Stars on Ice Review - Pittsburgh, PA Review - March 14, 2003

Warning this review is long.

Overview: Went with two non-skating fans daughters (knew only the names of Kurt (my influence) and Katerina) and we had the best time before, during, and after the show. Of course I was recipient of countless eyerollings and teasing before, during and after the show, but that is OK since that is the only thing they can get over on me.

I was pleased that the Arena was three fourths filled, especially after reading not so good turn outs at other arenas. Yay Pittsburgh area, I say area because I'm far away from Pittsburgh. I was surprised at how many of the on ice seating were occupied by little children at $79 a pop.

Celebrity Spotting: None by me and my Penguin spotter wasn't with us this time. I did hear Mario was there, that would be The God Mario Lemieux for all non-hockey fans.

To let you know ahead of time, I'm bias in favor of my favorites, mainly Kurt -Duh. I did not take notes, like I'm going to take my eyes from the ice, so this is from memory. My highlights: both of Kurt's numbers, Studz, Katerina's The Rest of Your Life, yes I'm surprised that Katerina made my highlights list, and Come Fly Away.

Opening
Most intro applause and cheers went to Kurt and Katerina. A good opening-not great. I was just excited to see all the skaters on ice. Finally someone got Todd in jeans and tee shirt, who would have thought. Poor Roca/Sur fell right at center ice in spotlights.

Born to be Wild- Alexei Yagudin: Great lights-Great music-No choreography unless you call Yags sliding on ice choreography. It is like not an ounce of thought was put in this number by anyone.

Bed of Roses- Ina/Zimmerman: This number is so much better live than on TV as is Kyoko. If there were any mistakes I didn't notice. This was my first surprise of the night; Bed of Roses just missed my highlight list.

Come Fly With Me-Sale/Pelletier: One of my favorites, I love the music, lifts and maybe thoughts of Underwood/Martini-sigh. Jamie's dress is the most gorgeous in the show.

Channel One Suite-Todd Eldredge: I like this but I like Miserere better. Fans are never satisfied, Channel One Suite is a stretch for Todd, which all fans want him to do, me included, but I like Miserere because it is so Todd. He did fall on a triple toe, but all his other jumps were right on.

Blues in the Night-Katerina, John, and Gorsha: Cute filler, hey you have to have something for the guys that came willingly or were dragged to the show. Cute comment I over heard from a man in the back of me-"Katerina is a big boned gal". Yes, Katerina is womanly. ;-)

Overcome- Alexei Yagudin: This is not the Yags or program everyone raves about-the Wow factor is not there. Missed a couple of jumps and seemed tired.

I'm Your Man-Meno/Sand: One of my favorites, I like this type of program for Jenni and Todd and they both ham it up to the max. They must be taking lesson from Kurt. I like some of their non-tradition Pair moves.

How Do You Keep The Music Playing-Kurt: Sigh-it just a pleasure to watch him skate. Kurt's jumps are so high and rotate so fast and all that in between stuff is gorgeous and of course this is all done perfectly in time to the music. He did double a triple toe, but came right back and did a triple.

Power Play-Sale/Pelletier, Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze and Todd Eldredge. When I wrote a review about Power Play for a TV review, I didn't have many nice things to say about this number, well, I still don't. It is like the audience is in a classroom and Todd is lecturing us about something. The ending with the hand shaking and all that camaraderie after countless performances can not be too sincere. This spot would be better used for Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze to skate to Meditation or a fun S/P and B/S number.

Kurt comes out and talks about Smuckers' sponsorship of Boys and Girls Clubs of America, I think that is right.

Intermission 20 minutes

Studz-The Men OK some Ladies: Studz and Kurt's Slippery Side Up has to be the audience favorites. Oh what fun, this is the type of number SOI does the best. I was following Kurt and Todd Sand. I was drawn to Todd because he has this number down pat and is hilarious, talk about hammy it up. Kurt does so many cool moves. All the guys are great. We had Jenni in front of us, so tiny and cute. This was my daughters' favorite number; they agreed the tight jeans did it.

Blues in the Night-Katerina Witt: I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this since I'm not one for GFB, but this number was just lovely. Kat's basic skating is wonderful and the best part she cover the entire ice surface. Kat is another skater so much better live than on TV.

Miserere-Todd Eldredge: My favorite Todd number and the audience also. My only disappointment was that Todd doubled his Lutz and since we were in the "Lutz corner" and so close to the ice I wanted to see a triple Lutz. Darn I like the way SOI is dressing Todd.

Prayer-Roca/Sur: Another one of my favorites, this is my kind of Ice Dancing. Best descriptive word-beautiful. Best move-seeing Gorsha lifting and turn Rene around and around with one arm. WOW

Slippery Side Up-Kurt: A perfect Kurt doing a perfect Kurt number. It is unbelievable how he can keep a perfectly timed program on time all the time. I hope this makes sense to more than one person. The audience loved the number and loved him.

Something Stupid-I/Z, M/S, and R/S: Cute filler I didn't mind.

Mame. T After Hours- Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze: I was not to thrilled with number for B/S, I mean how slocky can you get, but I guess I was wrong (how rare) this is definitely an audience number. The audience started clapping at the start of Elvis music, yes it that Elvis thing. Anton does better with Elvis than Elena does with Marilyn and I still think the Marilyn talking and the music cuts are bad. The kids in the audience were really into the number, I enjoyed watching a group of six, and they were having so much fun. Of course I think the perfect Elvis Program was in 1997 with Kurt, Katia and Kristi.

Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'-Sale/Pelletier: At the start I was watching for my daughter's reaction to the Journey music, she is a closet Journey freak (she didn't know it was coming), I got the biggest smile. I liked the program well enough, but I don't do well with Sandra's contrived sexy stuff, so I concentrated on the great moves and lifts.

Racing-Alexei Yagudin: Glad to see this live, but boy was he exhausted when he finished.

Finale:
Again a good finale, but not great. Note to TPTB at SOI some skaters can not Rap. The cast got a stand O and I was sad it was the end.

Final thoughts:
Show not long enough-at least 15 minutes shy of 2 hours.
I missed Kristi.
There was a noticeable lack of single Ladies.
Although I like all the Pairs the show, all the Pair numbers made the show unbalanced.
Lacked the family feel that SOI is noted for, could have been mistaken for COI show.
Was it worth the money spent-you bet. But it would be nice if the ticket prices would come down.