Scott Hamilton and Friends

The Scott Hamilton and Friends show in Philadelphia on October 23rd was one of the best skating shows I have seen ( and I have seen a lot of skating shows). I think the best part was that all the music was performed live. Most shows have a couple of live songs, but all the music was performed live by Jack Mack and the Heart Attack, Susan Anton, and Gary Morris. They had a stage set-up at one end of the rink with a black backdrop, which eliminated a lot of seating at that end of the rink. I really hope when the shows airs on December 15th that the quality of the music comes through. Jack Mack's group sang such a diverse range of music that there was something for everyone to enjoy. Actually, the best part for me was meeting Scott and Kurt before the show. I could have left at that point and been happy.

The performers included Scott Hamilton, Kurt Browning, Todd Eldredge, Yuka Sato and Jason Dunjen, Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, Stephen Cousins, Lucinda Ruh, Rory Flack Burghart, Renee Roca and Gorsha Sur. All of the performers performed separately in the first half, except Lucinda and Jason Dunjen. Yuka skated to Color of Roses with Susan Anton performing. It was nice to see, especially since Yuka had been using that music before this show even occurred. Scott declared it was coming up on the 5 year anniversary of his being cancer free. You may remember at his first show back after the cancer, he performed a routine with Gary Morris singing. He performed the same number in memory of the anniversary. It was really moving. Gary Morris stood on a platform on the ice in a big fur coat. I was so cold, I wish I could have borrowed it. Scott also mentioned he trained for a while at the Philadelphia Skating Club before the Olympics, so Philadelphia holds a special place for him. He mentioned Todd trained for a while in Philly also. I do not remember what Kurt skated to for his first number, but his footwork is just incredible. I would be tripping over myself.

In the second half, all of the skaters performed, except for Rory. Lucinda is such an incredible spinner. Her program really showed off her spinning ability. Meno and Sand performed on the ice with Roca and Sur. Kurt skated while Gary Morris sang a song from Les Miserable, in which he also appeared. Right after that Todd Eldredge skated to an upbeat number. I thought Kurt and Todd would have skated to the other's chosen music, but it was nice to see them skate to music different from what they usually skate to. Yuka and Jason skated a number together. She is really an all-around skater. Gary Morris's son performed a number from his new CD while Steven Cousins performed. At the end they did 2 group numbers. One a serious number sung by Gary Morris about how the world should unite and be peaceful. They then went into a fun number, where they all did their own thing.

There were very few errors made by the skaters, but for shows like this they like to make it perfect, so they asked everyone to stay for the retakes. I was surprised at how many people actually stayed. The show ended at 10, but the retakes took until 11:30.