Every year, Kurt Browning's Gotta Skate goes in a different
direction, trying out new themes and concepts, and this year was no
exception. Whereas the first Gotta Skate really lived up to its
original title of "Gotta Dance", blending dance and skating in often
interesting ways, Gotta Skate II went a more rock-based, high-energy
route, utilizing rock stars and acrobats, while Gotta Skate III tried
centering the show around a central concept - a night at a club with
the skaters playing characters. All three shows tried to do things
both onstage and off, with varying results. Gotta Skate IV took yet
another route. All the trappings of the previous three shows were
gone - there was no dressed stage, no off-ice non-musical performers,
no obviously stated central theme. What there was, was skating, pure
and simple, occasionally enhanced by the live performances of Michael
Bolton or Jann Arden, standing unobtrusively on a small platform on a
corner of the ice. The singers were there to add to the experience,
not to distract attention from what was happening on the ice. And
they both did a marvelous job. Incidentally, this show will be airing
on CBC in Canada on Dec. 8 from 9-10PM EST, and on NBC Dec. 19 from
4-6PM EST.
Speaking of the music, for anyone who wants to hear music clips or
buy the songs: Act I:
Breathless - Yuka Sato & Jason Dungjen (music by X, off of their The Best: Make the Music Go Bang CD - btw I can't check this music clip so if someone went, can they check this and tell me if I'm right?)
Opening Number - Nessun Dorma - Cast w/ Michael Bolton singing
live
The show opened with very little fanfare. Michael Bolton was
announced (by Kurt's voice over the loudspeaker, as would continue
over the course of the first act in what seemed to be pre-recorded
introductions), the skaters (sans Kurt) came out on the ice and got
into their opening poses, and the music started up. Prior to the
show, I had read that Michael Bolton was slated to "sing opera",
performing Nessun Dorma, and found the concept mind-boggling. I
knew the man had a tremendous range, but he was a *pop* singer (last I
knew of him) with a rather hoarse quality to his voice. I had heard
Bryan Adams attempt to sing O Sole Mio at a Pavarotti and
Friends concert in the past and knew just how badly a pop singer's
take on an Italian aria could be. To my very pleasant surprise,
Michael Bolton did a tremendous job singing Nessun Dorma.
Slightly hoarse voice, yes. Lacking the smoothness and operatic
quality of your typical opera singer, yes. Powerful and emotional
voice that effortlessly reached all the notes? Also yes.
As for the skaters, the men were arrayed in simple, effective
looking black toning through grey down to white shirts and black
pants, while the women wore white dresses. We found out later in
retakes that the choreography to this number was done by Brian Orser. As
you might expect from a Brian Orser ensemble, the choreography to this
number was elegant and didn't feel like the number had just been
thrown together and rehearsed in 3 days. Kurt was highlighted,
entering last and getting a few spotlight moments, as would be
expected from a Kurt show, but overall this was a nice ensemble piece
to some beautiful music.
? - Kurt Browning, Brian Orser, and Elvis Stojko
The opening number transitioned smoothly into the first group number
of the evening, a particularly special thrill for Canadian audiences
and anyone who appreciates men's figure skating. Three Canadian
greats whose dominance over men's figure skating spanned over a
decade, each with their own unique style and personality, together on
the ice, not to compete, but to work together in an immensely charming
ensemble number. The music was a rather Riverdance-y sounding
instrumental, fast, upbeat, and exuberant-sounding, and the
choreography and mood of the piece matched the music. As would be
expected from three great footwork skaters, there was a lot of great
footwork in this number, both from each skater individually in a bit
of "look what I can do" one-upmanship, but also from all three skaters
together as they seemed to go "hmm...ah ha, I can do that too". There
were also side-by-side jumps and a death drop. The number balanced
between the three seeming to just hang out with each other, and the
three reaching out to bring the audience into their number with a lot
of personality. What was probably the most fun about this number,
though, was the immense amount of fun all three men (Kurt in
particular) seemed to be having with it. This is a number I'm looking
strongly forward to seeing on TV, not the least because there as a TV
camera smack in the middle of my view of center ice, where the three
of them spent at least part of their time out-footworking each other.
