From: kevin@dipl.rdd.lmsc.lockheed.com (Kevin Anderson)
Subject: Stars on Ice review
Keywords: xxxxx
Reply-To: kevin@dipl.rdd.lmsc.lockheed.com
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 93 20:49:46 GMT


The "Stars on Ice" show rolled through the Oakland Collesium 
arena last night as part of a nation wide tour.  The tour 
featured some of the best skaters in the world skating to
a diverse selection of music ranging from classical to pop.
Andy Michael already has given his review of the show, and I just
thought I'd add my own 2 cents (and 100+ lines) worth.

First, some general comments:

The show was professionally done and extremely entertaining.  The
lights, sound, and skating were all top notch.  They were taping
it for television and said that it would be on NBC on Jan 23.  
Even if you see it on TV, I highly recomend that you see the show
in person if you have the chance.  I don't think that TV can capture
everything that is going on at the same time (and there is a lot
of stuff going on at the same time).

The show was broken into 2 acts and I thought the first act was better.
The first act featured more individual performances, and the 
individual programs were more entertaining and impressive.

Even though Kristi Yamaguchi got top billing, Scott Hamilton was
(IMO) the star of the show.  In addition to skating duties, he 
also did narration (using a wireless mike as he skated around the ice).
He also kept the crowd entertained with his wit and humour before
and after the show.  I was impressed with his skill at working 
the crowd (with a microphone, not his skating).  If he ever quits
skating he could have a good career as a game show host :-).

I was expecting mostly artistic performances with nothing more 
difficult than a double axel because it was a show and not
a competition.  A few of the skaters loaded their programs with
several triple jumps.  Some of the programs looked suspiciously
like competitive programs.  Perhaps some of them have an eye
on the next Olympics?  To their credit, there wasn't a single
fall on any of the triples during the entire show (although
there were a few wobbly landings and hands down on the ice).

Scott Hamilton: As I already said, Scott was the real star of the
show and the best skater out there.  He can still do his triples
and does cleaner jumps than any other skater out there.  The coolest
looking jump I've ever seen is a delayed open axel that he does.
He's been around a long time and his maturity really shows in his
skating.  This is the quality that puts him above the younger skaters,
particularly Kristi Yamaguchi.  He really seems to love being out
there.  During one of his programs, he had to put a hand down on the
ice after a triple flip.  He then hit his forehead with his hand
and did what looked like a Homer Simpson, "Doh!".  After the show
when everybody was leaving the building he came running back out
on the ice with a mic and told us that he had to do it again 
for TV (Wylie also had to do a couple of "retakes").  He got 
the crowd going by clowning around while they were replaying 
his program music leading up to the jump.  It took him 3 or 4
tries, but he finally hit it and the crowd just errupted.  So if
you're watching it on TV and the crowd suddenly errupts for no
particular reason, that's why.  Oh yeah, he also did a 
"bump and grind" type program to "Roz's Rap" that got the ladies
in the audience going.

Kristi Yamaguchi:  She gets my vote as the most improved skater.
I saw her last year in Worlds and in a tour she was on.  Both
times her performances, while technically flawless, were mechanical.
Even her artistic moves seemed somewhat mechanical.  Well, she's
come a long way, baby, in just half a year.  Her movements were
a lot more fluid and emotional than I've ever seen from her before. In
one program she had on a pair of tight spandex pants and a blouse that
showed quite a bit of Buh-zoom (look out Katarina you've got competition!)
Add to that her athletic skill, jumping ability, and the fact that
she's only 21 I think she's going to be the reigning queen
of figure skating for a long time.  She is one of the aforementioned
skaters who did a lot of triples.  She landed all her jumps flawlessly
(triple flip, lutz, and toe loop).  She still has a ways to go
before she's as comfortable on the ice as Hamilton, but considering
her age she can only get better (and she's already the best!).  
One of the best numbers of the night was when she skated to Queen's
"Who wants to live forever" with the 3 men from the 3 dance pairs that
were there.  The men took turns doing lifts with her (yes, you can
see Kristi Yamaguchi doing lifts!) that were as good as anything
they could have done with their regular partners.  The whole number
was beatifully done and carried (for me at least) an extra emotional
impact because of the death last year of Freddie Mercury.

Rosalyn Sumners:  She skated competantly and safely (no big jumps),
but (IMO) her performance was dulled by the higher caliber performances
around her.  If she would have been out there by herself I would 
have said she was great, but after the other performances I'd say
she was OK.  She did a western number (dressed up like a cowboy) that
I thought was kind of dorky.

Paul Wylie:  The second best skater out there next the Hamilton.  Even
though I think Scott is better, Paul turned in the best single program
of the night skating to "JFK" by John Williams.  If you saw the 
Pro-Am competition on TV a couple of months ago, it was the same thing only
he's gotten even better at it (and I thought it was great back then!).
I remember making a coment the last time that I thought the salute at
the end of his program was kind of dumb, but seeing it a second time
live I changed my mind.  Either he's gotten better at it, or seeing
it live gives it a more powerful quality.  In any case, don't miss seeing
this program if you ever get the chance!  It's great!  BTW, this 
was the program that Paul had to come back out after the show and 
do the jumps over again for TV.  He put a hand down on a triple lutz
and a triple flip.

Gary Beacom:  Gary was the "class clown" of the show.  He entertained
the audience with his humourous skating.  His first program was a 
riot.  He came out dressed in like a hippi from the sixties and 
"skated" to a semi-acid rock piece called "You shook me" by Led
Zepplin (this probably went over espicially well with the crowd 
since Berkeley is only a few minutes down the freeway).  The only
way I can think of to describe his skating is to imagine having
all your bones removed, taking lots of acid and then go skate.
If that wasn't weird enough, he did his second program in a
straight jacket.

Brian Orser:  Brian seems (to me at least) to be similiar in style
to Hamilton, though just a notch below.  I don't remember too much
about his performance except for one group number where him and
Scott did back flips side by side (which looked really cool and
was neat because they are about the only skaters who do that jump).
They then grabbed Paul Wylie and flipped HIM (with assistance of 
course).  In that particular number, they looked like Marky Mark
and the Funky bunch (rappers without singing!) and had a lot of
fun playing the rapper stereotype on the ice.

The dance pairs:  I'm lumping them all together because they seemed
to be more or less the same.  Christine Hough and Doug Ladret 
performed the best pairs program of the night.  They did a beautiful
job skating to "Story of the Blues".  Scott Hamilton added to the
performance by doing a narration and telling a "bluesy" story to
introduce them.  The other pairs were Ekaterina Gordeeva and 
Sergei Grinkov, and Kitty and Petter Carruthers.


Well, that's it.  I hope I didn't take up too much bandwidth.  I 
strongly recommend you see the show live even if you see it on TV.
I can repost the tour stops and dates if anybody wants me to.

Kevin Anderson