did -- still much more speed and power than anyone else, but controlled enough to get double axels, triple toes, triple sals in, and really great to see so close up) -- and the ensemble skaters were good, too (Silvia Fontana was one of the ensemble skaters in the shows I saw, but she was probably only only name I really recognized, but I enjoyed them all). If it's like last year, there will be a lot of ensemble work, several pull-out solos by Dorothy Hamill (usually at least one with the Broadway singing star -- last year, I think she was with David Gaines, and I heard he was extraordinary, too), and some musical/comedy (they had a really funny piano/humorist, Dale Gonyea, who reminded me a bit of Victor Borge).
Anyway, it wasn't like any of the big arena (or even smaller-ice, like SOI or the Disson events where the cut down the size of the ice by quite a bit) shows I'd seen, but I enjoyed it. If you're up for skating in a different type of venue and enjoy ensemble work by good skaters who you probably haven't heard much about before -- as well as a big name or two -- I can recommend it.
(edited to add -- have you found a schedule for it anywhere? If it's coming around my place, I'd be interested in going again, but I can't find anything on ticketmaster other than a few dates in Chicago)