If I Could - Katarina Witt with Michael Bolton singing live
After the three men left the ice, Kurt's voice came over the
loudspeaker announcing "Two-time Grammy winner, Michael Bolton, and
two-time Olympic champion, Katarina Witt". Michael Bolton came back
out on the small platform that had been set up for him for the opening
number, while Katarina made her way out on the ice. This was a slow,
pensive, longing number. Kat's costume was a purple dress with black
lace around the bosom that looked rather familiar, and her
choreography was a bit reminiscent of that program (if anyone
remembers which I'm talking about). Long spread eagle, glidey moves,
a single or double jump or two, spins, and just pretty choreography.
As someone mentioned to me later, she has gotten a bit slower and less
smooth, but she's still got a lot of charisma on the ice. The live
singing also helped to add to this program, since the singing seemed
to me to have a bit more raw emotion than a studio-arranged recording.
There was a rather long transition between numbers here as the
stage crew tried to move the platform off the ice and kick the string
of lights out of the way. Kurt's voice came on to inform us that the
show was being recorded for TV (airdates listed above) but otherwise
it was a loooong pause. Gotta Skate II made it very clear that the
show was intended for TV audiences more than the ones in the arena
with the way they transitioned between numbers and did retakes on the
spot of some of the announcing. The only clue we had in Gotta Skate IV
that the show was a bit more geared towards TV were these long pauses
that no one bothered to try to fill, as they worked with the
logistical issues a bit. It only happened maybe twice in the entire
show, though, so it didn't end up being that big of a deal. The
audience was surprisingly quiet during the pause as well.
? - Jennifer Robinson
Finally, though, Kurt announced "Six-time Canadian champion,
Jennifer Robinson", as Jen Robinson stepped onto the ice. I really
liked the music for this program - very bluesy, with a female singer
singing with that kind of loose but passionate style a lot of blues
singers achieve. Unfortunately, I've had no luck whatsoever tracking
this song down through Google. I also quite enjoyed the program
itself. I've only really watched Jennifer Robinson skate in the last
year or so, and while she lacks the sparkle of a Josee Chouinard,
she's got her own quieter brand of personality out there, and this
program was a nice difference from the more cutesy programs of the
previous year. More attitude, a bit of posing, but also some nice
jumps, footwork and spins. A nice program.
Somewhere in Time - Brian Orser
Next was "Two-time Olympic silver medalist, Mr. Brian Orser" who
came out to shouts of "We love you, Brian!!" This was Brian's
fantastic "figures" number, where he opens the number performing a
series of figures, seeming to progress through the stages of figure
skating, moving from the basics (the figures) up through more advanced
spinning and jumping and edges. I still don't quite get the sweater
vest costume, but this is a program that Brian is particularly good
at. There's a calm elegance to it which slowly builds into passion
that really captures the audience. First standing ovation of the night
(IIRC). Granted, there were quite a few standing ovations by the time
the night was over, but this program was the first to inspire that
reaction.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Jamie Sale & David Pelletier
Of course, the next act "Olympic pair champions, Jamie Sale & David
Pelletier" were surefire crowd-getters as well. Poor David, though -
I heard a lot of "We love you Jamie!" yells from both men and girls,
but not so much with the "We love you David" (it was either in this
program or the next one where he actually reacted to this like "ok,
well fine, no, that's ok...I don't need your love" (not in those
words)). This was an interesting version of the well-known classic by
Jewel. IMO, a bit on the over-emoting side vocally, but the overall
feel of the song had an interesting slow, restrained, almost
lackadaiscal (yet emotional) feel to it. The choreography worked well
with it. I don't know if it's because I haven't seen them enough yet
or because they haven't fallen back on the same old same old yet, but
my impression of Jamie and David is that they haven't yet resorted to
pulling out the same bag of tricks and basic choreography in different
order to different songs thing yet. Instead, they seem to be seeking
variation in their programs and choreographic choices. Sure, there
are some repeated elements - they seem to do that handstand lift an
awful lot these days, for instance. But for the most part, their
choreography feels like it's specifically chosen for the music, rather
than just arbitrarily fitted to it. It's nice to watch. And got a
tremendous reaction from the audience. IIRC, they did make some minor
mistakes in this program, including David unable to hold his center on
the spin they do where he sticks out one foot, while Jamie is
suspended from his hand and foot (if that makes any sense) so that the
spin couldn't be completed.
