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Halloween On Ice - Springfield, MA - Oct. 8, 2006
written by Tina
It's a really fun show. There's a loose theme throughout, as
described in the article, of Nancy Kerrigan being kind of the innocent
or normal girl who encounters all these strange characters on
Halloween, and in the end, is transformed herself I guess into a witch
(the music for her program is from Wicked). Kurt is "Scarecrow", a
very floppy, goofy character who's all loose-limbed. Rory Flack (who I think was a last minute
substitute for Irina Slutskaya) was a gypsy girl. Josef Sabovcik was
a zombie (his costume actually had guts showing through skeleton and
his makeup was kind of freaky). Dan Hollander was a very red devil.
Todd Eldredge was Frankenstein. Steven Cousins was Dracula. Shae-Lynn
Bourne was a very slinky, sexy cat. Galit Chait, who didn't have a solo, was the
bride of Frankenstein, and came out for the group numbers. They stayed
in character throughout, taking it through at least their first
program, and at least somewhat for the second.
Kurt's two programs are fantastic. The first one is to "If I Only Had
a Brain" (duh) from the Wizard of Oz soundtrack (someone said it was
to the long version that was cut from the movie?). Think Raggy, only
an entirely different character and far looser limbs and floppier
movements. Kurt's so fluid with his pratfalls, his footwork, his
movements, and his skating to the music (which we knew), and he turns
what could be just a gimmick program into something really great. His
second program is to "Hall of the Mt. King" by Mannheim Steamroller
(except I think they didn't perform this one - I didn't look at the
stage, that's what the run list says), and it's also excellent. He
still stays completely in character but this program is basically what
would happen if the Scarecrow was to skate a serious dramatic piece.
I think you guys are really going to enjoy his numbers. He also of
course stayed completely in character for the group numbers as well.
It was fun watching him (though I didn't watch him the whole time so
probably missed some stuff) b/c he kept doing little in-character
stuff that people may or may not have noticed. Like, while the skaters
skated down the ice hand-in-hand, he kept turning front to back, back
to front like he didn't know which way to go. Or when they were just
stroking down the ice, he maintained his floppy bodyshape and funny
steps.
Other highlights of the show included a hilarious Dan Hollander
starting off dressed as the devil in a nun habit, and then shedding
the habit to reveal...a devil with a blue dress. He also did a fun,
fast-paced number to "Devil Goes Down to Georgia" (with Nancy Kerrigan
"out-skating" him, though to be honest I thought Dan's footwork was
better). I either haven't seen him skate before or I haven't seen him
skate in a really long time, but he was a lot of fun to watch - he has
quite fun footwork and his jumps are really neat - they kind of
reminded me of Scott Hamilton's jumps. Good spring, tight rotation,
and down. Shae-Lynn Bourne makes an excellent cat and she so clearly
loves performing. Her two numbers were both in the first act - she led
off the show post-opening with "Dark Shadows" and then ended the first
act with "Gotcha" from Fosse. Steven Cousins did "Dracula" from Bram
Stoker's Dracula for the first act, and then did a duet with Nancy
Kerrigan in the second to "Crazy About You" by John Williams (such a
sappy, cheesy song!). I guess Nancy fell in love with Dracula at some
point during the show..maybe when he bit her in the opening. It was
quite a cute number, music notwithstanding, and the two clearly had
fun skating together. Apparently Steven helped out with the
choreography of the show (Lea Ann Miller was the main choreographer).
Josef Sabovcik still has stunning jumps - his tuck axel is just
awesome. He's also quite funny. His two numbers were "Fear of the
Dark" by Iron Maiden and "DOA" by the Foo Fighters. Rory Flack did
one number that seemed kind of, I guess gypsy-like. Almost Russian
folksy with lots of folk-dance like steps (the music was "All Hallows
Eve" by Mannheim Steamroller). Her other number was to "Black Magic
Woman", also performed by Mannheim Steamroller. She's got a fantastic
energy level and her flexibility is astonishing. Todd did "Ride of
the Valkyries" for his first number and did a great job of staying in
character as Frankenstein, even doing a jump with his arms held out
outstretched. Kurt was admiring a bit of his choreography where he
bends his leg with his arms and then places it down, and then does the
other bit - he kept imitating him at the rehearsal. His second number
was "Let Me Entertain You" which necessitated a loosening of his
character, but actually kind of worked. Nancy Kerrigan closed out the
show after an on-ice clothes-change with a skate to "Defying Graviy"
from Wicked. There wasn't much in the way of group numbers in the
show - there was the opening, and the ACT I opener was to "Monster
Mash". The finale was just the skaters coming out and doing bows and
showing off some tricks (Rory and Dan did side-by-side backflips, and
then at the very end, Rory, Dan, and Josef did a really cool
side-by-side backflip). Overall, though, the show was a lot of fun.
And it's airing Oct. 28 on NBC...
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