Halloween On Ice - Providence, RI - Oct. 24, 1998

written by Tina

My friend Wendy and I went to see Halloween on Ice on Saturday, Oct. 24, 1998 in Providence, RI. We were really excited because we managed to get front row seats, with tickets to the post-show cast party. Here's my long babbling review of the show...

There's a whole long grotesque story of how we managed to finally get there, I'm not sure I should delve into. Suffice it to say, Avis is stupid, people don't like to rent cars to people under 21, rental places close TOO early on Saturdays, and we went to two different auto rental places in two entirely different places in Boston, spent about 2 hours tracking down a car, and ended up at a place called "Cheap Auto Rental" which was a small trailer in the corner of an old small used auto lot, with the words "Cheap Auto Rental" spray-painted on the side. The car? an '86 unnamed Chevrolet station wagon that creaked and rattled =). But we got there..and only 5 minutes late! =)

So we get into the Civic Center, go up to the ticket window, only to discover that Ticketmaster didn't send through the tickets and we get a white paper slip that says where we should sit ..though the ticket lady took special care to ensure that we could get into the cast party... which was nice of her, but took forever!!! This is of small importance later...

We got into our seats (Section 124, Row DD (first row!), Seats 3-4) in time to catch the end of the opening ensemble number, which didn't really matter since everyone was wearing costumes and we coudln't tell who was who anyway. I attempted to take notes, but some people's names I just couldn't get and songs as well... so here's a summary...

First Brasseur and Eisler came out, staggering all over the ice like two zombies, in these ratty looking clothes and dead looking makeup =). They went into their number..I didn't know what the song was, but like all their numbers, it was really fun, and caused quite a few gasps around the arena everytime they did a trick =).

Then Liz Manley came out doing her Cats number... it was pretty good...but along the course of the evening I started noticing that almost all the girls thought acting like cats sufficed to look like they were halloweeny... At any rate, during both these numbers, Wendy and I were constantly surprised b/c they came so close as they whipped by the boards =). We tried to take pictures but I'm positive I'm only going to get blurs ... especially of Kurt since I was too excited...and he never stops moving! =) but that's getting ahead of myself...

Following Liz Manley was a 14 year old named Jennifer Kirk who skated to I Just Can't Wait to Be King from the Lion King..it was cute (more girl acting like cat though)... and the little kids sitting around me were all singing along =)

Then came a pair I could not for the life of me get the names of... ice dance... the girl was tall and had long flowing blond hair and the guy had tight curly hair...the names sounded something like something Baker or Barker and Andre D----- sigh... but they skated to Music of the Night/Phantom of the Opera, with him wearing a phantom's mask, which they took off halfway...and she ended holding up the mask.... it was a beautiful number...

After them was Josef Sabovcik skating to...I don't need a doctor??? best i could gleen from the most often repeated words... it was cool - he does the most huge jumps... it was funny...during her number Liz Manley had dropped accidentally a tuft of fur/feather from her "tail" and Josef went to pick it up after the lights had gone down on his number - it was on our side and you could hear him say "where is it? is it here? i can't find it!" to the audience nearby..he finally found it and scooted off the ice =)

Then came Josee Chouinard in a black wig and dress for the Addams Family -very fun...she's too friendly and happy looking to look scary though =). She looked like a very friendly Addams Family member =). The whole audience was snapping along to the number.

Following this was Calla Urbanski and Rocky Marval skating to music from Jekyll and Hyde. I adore this musical, and hearing Anthony Warlow's voice blared out that loud throughout the arena was amazing, but I maintain that they make one of the worst transitions in music I ever heard... if anyone knows the musical, they go from two lines of "I Need to Know" into an abrupt transition into "Take Me As I Am"... I can't figure out why they bothered with "I Need to Know" at all - that's a beautiful song that should be skated to on its own. The only other comment I have to make about this is that Rocky Marval looks absolutely bored when he's skating...expressionless. He doesn't look to be enjoying himself in the least.

After they left the ice, the spotlight fell on this lone guy hamming it up for the audience on the other side of the arena - he had long hair and everyone around me was going - that's Philippe, isn't it? It's Philippe Candelero...well it turned out not to be... it was one of the two guys in a male pairs team... I could not catch their names at all but they were absolutely hilarious throughout the whole show, and they also skated some really cool tricks, flipping over each other's backs, simultaneous backflips, etc... they skated to Captain Jack...the coolest thing about this nubmer was when one guy did a backflip over the other guy doing pushups on the ice =)

Following them was this blond woman I couldn't quite catch the name to... Gina Gutant (I've been informed it was Gia Guddet) or something? Wendy says she sometimes skates with Gary Beacom...she skated with skates on her hands and feet...it was a really cool eerie kind of number - the music sounded like Enigma or something...