Here Without You - Elvis Stojko
Then came "Olympic silver medalist, Elvis Stojko". I have to be
blunt. Elvis didn't impress me in the least in his solo numbers at
this show. And neither did the audience. In fact, both made a rather
negative impression on me to the point where I could barely stop
myself from rolling my eyes and groaning aloud in disgust by the end
of his second program. And believe me, this is not a reaction I tend
to have, I tend to be fairly positive or neutral about all skaters.
And I've never really watched Elvis skate before so I honestly had no
opinion of him one way or the other before this show. My problem was
that about 50% of Elvis' choreography seemed to consist of skating
with one arm extended towards the audience (evoking an instant wildly
enthusiastic cheer from that segment of the audience), blowing kisses,
standing with both arms outstretched (love me, love me, aren't I
awesome?), or stopping dead to point into the audience (or at one
point, climbing over the boards to plant a kiss on an audience member
and taking an inordinate amount of time to do so). That alone wasn't
the worst part, though. That made me roll my eyes and say "that's
really not choreography, Elvis". The worst part was how the audience
completely ate it up, cheering as if a god had come to earth and was
generously bestowing his presence on them. Now don't get me wrong,
I'm not against audience interaction or making the audience feel
included. But it should be done in the course of the program,
integrated into the choreography organically and *not* the point of
the program. For instance, Kurt stops for a while in "Don't Fence Me
In" to rope in an audience member, or plant his hat on another
audience member, but it's integrated right into his character and
choreography. And he's actually doing something besides standing
there and pointing at them. Shae-Lynn later in the show flirted with
parts of the audience outrageously but it fit her program and
choreography. Elvis' programs, on the other hand seemed an excuse to
do some nice jumps (and they were nice - I can see why he was a world
medalist and Olympic silver-medalist), an occasional good footwork
sequence, and spend the rest of his time basking in love from the
audience. That his programs got standing ovations, especially when
skaters like Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen, who did more in their
programs, didn't, completely pissed me off. I can see that Elvis can
be a good skater - his jumps and footwork and spins were nice. But I
can't believe he gets away with the kind of choreography he does and
gets the kind of reception he does. OK, end rant. Sorry if I
offended anyone.
Breathless - Yuka Sato & Jason Dungjen
Poor Americans (or at least non-Canadians) "World Champion and US
Pair Champion, Yuka Sato & Jason Dungjen" had to follow the audience's
lovefest with Elvis. This program was a really upbeat, fun number to
"Breathless" (if I found the right song on Google), a very 50's-style
song. Yuka and Jason were dressed in era costumes, with Jason
seemingly part of a bowling league and Yuka in a really cute
50's-esque dress. The choreography had a lot of the two of them
dancing together (again, 50's-esque), and some neat lifts. I do have
to admit that this program oddly felt a bit less well-choreographed
than their later number (which was apparently only put together in the
last 2 weeks specifically for this show). In particular, there were a
few times when Jason had to spin Yuka around his body where the
transitions seemed more than a bit awkward. Overall, though, this was
a fun program, and the two seemed to enjoy performing it. Yuka had
this definite twinkle in her eye and Jason had a lot more personality
than I've given him credit for in the past.
Yuka and Jason may not have created this program particularly for
this show (could have fooled me), but the number was obviously placed
here for a reason. I said before that the show had no obvious stated
theme. It didn't, but the ensemble numbers at the close of Act I and
Act II had a definite 50's-ish American music feel. At times, I felt
like Kurt was the one doing the "Salute to American Music" show. Yuka
and Jason's program set the mood and transitioned nicely into Kurt's
first solo program of the evening.
