I knew not to expect tradition. Someone invited me and I thought it would be nice to see some Irish inspired showmanship. The music was all taped and was as expected. The fiddler’s were recorded I guess so they wouldn’t mess up their tuning when the kinda danced across the stage. None of that bothered me.
What did bother me, and to such an extent that I was surprised, was the taped “taps” of the shoes of the dancers. I just couldn’t understand what I was seeing. Those dancers are good…actually beyond good. I have to assume someone thought it would be best to bowl a 300 each game instead of letting the pins fall where they may.
Can you imagine training and perfecting your art just to play along to a tape of one of your better performances? God, what a waste. I feel sorry for those very talented performers.
That pretty much says it all, about it all. (alas) They probably figure that people who pay $50 a ticket (or whatever) are going to expect perfection, so that’s the one way to guarantee it.
When children aren’t allowed to fail in school; kids sporting events don’t have scores so the little darlings won’t lose; folks who borrow money that they can’t realistically make the payments on expect protection from foreclosure; and poor business practices are financially rewarded by the federal government . . . then I suppose its only right to expect all performances to be perfect. I guess we all should quit practicing and learning new tunes and just listen to computer generated music.
Unfortunately sometimes it’s less painful to listen to a recorded version of the national anthem.
What’s sad is not so much the avoidance of mistakes but the reduction of theatrical magical moments that can occure when the unexpected happens. When the sets go up and the mackup and costumes go on and those lights come up, magic happens and much of that is lost when it is canned in any way. You may as well tape the whole thing and run it on Youtube.
I know canned music reduces costs, heaven knows I’ve done it myself, but much is lost when it isn’t live.
i just saw LotD this past saturday, and was beyond disappointed. having seen the ‘original’ version on tv with Michael Flatley playing the lead character, i was simply not prepared for the live show to suck as badly as it did!
So Flatley hasn’t danced in LotD for 11 years, and i was prepared for a different lead… but sadly, the lead was… well… to put it plainly: he was plain! he was completely uninspiring, and lacking anything even remotely near Flatley’s sheer ability to command attention. it’s not like i expected the lead dancer to have the same kind of presence as Flatley, but some element of magnetism or appeal would have been nice.
he could dance nicely, tho. it wasn’t that he couldn’t dance. he could. it was just completely lost on me, since i was generally more interested in watching anyone else on the stage besides him.
too bad.
as for taped music and tapping- our show was actually live: live whistle, live fiddle and live tap- tho it was hard to tell that, since the speakers were far off to the side of the stage, so there was an infinitesimal gap between what we saw and what we heard, but i was up close and could see the fingers matching the music down to the accidentally shortened notes, so it was live.
other than that? a GREAT light show, and if you’re into “Celtic Kitsch” you’ll love Lord of the Dance!
otherwise, watch the video.
btw- i just wanted to mention that there are 2 separate troupes that tour, and each one has multiple members that play the lead role (3 people in one troupe, and 4 in the other)… as well as each having three members who play the Dark Lord. so, while i was fated to see the show with the limp-lettuce-guy, there is a 6 in 7 chance that anyone else will catch a different lead! just so i’m not discouraging anyone too much.
I’m just amazed that Lord of the Dance is still out there touring. Two troupes? Wow. I thought by this time he’d have settled it into Vegas in a version with topless dancing showgirls. That I’d go see in a New York minute - and never even complain about it not being traditional.
