Joe Gerardi
This is the third incarnation of the show Riverdance, and it's the most flat. The director and producer (a husband-and-wife team) keep screwing with the formula, and each time they do, they diminish the show. What got Riverdance its reputation was a simple show that featured the innocence and beauty of Irish Dance. They have decided to glitz it and sex it up and it's markedly less for the efforts. It peaked with the Colin Dunne/Jean Butler era, and has been sliding backward ever since.For example: the script reads "Tall and straight: this is how my mother taught me; Tall and straight: this is how my father taught me" yet they have the girls slinking about, hips swaying every way but forward when they walk. What happened to the "tall and straight"? Next, this is a show about dance, yet they put long skirts on the girls, completely hiding their steps in the second act, and that's not when they're obscuring their legs with far too much smoke.And speaking of costumes, it appears that they decided that the acrobatic dancing of the Russians girls is perfect for creating costumes that will expose their (leotarded) derrières as much as possible! (Luscious though they may be!) The original costumes were perfect: Why screw with them?Additionally, the dancing: This is a show about dancing. The quality of the dancers has dropped dramatically. We're drawn to the feet when they are step dancing, and here it's easy to see missed steps, sloppy footwork, and poor timing. They appear to be hiring dancers more for their looks and bodies, rather than their dancing ability. I'm very thankful that Michael Flatley is not here (the stage would not have been big enough for his ego) but the two principal dancers are very poor substitutes for Colin Dunne and Jean Butler. They electrified the stage every time they were on: Joanne Doyle can't and Brendán de Gallaí was trying far too hard to be a Michael Flatley clone to bother. Neither had the dramatic chops to sell the dances from a dramatic standpoint, either.Finally, the music is not up to snuff either. The fiddler is not up to the level of Eileen Ivers, and simply didn't engage and electrify the crowd the way Ivers did, and the music no longer has the same energy it did. Noel Eccles still cooks on percussion, though, but I wish they hadn't separated the musicians with so much vertical distance. Also, what's with the in-ear monitors? They weren't necessary for the original musicians, are the new ones so talentless they can't follow time? Get "Riverdance: The New Show" from Radio City Music Hall and be amazed at the dancing. Here you will only be mildly entertained, and a little disappointed. That's a long fall for a show I've enjoyed so much from the original Eurovision incarnation...Joe
harryjamespotterevans
Six years from its World Premiere in Dublin, Ireland in February 1995, over 13 million people have seen Riverdance worldwide. It still remains the most successful and biggest dance show in the world. The show has seen many changes over the years, and this latest recording, filmed live in Geneva, captures the show in its newest production. New dance routines and new costume designs make Riverdance even more spectacular than before, while at the same time the show still features all of the original ground-breaking numbers that made Riverdance the world's most popular dance show. I personally like a lot the Irish dance and I enjoyed this home video as well. I'm a fan of the Riverdance; some of my friends and myself have been studying this kind of dancing and watching the professional and experienced dancers just made us to sigh. The show was in-live from Geneva and the sound was created at the time: and how wonderful was the sound...! specially in "Slip into Spring" and "Reel around the sun". Not I had seen Riverdance, I really hope to see The Lord of the Dance soon........ If you like Irish dance, this must added to your collection immediately!!!