You Win Again - Kurt Browning
Kurt's program was skated to a Hank Williams, Jr. song, kind of old
country style with a slow rockabilly sound to it, and it was clearly a
character piece. This time around, Kurt seemed to be playing a
mechanic at the "Heartbreak Garage", wearing grey coveralls with a
handkerchief/rag stuck in the pocket, a backwards baseball cap, and
"tattoos" on his arms. Poor, possibly dumped mechanic. The program
was played for laughs to a certain extent - not in an overt comedic
way like "Slippery Side Up" or "Rag-GIDON-Time" or even "Bedlam
Ballroom" - but more in a body language/facial expression way. Kurt
seemed overly angsty with a way-too-pained look on his face in some of
his moves (particularly one of his final spins, where he had a
hilarious arrrgh look on his face). He did the kind of exaggerated
wiping his brow and wiping his nose kind of "I'm a coarse mechanic"
thing a few times. But the program came together through its
choreography and not just the funny character moments. Lots of
interesting and different footwork (in an entirely different style
than his "Ding Dong Daddy" or "Moondance" footwork) and some nice
jumps (including, IIRC, a beautifully high double axel). I liked it
quite a bit and am looking forward to watching it on TV.
Act I 50's style Closing Medley
Right Behind You Baby (Charlie Rich)
?? (something about "you got me shaking like a leaf on a tree")
Rockin' Daddy - Sonny Fisher
Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis Presley
?? (something about "shake it right up??")
Kurt's number transitioned right into the act I closing medley,
with Katarina and the other skaters coming out to join him on the ice
as he stood there. Everyone was dressed up in bright 50's-era
costumes, with huge poofy skirts on the girls, and the guys dressed up
in era costumes. It actually felt a little bit like that closing
number to the 1996-97 SOI show with everyone dressed up for the school
dance, only with less distinct character. But it kind of felt like a
50's sock-hop. Very very upbeat sequence of songs, and some really
really fun moments. Aside from the skaters getting periodically paired
off to dance together (Kurt with Katarina, I believe Elvis with Shae,
Brian and Jen) or trading partners, we had Kurt surrounded by the
girls at one point and dancing with each of them as the guys looked
on, or Elvis (inevitably) coming out to Blue Suede Shoes, or Brian
jumping into the arms of the guys who swung him back and forth while
the girls looked on. This didn't at all feel like an ensemble that
had only been rehearsed for a few days, it felt more like a slightly
simpler and shorter version of an SOI act I closing ensemble number.
Absolutely a joy to watch and a great way to end the first act.
Act II:
Act II opened in a far more low key way than Act I had ended. As
the music for intermission wound down, I caught a glimpse of a head
peering out of the doors to the tunnel, dressed in a cap and layers of
clothing... wasn't sure who it was until she appeared minutes later at
the other end of the ice. It was Katarina the cleaning lady, dressed
up in old-fashioned looking layers of dresses and a cute little cap!
Apparently, Kurt and Kat set out to showcase Katarina's comedic side
at this year's show, and put together this connecting series of little
bits with Katarina that did a nice job of connecting together the
first few programs of the second act, providing a nice bit of comedy,
and transitioning nicely into a later pairing that I'll describe
later. Katarina had her rags and her broom and her mop, and was
busily tidying things up. She set out two stools on the platform for
Jann and Kurt and brushed those off, and then settled back to watch
and await further opportunities to clean.
After a bit, Jann Arden and Kurt made their way out to that
platform to banter back and forth a bit before the second act started.
