Saw SOI tonight at Hershey Giant Center. Went with my 10yo. Here are some notes, thoughts and conversations.
First the Giant Center was about 1/3 full, although it could have been about ½. 100 level only; there was no one in 200 level. I asked my son what he thought about the crowd and he said, “About 5/12 full.” He’s a smart alek.
“24K Magic” Bruno Mars - Cast
OK. For an upbeat song, it felt a bit low energy in the Giant Center.
“Bang Bang” Ariana Grande - Gracie Gold
Gracie seemed...not committed. Could have been opening night nerves (I know there was a show in Florida, but there’s been some time between.) 2T and 1A. Only because I know people are wondering. ETA: I JUST WANT GRACIE TO BE HAPPY. I adore her. The crowd adored her. No one cared about the jumps. We believe. We just want to see her having fun. REALLY.
“Diamonds” Josef Salvat - Adam Rippon
Nice spins. 3 Lz. I forget what else. Lovely skating.
10yo: Who’s that? Adam?
Me: Yes.
10yo: You’re not even watching. You’re posting to Instagram.
Me: I’m…journalisting.
“Believer” Imagine Dragons - Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue
Fun program.
10yo: Who’s that?
Me: Hubbell and Donohoe
10yo: Which is which?
Me: They always say the girl first.
10yo: Pfft. Whatever.
“Land of All” Woodkid - Jeremy Abbott
Cool outfit. (10yo: Is he supposed to be a ninja?”) Did a backflip and almost smacked his head. Very Interesting, angular and compellingly weird program. Think: Gary Beacom’s Malevolent Landscape. Jeremy was wearing a hood at first, and when he took it off,
he looked Silas, the killer albino from Da Vinci Code. But it worked, oddly.
10yo: Whoever did the choreography for this, I hope they got paid a lot.
“Tango” Gotan Project - Madison Chock & Evan Bates
Loved this! Very sexy.
10yo: They are skating with a chair. Last year, someone skated with a bench, so I guess they had to do a chair this year.
“Bright Lights” Gibbz - Gracie Gold, Ashley Wagner, Jeremy Abbott, Adam Rippon
Everything you ever wanted from four people skating in the dark with LED lights on their pants.
“Exogenesis: Symphony Part III” Muse - Ashley Wagner
This was great! Two 2As and a 3Fl. Not sure if there was another jump in there, but Ashley is a bona fide “skate to the rafters” pro. Didn’t oversell it, either. Very well done.
“Send in the Clowns” Barbra Streisand - Cast
Homage to Jef Billings. Nicely done.
OK, somewhere in there Nathan and Karen skated. I thought Nathan did a 3T and a 4 F, but someone said they were both triples. Nathan is a super star. Confidence out the whazoo. Karen jumps through the roof. She opened with a 3Lz that was SO BIG. I can see now why getting that 3T around on the end in competition can be tough. Great skate with a lot of personality.
Surprise! Skyliners Junior synchro team and some vaguely Michael Jackson medley.
ACT II
Opened with local skaters in group number. Great, except they start the kids with the house lights still up and before everyone is back in their seat. If you’re going to ask families to pay $300 per kid (I think that was the price last time) and the house is already sparse—and it looked like a lot of people didn’t come back aftrr intermission -- at least give them a bigger audience and wait for house lights to go back down. Jeez.
“Fratres” Arvo Pärt Cast
Nice. Jeremy and Adam skating together as a duet for some of this was a treat. A quiet piece with entire cast and then parts of cast.
“Stand by Me” Florence + the Machine - Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue
This was slow and moody, too. More people started leaving.
“Getaway” Tritonal ft. Angel Taylor - Adam Rippon
More skating with a mask. Good spins and vogueing, rolling on ice. 3Lz.
“Golden” Ruth B -Gracie Gold
2T, 1A. OK.
