Subject: review: Brian Orser & Friends
From: loosemore-sandra@CS.Yale.Edu (Sandra Loosemore)
Date: 1995/09/25

This past Saturday evening I went to see "Rhapsody in Blue", an ice show
with Brian Orser & Friends, at Varsity Arena in Toronto.  I met up with
Trudi Marrapodi and a couple of her fellow Orser addicts while I was in
town, and we had a great time talking about skating.

I'm not a major Orser fan myself but I was favorably impressed with his
performance in this show -- he skated well, landed more jumps than I'd
seen him do in his recent TV appearances, had real choreography
instead of just posing and jiggling like some other skaters I might
name, and seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself.

To me, though, the One True Skate God (tm) has always been Toller
Cranston, and I lucked out because he ended up doing this show even
though he wasn't in the announced cast.  (Gordeeva & Grinkov and
Katarina Witt had been scheduled to appear but were out with injuries.)
Toller skated to "Thais", which was a little disappointing because I
*know* he's got more originality than that, but it was such a big treat
to see him skate again at all that I didn't mind *too* much.  Those
spirals!  Those spins!  Those split jumps!  *Swoon*!!!  :-)   Perhaps he's
still getting over that broken ankle, though, because he didn't try to
jump much, but he's not bad for a guy who's 46 this year.  Toller didn't
do a second solo but he was in the closing "Rhapsody in Blue" ensemble.

The other guys in the show were Scott Hamilton, Kurt Browning, and
Viktor Petrenko, but to tell the truth I don't remember very much about
what programs they skated.  Scott did "Walk This Way" yet again, Kurt
seems to be winning the hair-loss competition, and Viktor did a triple
axel.

Oksana Baiul did a new program to some Indian-type music.  (Yes, Jill
Trenary did a similar program a few years ago.)  This was the first time
I'd seen her in person and I can see why she has such a reputation for
charisma, but I was still put off by all the jiggling and foot-grabbing
she does.  BTW, last winter I said that I thought Oksana was looking way
too thin after her last growth spurt, but she's filled out a bit now and
is looking generally more adult than she did just a year ago.  She's in
a blond phase now and I thought it makes her look like Natalia Annenko
(Trudi said Elena Bechke).  Anyway, Oksana did this Indian program first
and took a nasty fall near the end of it, and it seemed to shake her
confidence -- she only did easy single axels and double jumps for the
rest of the show.  She trotted out "Isla Bonita" again and was in both
of the ensembles.

Chen Lu also had a new program in the first half but seemed kind of
shaky doing it -- she also had a fall.  Then she did "The Last
Emperor" in the second half and it was obvious that she was a lot more
comfortable with that program.  Trudi said she'd heard Lu only arrived
in town late the morning of the show, so it's understandable that she
was having problems getting the feel for the ice.

Rosalyn Sumners was another late addition to the cast.  She also had one
new number and one old one, and she was wearing a rock on her left hand
big enough that I could see it from where I was sitting several rows up.

Brasseur & Eisler were there, as were Hough & Ladret, and they both had
new programs too, but I admit I found them pretty forgettable.

BTW, I didn't really travel all the way to Toronto just to see an ice
show.  This was the vacation I'd been putting off all summer, and I
did some tourist things and came back with 20+ new books, too.

-Sandra