In all honesty, I found this part a tad bit forced with several long
pauses that threw off the rhythm of the banter, and Kurt not always
sounding 100% spontaneous and sincere (Jann fared slightly better but
even she sounded unsure of what to say at times). But it was also a
fun bit, since Jann would ask about a skating element and Kurt would
demonstrate it. For instance, she asked him about stopping, and he
did a slide stop in front of her with arm outstretched towards her,
saying something about "this is one way to stop, look in your eyes.."
and then laughing at himself and saying "that was very Brian
Orser-esque, wasn't it!" Or she asked him about spinning and how they
didn't get dizzy and he said the key was to close your eyes, and that
some skaters found spinning to be a good place to take a break, but he
finds spinning hard, having to keep your leg up (as he did a camel
spin) and not get dizzy. At one point she asked him to do a "triple
lutz-salchow-loop thingy" to which the audience and Kurt responded
with much laughter, and Kurt saying "Anything but the lutz, she had to
go for the lutz!" Jann cracked some jokes about the outfits and how
they ran out of the tiny outfits so she just took an usher's suit, and
that she tried on a sequined tube top but on her it was a cumberbund.
Also, when Kurt asked her if this was an unusual gig for her, she
talked about doing a charity thing in Sausalito where she sat in a hot
tub filled with skim milk and Lucky Charms, where people would buy a
box of Lucky Charms for $100 and pour it on them. Kurt said - maybe
next year we can do that together! His most unusual gig was riding in
Egypt on a camel with Kristi Yamaguchi...with skates on. Jann's
response to this? I don't know why he drinks before these things!
Oh, and during Kurt's demonstrations of skating moves to Jann,
Katarina kept coming out and cleaning up after him, sweeping the ice
after his top, and then mopping the ice after his spin. After staring
at her in some puzzlement, Kurt finally excused himself from Jann and
walked Katarina out, loudly whispering "we talked about this!" and
ushering her off the ice (though she stuck her head back out the doors
and hastily swept at the ice when Kurt turned around). They finally
got around to introducing Jann to the audience and talking about what
she was going to sing... as Kurt said, one of his favorite songs of
hers, he missed his mother... and Jennifer Robinson was going to be
her "guide" into the world of figure skating - he was so jealous.
Jennifer came out on the ice and Kurt went back backstage.
Good Mother - Jennifer Robinson with Jann Arden singing live
This was a really lovely program. Jann's got a beautiful voice and
the song was beautiful. She sang with such feeling - I think I'm a
converted Jann Arden fan =). Jennifer's choreography was beautiful as
well, with beautiful spirals, some footwork, a few jumps, spins, nice
edges... A few times, she went down to the stage end to skate towards
Jann, which was nice. I really liked this program a lot.
If You Loved Me - Yuka Sato & Jason Dungjen
I was very surprised to find out in retakes that this program had
only been choreographed 2 weeks prior to this show at the request of
Kurt and Lea Ann, specifically for this show, because it was simply
lovely and not at all unpolished. Yuka and Jason are seriously the
hardest working pair in skating right now, as Lea Ann said (they're in
like 5 Disson events and choreographing programs specially for
particular events?). This was definitely my favorite of the two
programs that Sato & Dungjen did in the show. Smooth, lyrical, with a
bit of a longing overtone. Just really beautiful.
All That Jazz - Shae-Lynn Bourne
Katarina came out again to assist Shae-Lynn, who came out in a red
silky wrap. She removed the wrap and brushed Shae-Lynn off, as if
getting her all prepped to start her program, while Shae-Lynn posed as
if she was a starlet waiting for her assistant to finish getting her
ready. When Katarina was finished, Shae skated over to the side and
draped herself against the boards between two men who somehow or the
other were sitting on the outside of the boards (hmm, pre-arranged).
When the music started up, at first I groaned b/c I thought the music
from "Chicago" had been way overdone, but then Shae started skating.
I don't know of a single lady in skating who can skate as
flirtatiously as Shae-Lynn or move her body in such slinky ways while
still doing a lot of interesting and active choreography. She's not
just standing there and posing, she's really moving, but she oozes
sexuality the whole time. The girl obviously loves what she's doing
and she skates with real personality and pizzazz. Also, apparently
Victor really wasn't necessary for some of her most famous moves, as
she does a lot of low-to-the-ice Shae-crusher type spins or the
hydroblading that were among B&K's signature moves. I'm not sure
Shae-Lynn can stand up straight to save her life, and I don't know how
she stands having her hair in her face all the time, but what she does
really works well for her. At one point in the program, she went to
the end and grabbed a glittery purse, which she used to spin around
her head as part of her choreography, and later came in handy when the
part of the soundtrack came up where her character confronts her
husband and shoots him. This was obviously all pre-arranged, but Shae
skated up to a guy who had these two women hanging off of him
flirtatiously, and the four of them mimed the whole scenario, with her
"shooting" him as he looked all alarmed and keeled over. The audience
completely got a kick out of this.