“Black Hole Sun” Nouela - Meryl Davis & Charlie White, Madison Chock & Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue
Moody. Interesting. More people clearing out.
“In This Shirt” The Irrepressibles - Jeremy Abbott
Now the white ninja. I like the black ninja Jeremy better. Again, a moody-interesting piece.
Me: I hope he doesn’t try the backflip.
10yo: DO THE BACKFLIP!!!
He didn’t do the backflip. Triple toe? I can’t remember what else.
“Under Pressure” David Bowie & Queen - Madison Chock & Evan Bates
Music starts…
10yo: IT’S “ICE, ICE BABY!”
10yo: Oh darn, it’s not “Ice, Ice Baby.”
“Handclap” Fitz and the Tantrums - Ashley Wagner
Top notch Ashley. She jumped, she shimmied, she turned it up to 11. If only the whole show were like this. I mean, I get it, not everything has to be a pump-it-up number, but with such a sparse crowd, the energy dropped really quickly in the audience.
“Sax” Fleur East - Meryl Davis & Charlie White
Cute! Fun!
“Can't Stop the Feeling!” Justin Timberlake - Cast
You ever notice how you never see Charlie White and Justin Timberlake together? Could it be...nah.
OK. Jeremy did another backflip. This one didn’t look as scary.
Somewhere in there, Nathan
did another number to a fun song, all while holding his cell phone. There was also a phone ringing throughout the song, and I couldn’t help but wonder whether it was a good-humored poke at Miss World Champion’s Phone Program.
Karen also did a second number. Can’t place the song – she skated with two fans, did a 3Lz, 2A and popped a Loop. (10yo: How do you know she meant to do a triple loop. Me: Because she wants to go to the Olympics. 10yo: But this isn’t Olympic trials. Me: You sure about that?)
Oh! And Meryl and Charlie did a program in Act 1 that was stunningly beautiful. Adagio for Strings. I cried. My 10yo said, "He should still play hockey. He'd be great." Even the people behind me who usually only come to Bears hockey games were rapt by Meryl and Charlie.
Overall impressions: Eh. Better than last year (although I know some people loved last year’s.)
The audience was way too small and low energy to support so many softer/moodier piece in the show. Speaking with several people after, they all said the same thing: too many soft/slow/moody pieces, not enough high energy, fun pieces. Also, everyone wanted more jumping. Lots more jumping. And I think the show also really misses not having a pairs team. Or three.
Also – and I think this is really, really important – I think the show needs to put the skaters out there with some mics, talking to the audience. This whole things needs to be less “think piece performance art” and more of a high-flying festival with a master of ceremonies breaking the fourth wall (and it was a pretty solid fourth wall that even Ashley had a tough time getting through at times) and interacting with the audience. Jeremy, Charlie and Meryl would have been perfect for this, being the “pro show people” out there.
And the show needed more humor. Not slapstick, but a little more wink and a nod…I don’t know…I get these are mostly competitive skaters and show skating isn’t their “gig.” Also, this is such a short run of shows. But why not, instead of the artsy or reflective dream themes echoed on the big screens, have some of the skaters’ fun social media posts? Or use the screens to interact with the audience? Something.
Hopefully, the Olympics will give the show a boost again. But after the Emotions theme last year and dreams this year, I really hope next year’s theme is “Riot!” or “Ka-POW!” or "Tramps and Vicars!" something like that.
I don’t know…with the half (7/12ths) empty venue and people leaving throughout, I just felt so sad. Skating is such an amazing and beautiful and thrilling one-of-a-kind sport. I know SOI can’t save skating on its own, and I don’t know how you get non-skating folks in to see a skating show. It doesn’t help to hold a show on a Thursday night in a city that’s 2 hours from everywhere. But all those empty seats…maybe give away some Bears playoff tickets with every SOI ticket or have a few of the Bears show up to skate a number
with their shirts off.
I’m curious what others thought. The good stuff was really great. But overall, low energy for a Thursday.