With Sandra Bezic as co-Producer, Director and chief choreographer and Michael Siebert and Lea Ann Miller as co-Director and Associate Director respectively, and with the participation of a cast of former, present and future SOI skaters, one would expect US West Omaha Concert on Ice to have the look and feel of a Stars on Ice performance and that proved to be very much the case - in the very best sense. There were the same features of multiple ensemble numbers, along with seamless transitions between cold spots and the lack of specific fanfare and intros for the skaters, thus prompting the sense of team effort and making the show the main focus rather than the stars. In addition to Todd, the cast consisted of Kurt Browning, Lu Chen, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Brian Orser, Kristi Yamaguchi, Isabelle Brasseur/Lloyd Eisler and Renee Roca/Gorsha Sur.
The feeling that one was at a Stars on Ice performance started at the very beginning of the show when the cast skated the opening ensemble number (to Dvorak's Carnival Overture) attired in costumes last seen in the open ensemble of the 1996-1997 edition of SOI. [Todd confirmed for me later that they had all basically raided the old SOI "closet" to find what fit and what worked with the show]. Todd threw himself with typical energy into his part of this opening number, executing a triple toe, a flying sit spin and two double axels.
Looking over the program for the show, I was absolutely fascinated to note that Todd was scheduled to skate the last solo cold spot in each Act. Quite an honor. In the first act, he skated to In The Mood, attired in the new Gethsemane costume, but with a bit more sparkle evident down the front of the shirt (rather than confined to collar and cuffs as in Gethsemane). The performance saw an uncharacteristic lack of triple jumps (with a single axel and double toe the only jump results) and an uncharacteristic bit of travelling on the closing scratch spin (I actually thought he was going to spin out of the rink), but on the whole it was a virtuoso performance with tons of nifty footwork, lotsa spark, and three Russian splits in a row. He sold it to the hilt and the audience just ate it up. This very energetic effort was followed immediately by an ensemble number that closed the first act and which featured Todd. As he was the last to appear in it, he did get a chance for a bit of a rest. It was to Carmen and featured solo skates by Lu Chen (as Carmen) and Brian Orser (as the Matador he'd played in Carmen on Ice and to Song of the Toreador) as well as a duet between the two, followed by a skate to Intermezzo by Roca/Sur. Lulu and Brian reappeared, and then along came Todd, looking like he'd just wandered over from a Les Miz set somewhere, to skate to Danse Boheme. Well, he did look a bit Bohemian at that; the pants were definitely the brown Les Miz pants, with a kind of frilly tan shirt and a large, somewhat ill-fitting brown vest. In spite of his having just skated a very demanding program not twenty minutes previously, he once again threw himself into the Carmen effort, landing a triple toe and a double axel in the process.
After all this, I'm sure it was a blessing to Todd that he didn't appear again until towards the end of Act II. Skating to Morton Gould's American Salute (consisting of a medley of such traditional American folk music as When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again) and wearing (appropriately enough) the old Independence Day costume, Todd proceeded to make up for the lack of triples in the first program by landing a triple axel, a triple lutz and a triple flip - all within the first minute of the program. He later singled (or popped) what was probably intended as a double axel and landed a nice triple toe toward the end of the performance. It was another fabulous performance and was extremely well-received by the audience.
This performance was followed by the closing ensemble number, to Classic Ellington (a Duke Ellington medley). Not surprisingly after his previous effort, Todd was one of the last skaters to appear, in time to skate to Doin' the Crazy Walk. He executed a nice double axel, immediately bested when Kurt Browning (the last skater to appear) came out and landed two double axels. With everybody assembled, Todd was again put to work (as he had been in the opening ensemble number) weaving in and out among the other skaters lined up in a row (he must have proved the best at this kind of move to have been assigned this task twice). I will confess to being a bit distracted when he appeared for this number by wondering what on earth he was wearing now. What I saw was black pants (probably the Gethsemane pants again) with a black & white striped cumberbund around the waist, along with a white shirt and black suspenders crossed in the back. A good time must have been had by all and especially by Todd at the pre-show "closet" raid! On the whole, I thought US West Concert on Ice was one of the best skating shows I'd ever seen, better than some of the SOI performances I've attended, and it was not in the least apparent to the audience how little time actually went into putting this show together. (However, although limited in number of days to prepare, the amount of rehearsal was still rather intensive - they apparently rehearsed on the day before the show for a good 12 hours, from 9 am to 9 pm). Brian Orser told me afterward that he thought it was the best Concert on Ice he'd ever participated in. It was certainly more than worth my having flown from Washington, D.C. to Omaha specifically to see it.