You Mustn't Be Discouraged - Kurt and Katarina
As Shae skated off the ice, Katarina came happily out with the
wrap, ready to wrap Shae back up in it, but she breezed right by with
her hand in the air, for all the world a snotty starlet brushing off
an inferior. This left Katarina looking all despondent, as Kurt came
out of the doors to see what was going on. At first, Kurt was all
admonishing and shrugging like "what can you do?" as Katarina lay the
wrap out on the ice and then sprawled face first on it in apparent
despair and discouragement. As Kurt shrugged to the audience,
Katarina picked herself up and brushed off, and then went over to
Kurt, apparently pleading for something as he shook his finger at her
and shook his head. However, when she turned away sadly, he seemed to
relent, skating after her with arms outstretched, seemingly about to
give her a hug, when she turned around and caught him off-guard. Her
spirits seemed to magically pick up and then the two did a really cute
number to "You Mustn't Be Discouraged" (lyrics run along the line of
"when you're lying in the gutter, feeling just a bit unsure, just wait
until tomorrow, you might be lying flat-faced down the sewer" or "when
you think you've hit the bottom and you're feeling really low, you
mustn't be discouraged, there's always one step further down to go"),
with Katarina apparently "playing the Carol Burnett" role. This was a
goofy, comedic number, with Katarina at times seeming to run circles
around Kurt, and other times the two just seeming to comically not
quite meeting on the same page. For instance, they'd stretch out their
arms and skate together to meet and dance, and then skate right by and
look perplexed. And at another point, they spun each other around and
bonked heads, wandering off rubbing their heads. It was just a really
adorable program. According to Lea Ann Miller in rehearsals later,
Kurt and Kat had worked on the program together over the summer, with
the intention of doing it in this show and showcasing Kat's comedic
side. Did a nice job of it, I must say.
Mi Mancherai (Il Postino) - Brian Orser
In a rather large change in mood, Brian came out to skate to this
beautiful, slow, more operatic (in a pop-operatic sort of way) song by
Josh Groban (boy is he a popular singer to skate to). This was a
beautiful program, showcasing Brian's elegant lines and beautiful
edges, as well as a bit more passionate of a program than "Somewhere
in Time". Unfortunately, the details of it are slipping my mind, but
it was a really pretty program for Brian.
In These Shoes? - Yuka Sato
Again, a change in mood. Yuka's solo program of the evening was
full of sass and personality, skating to a rather cute song where the
words basically seemed to center around the sentiment "do that, in
these shoes? you're nuts!" It's really nice to see how Yuka really
branches out in different directions in her skating, sometimes skating
beautifully lyrical programs, sometimes skating more flirtatious
attitude-filled upbeat pieces like this, sometimes doing pairs, and in
pairs, doing both slow and fast numbers. She's also got these
effortless, neat looking jumps where she's up, spin, back down,
without hardly seeming to impact the ice. I don't know how Yuka keeps
track of so many programs in a year but she does a fantastic job of
it. Fun program.
The Middle - Elvis Stojko
After my earlier rant, I don't really have much to say here except,
more of the same. Mouthing the words/singing along while pointing at
the crowd is *not* choreography. Nice jumps, though. Thank God he
didn't make any mistakes so we didn't have to watch him do retakes.
Crowd ate it up. Brasseur & Eisler did a much better program to this
song.
Radar Love - Jamie Sale & David Pelletier
It's just a bit disconcerting to watch Jamie and David skate this
number since I associate "Radar Love" rather closely with Kurt, to the
point where I feel like Jamie and David should be wearing
yellow/orange tight shirts and black bottoms instead of silvery shiny
material =). This is a really fun program, and Jamie and David come
out obviously ready to have fun. In the opening pose, Jamie was
already winking at the audience, and she makes a lot of eye contact
throughout the program. As usual, the two fill the program with a lot
of cool athletic lifts and throws, but it's also got a lot of
personality and fun choreography. Great program.
