I made the trip out to Boston to attend the 2000 Evening with Champions (both Saturday shows), and I'm so glad I did. I enjoyed myself very much, and it was well worth my time and money - even though half a million other people were in town for the Head of the Charles boat races, and I ended up paying way too much for a hotel room!
The arena during the afternoon show was scarcely half full, but the evening show was much better attended. When broadcast, most of what you will see on TV is the evening show, which is why one of the directors of the show came onto the ice before the first skater and made the crowd do three different and very extended applauses - first, light applause, then heavy applause, then a standing ovation. And that's right, no had even skated yet. :)
Paul Wylie, the host and announcer of the show, kept the audience entertained during both shows by repeatedly goofing up his lines, either by getting tongue-tied or by taking a long time to remember a skater's name. He introduced Elena Bereznaya and Anton Sikharulidze by telling the audience that "they first captured our hearts at the 1988 Olympics...." He had a good time with it, though, and laughed along with the rest of us.
On to the actual skating. After a couple local skaters, Deanna Stellato was the elite skater to open the show. She was very impressive with skating to "I Need You to Love Me" by Celine Dion. As Paul said, she is one to look out for in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Viacheslav Zagorodniuk of Ukraine was up next, skating in full Austin Powers garb to the soundtrack from the movie. In the middle of the program, he took off his shirt to reveal long "chest hair" - really just a bunch of fuzz attached to a flesh-colored shirt - which garnered a bunch of laughs. The program seemed to never end, but the crowd ate it up nevertheless.
Next, Jessica Joseph and Brandon Forsyth made their debut as a team. Things didn't start off so well when they both went down in the opening of the afternoon show, but they recovered and skated quite nicely to "Business of Love." They seemed to gel and should do well together this year. From what I heard Brandon say afterwards, it sounds like US Nationals will be their first competition.
Silvia Fontana skated her short program. She popped most of her jumps in both shows, although she'd had a great evening warm-up. Afterwards, she expressed her disappointment with her performances and told me she'd been training really well and that she can do much better. The professional pairs team of Radke Kovarikova and Rene Novotny skated a very nice and well-choreographed program to "Amazing Grace." A throw triple toe loop was included in the program, as were some unique lifts. Unfortunately, due to the lack of competition options for professional pairs team, the public may not get to see this great team too much this year - hopefully, they will be invited to the World Professional Championships in December.
Dan Hollander unveiled a comical new program in which he portrays both Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. It is, perhaps, not as cute as his "Mrs. Doubtfire" program from last year, but there is some great footwork and numerous costume changes which make this program interesting. Danielle and Steve Hartsell showed the audience their new competitive programs, skating to their free skate in the afternoon show and their short program in the evening show. Except for their side-by-side triple toes, which they seem to lack confidence on, Danielle and Steve looked very strong with their new programs; Danielle never missed a throw triple salchow the entire day, including both programs, all finales, and the warm-up before the evening show. Their first major competition comes in three weeks - Nations Cup in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Scott Davis skated very well to a hard rock, "America the Beautiful"-type song. Great triple lutzes. Oleg and Ludmilla Protopopov, the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Pairs Champions, ended the first half of the show with an expressive number that included their "life spiral", which they invented and which we now know as the forward inside death spiral. Their efforts received standing ovations.
Nine-year-old Kelly O'Grady, who was first featured nationally at the 1995 Riders Cup Pro Skating Championships on CBS, opened up the second half of the evening show. Wearing a mint green dress and rainbow-colored skates, she wowed the audience with several doubles (including a double lutz-double toe loop) and amazing spins. She definitely could be a force to be reckoned with in years to come.
Laurent Tobel got the audience laughing (as always!) with his "baby" number that he's done in past Champions on Ice shows. Great facial expressions, and wonderful triple flips and lutzes - it will never cease to amaze me how someone so tall can hurl himself into the air like that...
Due to bronchitis, Lucinda Ruh missed the afternoon show, but treated the audience in the evening show to her "Mercy" program from "The Prayer Cycle." By the end of the program - and after half a dozen of her brilliant spins - the audience was on its feet. After a quick interview with Paul, she did an encore of two more spins, again to huge applause. She definitely is a crowd favorite.
The Russian ice dance team of Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov skated to "Fever" in the afternoon show and to their new free dance in the evening show. This team has lots of power and passion and great potential. Takeshi Honda skated to "Don Quixote", his new short program. He went for the quad toe in the afternoon and just two-footed it; he tripled in at night. He did a retake of his triple axel and boy, was it "textbook", like Paul said.
Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernysev did what looked to be an exhibition program in the afternoon, then debuted their new free dance at night, half of which is a great, fast-paced Vanessa Mae song. They were very fast and very powerful; audiences this year should really like this dance. Jenny Kirk nailed every jump in her "Colors of the Wind program." I asked her after the afternoon show if she ever missed a jump, and she replied, "not usually." True enough! Elena Leonova and Andrei Khvalko thrilled the audiences with their amazing, flexible, and dangerous-looking lifts. Although her costume at night was somewhat distasteful and distracting, they received two standing ovations.
Alexei Urmanov skated well to the "Prince of Egypt." Unlike at the Grand Slam of Skating a couple weeks ago, he used no prop here. Elena Bereznaya and Anton Sikharulidze debuted, like several other skaters, their new competitive free program - this one a Charlie Chaplin-themed program. This is a great program for them, and Anton makes a great Charlie Chaplin! Although it took Elena several retakes to land the throw triple salchow, she landed a great throw triple loop in the program.
The finale was very cute and a lot of fun! It was called "a salute to the MTV generation," and all the skaters did some sort of jig to current pop music. Dan Hollander had us in stitches, coming out dressed as Britney Spears and dancing alongside the other girls! The entire finale was skated twice in the evening, probably to get different camera angles, and it was a real treat to see.
All in all, it was one of the best shows I've ever attended, and it was for a great cause. Thank you to all the skaters for providing us with such an entertaining evening!