Then the moment we were waiting for - Kurt!!! Accompanied by lots of cheers, clapping and footstomping (which was impressive considering the fact that the arena was quite empty), Kurt appeared on the end of the ice, with a black-t-shirt on, and a bandanna around his head... and skated to Antares!! I love this number, and it was really great as usual... I was so flustered during this number though, because I didn't know whether to gawk and cheer when he came near, or try to take pictures! So I watched half his program through my viewfinder and everytime he came near I had a camera plastered to my face =P... he has some great ways of connecting with the audience...he was smiling his head off, making faces, looking at people... it was great...at the end when he does his double axel and sits down, he lay back on the ice, and then sat up like a zombie =)... it was great.

Now came Philippe Candelero doing D'Artagnan... he seemed rather off with his jumps, falling on two, but overall the program was entertaining..in fact, at one point, he went over to this huge witch doll that was propped up by the boards and started kissing it and stuff... then he went out, skated around, did a jump, fell, went back and started throttling the witch... it fell over when he turned around and during intermission we saw someone tying it back to the boards =).

Then came a Batman and Robin ensemble - not all the skaters (not Kurt, in other words) - but cute...

After intermission, there was a cute ensemble number again..I think this was the one where Kurt came out zombielike and was kind of doing some jerking around, fell on the ice and got up (in that amazing way he can do - like in That's Entertainment?), and basically was all around goofy while still doing cool footwork =).

In the second half, Josee Chouinard did this number to Poltergeist where she starts off in front of a TV with a teddy bear and skates the whole number in pajamas...very nice number =)

Then the two guys (male pair) came out and did a number where they had steering wheels with headlights attached to the front of their jackets and they could actually pull these out, turn them like they were driving, and when they let go they pulled back into the jacket again =)... fun funny number.

Urbanski and Marval came out as Mickey and Minnie, which would have been a heck of a lot cuter if he looked at all into what he was doing.

Then Liz Manley skating to Alanis Morissette's Uninvited...I actually really enjoyed this program..she really got into it and utilized the dramatic moments of the music effectively, I thought...

Following Liz was that ice dance team I don't know the name of but they skated to Barbie Girl - very very funny...

There was a precision team there and so three of the members came out in big fruit costumes and wiggled around to Tutti Frutti. I couldn't see the point - they were really out of sync and looked pretty bad to me, but the whole crowd was cheering so I guess I was in the minority.

Then Philippe came out, climbed over the stands and started off the number basically sitting on an audience member's lap...he was dressed up as Freddy Krueger and at one point cut off his own hand and had blood spurting everywhere... =)

Then there was an ensemble with Josef, the three pairs, and Liz Manley and the long-haired guy from the male pair... I think it was meant to look vampirish but I wasn't sure..he was wearing a long smoking jacket? It was actually really cool visually but I couldn't capture a picture since the lighting was so screwy...

Then Brasseur and Eisler came out, first to some slow spooky music - Isabelle had a sheet over her head, dressed up as a ghost and the whole arena was simply lit with a black light...It was really really cool - then Lloyd pulled the sheet off, the lights went to normal and they started to skate energetically to Casper the Friendly Ghost =)

And now...unidentifiable until they announced him, came Kurt in a Frankenstein type costume!! the monster mash came on... he started skating out... really stiffly and slowly, then suddenly he'd start to wiggle his leg or move to the music...then stop, skate slowly again, and then start again, until finally he was fully doing the monster mash - some members of the precistion team came out with him and they were boogeing away... he looked like he was having tons of fun, and really into it..in the end as he was coming away..he fell onto his back..more about that when I talk about meeting him =)...

so then came Nancy Kerrigan skating to Black Magic Woman, and then Josef and ensemble skating to Time Warp - it was funny, b/c I think Kurt couldn't lift his arms over shoulder level, so where everyone would wave their hands over their heads as they changed direction, he just jumped and then kind of waved his arms below the elbow around =)...

At the end, all the skaters skated around, and because Kurt was wearing that Frankenstein costume, I didn't even recognize him the first time he came by!