The shows on board changed daily and were very good – dancers, singers, acrobats, live sound. No live support music but decent recorded music. This is a big theatre for a big ship. The cast for any show numbers into the twenties. Always lots of dancing, costumes, sometimes acrobatics-cum-circus. First show was an Egyptian theme with acrobatics. Then Sogno Italiano featuring Italian songs with Edgar Martinez and Sabela Cereljo (vocals). This was not the Neapolitan songs I’d expected but more modern Ital-pop. Tribute (Opera arias) with Enrico Scotto (tenor vocals) and Mauro Bertollini (piano) and an e-violinist. I found this one a bit strange. Tenors are often glitter and volume and vibrato but then the nature of shows of endless arias is to pick the most impressive. The piano was virtuoso and somewhat bitsy. I was taken aback by some of the arrangements that restructured the flashy and popular bits (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no.1) but again this is inevitable in this type of show and I did like his showy playing. Sabre dance was all sweeping bow strokes and leggy e-violinist and dance numbers. Again, to be expected and fun. I liked the e-violin and piano; less so the tenor. Cadeaux was French Can Can territory. Like the others, I found the music too modern for the theme, but the whole was always impressive and fun when you relax into the event. Shows like this feature wonderfully impressive skills but little profundity; all par for the course. Then Pirates Billy Bones with more acrobatics and the Starwalker dedication to Michael Jackson. Lots of lip-synch, big ballads, a claim to great humanity, lasers again and quite a few tunes I didn’t recognise. I know Thriller and was around in Jackson 5 days but don’t really know MJ’s his-tory and I’m always wary of celebrity. Then a final show dedicated to Frank Sinatra with some famous songs and a few ring-ins from rat-packers and others. The dancing here was strangely staid, appropriate for the era, with ties and tails and legs and lots of splits. Shows fit cruises and I enjoyed these. A daily wash of flash and skills and thrills.
The shows on board changed daily and were very good – dancers, singers, acrobats, live sound. No live support music but decent recorded music. This is a big theatre for a big ship. The cast for any show numbers into the twenties. Always lots of dancing, costumes, sometimes acrobatics-cum-circus. First show was an Egyptian theme with acrobatics. Then Sogno Italiano featuring Italian songs with Edgar Martinez and Sabela Cereljo (vocals). This was not the Neapolitan songs I’d expected but more modern Ital-pop. Tribute (Opera arias) with Enrico Scotto (tenor vocals) and Mauro Bertollini (piano) and an e-violinist. I found this one a bit strange. Tenors are often glitter and volume and vibrato but then the nature of shows of endless arias is to pick the most impressive. The piano was virtuoso and somewhat bitsy. I was taken aback by some of the arrangements that restructured the flashy and popular bits (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no.1) but again this is inevitable in this type of show and I did like his showy playing. Sabre dance was all sweeping bow strokes and leggy e-violinist and dance numbers. Again, to be expected and fun. I liked the e-violin and piano; less so the tenor. Cadeaux was French Can Can territory. Like the others, I found the music too modern for the theme, but the whole was always impressive and fun when you relax into the event. Shows like this feature wonderfully impressive skills but little profundity; all par for the course. Then Pirates Billy Bones with more acrobatics and the Starwalker dedication to Michael Jackson. Lots of lip-synch, big ballads, a claim to great humanity, lasers again and quite a few tunes I didn’t recognise. I know Thriller and was around in Jackson 5 days but don’t really know MJ’s his-tory and I’m always wary of celebrity. Then a final show dedicated to Frank Sinatra with some famous songs and a few ring-ins from rat-packers and others. The dancing here was strangely staid, appropriate for the era, with ties and tails and legs and lots of splits. Shows fit cruises and I enjoyed these. A daily wash of flash and skills and thrills.
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