I saw SOI last night in Chicago....I had seen the show opening night in Lake Placid, and it was good to see how the show had gelled since opening night.
The arena was 90% full....the entire lower bowl was ful except the one end over the skaters entrance. The upper bowl was 75% full. Chicago is a big skating town, SOI has always sold very well here, but this year it seemed to be a bigger house than the past two years.
The crowd was very vocal, loud applause and screaming for the skaters, but the only standing ovations were for Scott Hamilton (when he was first introduced) and after the finale. Todd got a partial standing ovation for his Garth Brooks number, and Scott also got a partial standing O for his 2nd number.
I really love the goofy black and white transition outfits....I think they are whimsical and fun, although I think the eyepatch Todd wears for his Metronome transition is sort of creepy.
It was a fairly well skated night...no big splats. Katia stepped out of one or two of her jumps, as did Scott, but other than that it was mostly clean.
Todd had some jump problems in his Flamenco program. He landed a beautiful triple toe and a huge triple axel, but his triple slachow was so tilted in the air, I'm surprised he stayed on his feet. It had a totally off-balance landing and he fell out of it. He also had problems with his 2nd triple toe in this number.
I really hated this program when I saw it in Lake Placid. I though it was choreographically very bare, and that there was very little of the choreography that was specific to the flamenco and spanish guitar music style. The program has improved since opening night. They have obviously added some more choreography, and the opening and closing sections are much improved. There is more flamenco style movement, however I don't think Todd has nailed the attitude necessary for this style of movement. The middle section is still very sparse....the tempo of the music slows for the spanish guitar music, and the choreography gets very generic and doesn't relate to the music. I think the choreography in this section is too relaxed, not sharp or staccato enough which the music calls for. The biggest gripe I have with the program is the huge build up to the triple axel...30-40 seconds of fabulously fast spanish music that cries out for fast and furious footwork, and Todd uses that section to do a lap and a half of crossovers to set up the axel. And since the axel is in the corner and not at center ice, you don't really get the best payoff for the axel on the top of the crescendo.
So while I think this program has much improved, I still don't think Todd's comfortable with the style, or is pushing the envelope with this new style as much as he could.
Todd's Garth Brooks program, however, was gorgeous. He made up for his jump problems in the Flemanco piece by landing two triple axels, two triple toes and a triple salchow that were all dead on, huge and gorgeous. He obviously is more comfortable with this piece, and really connects to the music. While it wasn't as intense last night as I've seen it before, he was still very in the moment and delivered a beautiful performane. The audience loved it.
I'm not too fond of Ina and ZImmerman's Little Sister, although I am a big fan of this pair. I felt that the frenetic choreography made the whole program look sloppy and rough, and it didn't show them off very well.
Jamie and David's and Elena and Anton's first #s (Come Away with Me and Let Me Fall) were both gorgeous....smooth, classical, lyrical skating. I am not a fan of Elena and Anton's Kalinka, but it was well skated and received a huge response last night.
Jamie and David's ballroom number doesn't work, as far as I'm concerned. They have shortened it and changed things around since Lake Placid, but I don't think it's any improved. It's basically a one joke program, and on the second viewing I didn't find it funny, and wished they were allowed to just skate. As my friend said, they don't need to try and do big comedy shtick to show off their personalities, and I agree. I really wished they had done their Queen program instead.
Overall I really enjoyed this year's show. Both TGIF and the broom number were a hoot. The cast looked like they were having a blast in TGIF, interacting with each other and playing off of each other, and this is the most comfortable I've seen Todd in a "dance" oriented group number.
Todd dropped his broom at one point when David passed it to him, and it was at a point that he couldn't just grab it and pick it up because he would have collided with the rest of the guys and disrupted the choreography, so he had to circle around in place waiting until they were clear and he could pick it up. He and David were cracking up, and you could tell that they love this number, and love playing with the brooms. Todd's sit spin with his broom is different than it was in Lake Placid....there he did the sit spin with the broom across his shoulder, behind his neck, and holding on to the broom with both hands. Last night, he did the sit spin with the broom casually propped diagonally over one shoulder, held with only one hand. Very interesting.
The only major gripe I have with the show overall is that while the finale was pretty, I felt like it was anti-climactic. It mirrored the opening, and was lyrical and pretty. But as an ending, it didn't work...I felt like the show needed a more upbeat party-like finale more like the TGIF number, and the finale was also pretty short.
Other than that, the show was much better than in years past, and the core cast is really starting to work as a seasoned ensemble.
