Date: Fri 15-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Quick Words:

Gateway's-Beauty-ice-Prince

Full Text:

(rev, "Sleeping Beauty on Ice," Gateway's, 12/15/95)

Theatre Review-

`Beauty' Skates Circles Around Playhouse

(with photo)

By Shannon Hicks

NEW FAIRFIELD - In the magnificent holiday presentation of Sleeping Beauty at

Gateway's Candlewood Playhouse through December 16, the Prince doesn't just

waltz in and awaken his sleeping beauty with a kiss.

He glides in... on skates. Ice skates, no less.

The production is Sleeping Beauty on Ice , presented by the St. Petersburg

State Ice Ballet, Russia's most renowned ice company, and it features some of

the country's most celebrated skaters. Maybe most amazingly, however, is where

the holiday show is taking place: Gateway's Candlewood Playhouse in New

Fairfield, one of the area's best-known playhouses, but hardly the site of an

indoor ice skating rink... until now.

Producer John Hodges has put together an incredible treat for area

theatregoers. It is amazing, stunning, fun, and an incredible achievement. A

company of 25 skaters spends two hours leaping, spinning, skating, gliding,

dancing and entertaining to one of Tchaikovsky's most beloved masterpieces,

Sleeping Beauty , on an ice rink that has been created in just 24 hours by The

Yontz Corporation.

The rink - the Yontzmat Portable Ice Rink - is the size of half of a

basketball court. To accommodate the rink, the playhouse's orchestra pit was

raised to stage level and in order to hold the ice necessary to create the

rink - 10,000 pounds (five tons) of frozen water - the stage was reinforced

from below.

After the rink's walls are laid down, the rink is continuously watered to

build the layers of ice, 75 in all. The entire installation takes just four

hours, and the ice builds to skating thickness in 20 hours. When the fun is

over, the entire rink is removed in four hours or less by a team of 12 and

loaded into the truck for transport to the next theatre.

In this version of the classic fairy tale, the curtain lifts on the

Christening of Princess Aurora. The King and Queen have invited the Lilac

Fairy and the other fairies to the event. A clap of thunder warns of the

arrive of the wicked fairy, Carabosse, who has been omitted from the Master of

Ceremonies' guest lift.

Furiously angry, Carabosse curses the baby and says one day Aurora will prick

her finger and die. The Lilac Fairy intervenes and promises Aurora will only

sleep.

On her 16th birthday, Aurora is found dancing with four suitors in the palace

during another grand celebration. An old woman enters and offers her a

spindle, and Aurora pricks her finger on a hidden needle. The old woman

reveals herself to be Carabosse, but the Lilac Fairy again promises Aurora,

and the entire kingdom, will sleep until Aurora is awoken by a Prince's kiss.

A hundred years pass. While hunting in the forest, Prince Desire is shown a

vision of Aurora by the Lilac Fairy and begs to be taken to her. Desire must

first fight his way past Carabosse, who guards the sleeping princess, and the

prince and princess fall in love.

The Court celebrates the marriage of the prince and princess with the

introduction of other equally famous fairy tale characters - Red Riding Hood

and the Wolf, Puss in Boots and White Puss, and Bluebird all appear to

celebrate with the happy couple on their marriage. The Lilac Fairy gives her

blessing to the couple and, as they say in all good fairy tales, they live

happily ever after.

In its North American premiere performances, the St. Petersburg Ice Ballet

presents a magnificent show. The athleticism, grace, beauty and joy each of

these skaters bring to their roles is mesmerizing.

Olga Kuvashova is a majestic Beauty/Aurora. Obviously delighted to be able to

take on the role, she is beautiful, graceful on the ice, pensive and

expressive. Miss Kuvashova, who began skating at the age of seven, is the

leading soloist of the Ballet on Ice.

Her Prince, portrayed by Pavel Ivanov, is also a leading soloist of the

company. He also is Miss Kuvashova's real-life husband, and the two make a

dynamic pair on the ice.

Elena Khailova, as the Queen, is lucky in that she possesses very fine, regal

looking features, which carry well in her portrayal of Princess Aurora's

mother. The fairies are all fun to watch, particularly Canary, the

Light-heartedness Fairy (Trina Shakhovskaya).

If anyone should be loudly applauded for bringing facial expressions and full

use of a very athletic body into the portrayal of a role, it is Galina

Kopoteva, who introduces White Puss (the female counterpart to Puss in Boots)

early in the second act of the ballet and immediately steals the show from

nearly everyone else. Miss Kopoteva is a playful, coy little kitten who makes

the most of a supporting role.

Ironically, it was the performance by Leonid Smirnov, as Carabosse, the wicked

fairy, that turned out to be one of the stoniest players on the ice.

Surrounded by skaters who had become the roles they were performing, Mr

Smirnov seemed to instead be skating a technical routine for an unseen panel

of judges, rather than taking on the potentially-frightening role of the evil

fairy. His talent was certainly there - his solo during the ballet's second

act was indeed enthralling - but it was without much feeling, it seemed.

The magnificent production has been re-choreographed by Merited Artist of

Russia, Konstantin Rassadin, a leading soloist of the Mariinsky Theatre of

Opera and Ballet of Saint Petersburg (formerly the Kirov Theatre) for 23 years

and a pupil of Leonid Yakobson at the Academy of Russian Ballet.

The music for the production is the classic Tchaikovsky score of Sleeping

Beauty , which was recorded by the Kirov Orchestra under the baton of Leo

Korkhin. Because there are no speaking parts in this production, the stereo

system of the Playhouse is put to full use, surrounding the audience in the

uplifting, spirited ballet music from start to finish, with no worries of

missed dialogue or poorly-placed microphones.

Whether a fan of ice competitions, classical ballet or fairy tales come to

life, all ages will revel in the beauty and joy of Sleeping Beauty on Ice .