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Author Topic: Riverdance - 20th Anniversary Tour  (Read 1998 times)
CWazyTom
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« on: May 17, 2017, 10:07AM »

I saw the Riverdance 20th Anniversary tour show yesterday.

Some important casting notes:
- The tour consists of 4 different groups that travel and perform separately.
- So if there's a particular performer you're interested in seeing, I'd strongly recommend looking into which group they're in and which group will be performing at the venue you're interested in.

In this particular group, I didn't recognize anyone (I wasn't expecting to).

This was my first time seeing Riverdance. I saw Lord of the Dance the year after Mairead Nesbitt left (maybe Deirdre was still there, but I don't have a program from that show to check).

For some reason, I thought I was on the mezzanine, but apparently not. My mistake, but the seating chat when I got the tickets really made it seem like the seats were in the mezzanine. Anyways, the view from the orchestra level was still good. I was about 13 rows back of the stage and I didn't have anyone tall in front of me. It was definitely hard for me to see people's faces or the details on their outfits, but hey, this isn't Celtic Woman. For this show, the view was fine.

As one would expect, the focus of the show was the dancing, and the dancing was good! The singing (at least in this particular group, was good but (in my opinion) nothing spectacular. It would have been nice to hear some of our Celtic Woman ladies while they were touring with Riverdance.

The lighting effects and several of the backdrops were good.

There was more variety than I was expecting. Several different kinds of dancing, although various forms of tap dancing were the most prevalent.

There was quite a bit of contrast between songs, especially in the first half. One song would be a slow instrumental or vocal number. Then the next number would be a fast-paced, high-energy dance number.

I enjoyed both halfs, but I enjoyed the second half more. There was a higher proportion of high-energy numbers and the crowd was really into the second half too. There was very little clapping along in the first half, even during tap dance or fiddle numbers that (in my opinion) would have warranted clapping along.

The crowd was better at this venue than it was for the Celtic Woman show. The place was almost full and the crowd was louder and more enthusiastic. I guess not everyone loves Celtic Woman as much as we do.

Favourite moments:
- Firedance. That was a fun melody. Reminded me of Yanni.
- The dance-off / instrument duel (quite similar to the way the dance-off was done at Lisa's show if I do say so, with the exception of Riverdance not having overpowering stage-level strobe lights throughout the number).
- The Bodhrán number. He got a pretty wide range of pitch and sounds out of that thing, including an impressive, deep thudding sound.
- The violinist was good. Not as much movement as Mairead or Tara, but very talented.

Overall, I thought it was a good show. The music was good if not as overwhelmingly fulfilling at times as Celtic Woman. I do wish the singing had been a bit stronger, but I understand it wasn't the focus of the show. I enjoyed it and I'm glad I went.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2017, 11:11PM by CWazyTom » Logged

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