You Don't Know Me - Kurt Browning with Michael Bolton singing live
Poor Kurt. First time through this program was a bit of a
mini-disaster. It started out really well, with Kurt showing yet
another side to him - this one the more pensive, slow, and genuinely
kind of angsty. The song's got a bit of that slow pseudo-bluesy feel
to it (nice performance by Michael Bolton, btw), and Kurt captures the
feel of it. The last program was character-based, this one seems more
tightly introspective, with Kurt spending much of the time looking
down at the ice as he does footwork, or off into the distance as he
does a spread eagle or edgy move. It has a bit of a feel to it of
Kurt out there alone, pensively skating in an empty rink while he
mulls over his life and loves. But Kurt being Kurt, this is not just
edges, but also some interesting, once again different, footwork.
It's a slow program in an entirely different vein from "How Do You
Keep the Music Playing", for instance. That, to me, felt in some ways
like a generic male ballad anyone could do. This felt much more
Kurt-like to me b/c of the character and mood elements to it.
However, first time through this program, he doubled a sal, then
accidentally sat down on a spread eagle-to-Besti transition as he went
by Michael, got up in some embarrassment (goofily enough that people
were laughing already) and then accidentally went down on his next
jump, clearly thrown off by his mistake. After this, he didn't quite
seem to know how to recover - he tried for a while, but then
apparently decided that since he had to retake anyway and the crowd
was just giggling away, to give up, ending up on his knees at center
ice, shrugging apologetically to Michael while laughing embarrassedly.
He ended up going to borrow the mike from Michael, saying "Yeah,
ok. You'd be distracted too! I'm serious. I was like, trying to
listen and trying to watch, and then I'm in the air, and then not so
much... (to Michael) and we're *not* paying you by the minute, right?
Me and my tushka apologize." Michael responded "Ah, I'm honored to
accept that. Now you know what a high C feels like."
Since this is being taped for TV, they apparently decided to do the
retake right away while Michael was already out there and the platform
for him to stand on was already set up, so Kurt went off down the ice
to stand in his opening position, before apparently remembering that
he actually started off behind the doors, quickly dashing back there
and then trying to stop the doors from flapping, setting off gales of
laughter in the audience. I have to say, Kurt always makes his
screw-ups really funny. The second time through, the program was
perfect, even more so than it was before he started screwing up the
first time. Beautiful triple sal where he had doubled it before,
beautiful spread eagle into Besti, beautiful double axel, clean steps,
and he was possibly sunk even more into the character and emotion the
second time around. Lovely program though I'm not quite as fond of
the shirt =). I definitely look forward to seeing this again on TV.
Finale - Rock This Town - Cast
For the closing number, Kurt went backstage, while Elvis, Brian,
Shae, and Jennifer opened the program. It was to "Rock This Town" by
the Brian Setzer Orchestra (which has been done in skating shows
before, but is still a great deal of fun). This program was kind of
along the lines of a closing-number version of the act I closer -
upbeat, fun, with everyone in their 50's costumes and dancing with
each other, but shorter and with special spotlights to different
members of the cast, like S&P and S&D doing side by side
Detroiters/pairs moves, the two girls going out and spinning and doing
things side by side, and Elvis and Brian going out and doing things
side by side. It also featured a special appearance by "The
King". Not Stojko, but Kurt in a white sleeveless shirt and a huge
Elvis pompadour wig. At one point in the program, the singer goes
"say rock this town!" and the skaters were obviously trying to get the
audience to say it too, but it didn't quite catch on, unfortunately.
