Salute to Ray Charles

�Hoo

October 5, 2002
Los Angeles, CA

Standard disclaimer: Once again I was busy photographing the show so I have no notes and all comments are strictly from memory. I do my best, but there may be a mistake or two - especially on jumps :)

Better late than never it's the Salute to Ray Charles review. 

Overall the show was pretty good, although the first half seemed very short compared to some other shows I've been too. I also thought it a little odd in the selection of Ray's music. They seemed to pass over a lot of Ray's early R&B hits. The one disappointment of the event was that I was really looking forward to seeing Caryn Kadavy but we got Rory Burkhardt in her place. Also on hand was Frank D'Ambrosia who had hosting duties. Overall show rating: B.

Opening - "You Are My Sunshine" 
It started with Jamie out solo on the ice who then skated back to join the rest of the ladies sitting on stage with Ray. Then the men came out. Orser and Cousins did very nice matching double axels right in front of my section - very spiffy. Costumes were, umm, rather ugly. The white split skirts from Kristi's show for the girls and white pants for the guys but bright lemon yellow shirts for everyone. The only people who even remotely had the right skin-tone for that color was Steven and Rory - everyone else looked really washed out! 

Meno & Sand - "I Love Her So"
It was a cute program for them. Nothing earth shattering but they look like they've been working on their speed (probably from skating with B&S during SOI rehearsals!) as they seemed much faster than usual. Jenni also has such beautiful position on the overhead stag (I think that's the one) lift. 

Rory Burghardt - "Hit The Road Jack"
When I heard the first bit of music to this I hoped that maybe Brian Orser had dug out an oldie program from way back in 89, but no luck there. I have to admit to not really being that impressed with Rory as she seemed horribly wobbly on her edges. One program had a spiral in it that rocked back and forth so much I was almost sea-sick. And please, get rid of those gold skates! 

Steven Cousins - "Georgia On My Mind" 
Steven looked great all in black with a purple open overshirt. I think he too has been training hard as his jumps looked really solid. Huge triple flip! He started out this program skating with Rory doing long edge work that was really nice. 

Brian Orser - "Let The Good Times Roll" 
Costume was black pants and the green on green striped shirt from CSOI's "Tunnel Vision" number 2 years ago. It was a solid start for Brian's first event of the season. Several double axels and a nice open axel plus of course one back flip. Program was nice and had some good personality to it. 

Punsalan & Swallow - "Here We Go Again" 
This was I think the program of the night. Cute western theme to the program and lots of fun flirty interaction. It seemed to be one of the most developed programs of the show and had some great lifts. I really hope they keep this program to tour with as I think it's one of their best pro programs yet. 

Brian Boitano - "If I Could" 
Blue velvet pants and satin shirt. Nice program if somewhat typical in layout/elements. Brian's jumps are looking much better than last year - he hit a huge 'tano lutz right in our corner. The speed he takes into is is quite impressive when it's coming right at you. 

Roz Sumners - "Amazing Grace"
Light pink dress. One of my least favorite songs and the whole program just sort of seemed a little bland Hung onto a double axel and double toe. 

Sale & Pelletier - "Drift Away" 
Nice jazzy number for them, with I think some new lifts for them. 

Intermission 

Orser & Boitano - "Two Old Cats Like Us" 
Somehow whenever you get both Brian's in program together they bring out the hammiest sides of each other. This program was very similar to their 'anything you can do I can to better' themed program to "King of the Road" from 1990. Costumes were black pants with pink piping for Orser and Yellow for Boitano (the SOI "Jump Jive & Wail" pants from 1998-99) and hot pink and black 1950s shirt (from "Aretha on Ice" I believe). Program was packed with fun - several double axels and stretches of footwork. Cute moment when both Brians took a lot of speed into the corner and got into that long outside edge for a lutz and at the corner skidded to a stop and were like "N'ah" and moved on. Both Brians looked to be laughing quite a bit and just having a good ol' time horsing around on the ice.

Punsalan & Swallow - "Still Crazy After All These Years" 
A modified version of their old program. Nice long edgework and spread eagles moves in this program. 

Rory - "Song For You" 
Other than a really floppy white dress and wobbly spirals I have no real memory of this program - and we saw most of it twice from retakes. 

Meno & Sand - "Makin' Whoopee"
Whoever gave them the music for this program should really be chastised. This song was just not made for them and the program looked a bit awkward in the presentation throughout. Nice solid throw jump though and some nice lifts. 

Roz Sumers - "My Baby" 
Very fun number for Roz playing the flirty vamp on ice. Dress was gorgeous too - black lace over magenta. Flirted with the cameraman on our end - even dragging him down the edge of the ice after her. Helped with an assist with her Boa by Brian Orser and some brief duet skating. 

Brian Orser - "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying" 
Black pants and the light gray shirt from this years CSOI finale. Brian was a bit off in this program and required some retakes, but he still did a nice job with it. It was definitely a 'once-off' program though and my seatmate and I had fun playing 'spot the program bits' afterword (there was a big chunk of "This Year's Love" there). Nice 3salchow in retakes. 

Sale & Pelletier - "I Got A Woman" 
Nice upbeat fun sort of number for these two. Huge split twist. Seemed to be having some fun out there with this program. 

Steven Cousins - "It Had To Be You" 
Steven opened the program wearing sunglasses to a voice-over that spoke of you had to wear shades to be cool. He then hands them off to Scott Hamilton who was in the front row near the stage. More excellent jumps from Steven included a 3lutz that was one of the better ones I've seen from him in a while. It looked live Steven's had the music for this program for a while as there were some nice in between moves in the program. Navy pants and creme shirt.

Ensemble - Medley including "Let It Be" 
Sort of a pre-finale with all skaters but Boitano. In the white SOI "Face the Face" SOI costumes. Everyone was moving in groups of 2 or 3 so there were some great side-by-side long edge moves. 

Boitano - ?? / "America The Beautiful" 
Brian then comes out for a short solo number that's full of spread eagles and double axels. I don't recall the first music cut but it melds into "America the Beautiful" with Brian doing a really long outside spread eagle. He is then slowly joined by the rest of the cast who each come out and do a trick at center ice before heading to the stage to take their bows with Ray. 

Misc notes: Spotted at the reception were Paul Wylie and Trifun Zivanovic so I'm guessing they were also somewhere at the show. I didn't take a lot of pictures but what I have will hopefully be up later today.

For photos from this and other skating events, check out Hoo's photos at ScratchSpin.com!

Do you have a full review of this show (just Steven or the entire cast)? I'd love to add it to this page for those who didn't get to see the show so send it in!