The skaters seemed to be having fun with it regardless. Towards the
end, Kurt pulled his shiny jacket off and spun it towards the boards,
where a few fans frantically grabbed at it, finally reaching over the
edge to pick it up off the ice. At the very end of the program, there
was a bit of silliness where the music turned to frantic drumming and
instrumentals, and each skater went out for a short bit to be
"spotlighted" but basically just spun frantically around waving their
arms or being otherwise goofy (at least, I think that was the closing
number and not the Act I medley). In a cute moment, when the skaters
were taking their final bow, Brian was next to Kurt and peering oddly
up at the huge pompadour on his head, before kind of noogying him.
Retakes
After the final bow, Kurt stayed out with the microphone, telling
the audience just how much fun he'd had and doing a mea culpa about
losing his concentration during his last program. He then tried to
figure out where his jacket went, saying "that thing cost me like
$26". The fans gave it back and then he said something like "if I was
going to give it to you, I'd do something like..." before spinning it
more aggressively and sending it flying back towards them again, much
to their delight. He thanked the crowd, the sponsors (says if you
can, to try to get adopted into the Smuckers family like he has, b/c
they've been some unbelievable sponsors, and that Tim Smucker was
there - "you can't get any more Smucker than this guy!"), and then
generally tried to kill time. Kurt can apparently do an Elvis
impression (singer, not skater), and after pointing out his little boy
on the side, said "I hope he grows up to be just like his dad" while
patting his wig, before saying "enough's enough" and taking the wig
off. I couldn't see Gabriel too well (across the arena and TV camera
in the way) but he looks like a dark-haired little boy. Kurt still
seems slightly blown away by having a show of his own, commenting on
that and how he freaks out every year but he's so proud of the show.
He finally seemed more than a little fed up at how long people were
taking, complaining "what, are you shedding skin in there?" and then
saying how it's those people with hair who take forEVER. Finally
Jamie came out and said she was waiting for her partner, and she even
had to change her hair (Kurt: So did I), but before David could come
out, Yuka and Jason came back out ready to do their retake of their
"Breathless" number. Kurt, Yuka and Jason chatted just a little bit,
and during this, David came out, saw Yuka and Jason, looked puzzled,
and then scrambled backstage with Jamie. Since there were people
ready to do their retakes, Kurt left them to go backstage and let Lea
Ann direct things from above. Before Yuka and Jason started, though,
we heard Kurt's voice over the loudspeaker from backstage going "Is
this thing still on? Ooh! Somebody turn this off."
After Yuka and Jason, Jamie and David came out and goofed off a
little while they set up, but then were told to go over and tell the
music guy where they wanted the music. (I think this may be where
someone yelled something at Jamie when she was over talking to the
music guy, and David went over to sit by the boards and pout) It was
kind of funny, b/c Jamie and David clearly aren't used to the retake
protocol - they went to do their retake, finished the move, skated a
bit more, and then stopped, only to be informed that they stopped to
soon for the edit point on the video and had to do it again. David
yelled something like "I've never made a mistake, I don't know!" to
the amusement of Lea Ann and the crowd. This time they did both
retakes correctly, and on we went...
After S&P came Brian O, who knew exactly what he was doing and
landed his retake perfectly. After that (my sequence might be wrong),
Jamie and David had to retake their spin on their SOTR program, S&D
had to retake a lift and some other stuff in the Jann program, with
Jann out to sing the whole thing again (she said she needs a retake as
well, her fly was undone. She also responded to Lea Ann's voice over
the loudspeaker saying "is that you God? I always knew you were a
woman!"), so they actually redid the entire program... Katarina did a
retake to a recording of Michael Bolton as opposed to the actual live
performance, though she spent some time retying her skate before
starting... I don't *think* Jennifer or Elvis or Shae-Lynn did any
retakes. At the end, Brian came back out to give us a final backflip,
but was interrupted by Lea Ann (who recognized the wind-up) who
informed us that Michael Bolton was going to come back out to sing
Nessun Dorma to us in thanks for us being patient enough to wait until
the end. Brian was then allowed to do his backflip, thanking the
audience (where'd Kurt go?!). Finally, Michael came out and gave us a
fantastic performance of Nessun Dorma. Excellent show =). Definitely
can't wait to see it on TV.
