THIS week New York joined the list of cities already smitten by Riverdance: The Show. Reviews of the dance spectacle, which premiered Thursday night at Radio City Music Hall were, for the most part, unconditional raves.
Critic Clive Barnes, writing in the New York Post, pronounced "triumphant". "The show is a perfect gem of its kind," he wrote. "The jig is a jig is a jig - but here it has been jogged and jagged into something practically fugal in the delicately satisfying variations on its theme."
In a notice that was sure to please Riverdance producer Moya Doherty who hopes to mount a 10 city North American tour of the show the Daily News's Patricia O'Haire wrote: "The jig, the reel and the hornpipe, cannot exactly be counted as part off the [Irish] trade surplus. Until now". Bill Whelan's music, she adds, is "haunting, evocative".
The one sour note came from the New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff, who gave the production a mixed review. She praised the technical skill of the 30 odd step dancers and singled out as "fabulous" the dance duel in the second act between black American style tap dancers - Tarik Winston an Daniel B. Wooten, who have joined the cast since the show's last engagement in Dublin - and three step dancers led by Colin Dunne. As a whole, however, Kisselgoff found Riverdance a well intentioned "mishmash of a variety show" with music "a shade too New Age for dancing".
At the post premiere dinner in the Plaza Hotel attended by novelist Mary Higgins Clark, Fianna Fail leader Bertie Ahern and former New York mayor Ed Koch, the mood was exultant. Basking in the memory of a standing ovation given by the audience, Moya Doherty seemed to radiate contentment. "It's quite a magic moment for us when 6,000 people rise to their feet," she said. "This is extraordinary."
The soprano Jessye Norman was at the performance, as were actors Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson, Stephen Baldwin, Fionnuala Flanagan and Chevy Chase. Singers included Carole King, Tommy Makem and Colm Wilkinson. Senator Ted Kennedy and his sister. Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, were in the audience, as was the Minister for Justice, Nora Owen, U2 manager Paul McGuinness and chairman of the Abbey Theatre, James Hickey. RTE was represented by Marian Finucane and Clare Duignan. Milo O'Shea and his wife Kitty Sullivan were there, as was the chairman of Aer Lingus, Bernie Cahill.
Film director Neil Jordan said the New York production was a better show than the Riverdance that played at the Point last year. I enjoyed the show," he said. "I'd seen it in Dublin and the second act has been improved." In an effort to strengthen Act II, director John McColgan has replaced a gospel choir number with a song written by Bill Whelan for American operatic baritone Ivan Thomas.
For the Irish American dancer Jean Butler - as well as Bronx born fiddler Eileen Ivers - opening here was a chance, at last, to play for a welcoming hometown audience. "It's a bit like St Paddy's Day in New York, when everybody is Irish," said Butler, who arrived at the Plaza party with her boyfriend. Anuna bass baritone Richard Boyle. "It was like that in the theatre tonight: everyone was Irish."
"The cast was kind of tired because we had a couple of gruelling days of rehearsal there," said Mr Thomas, who joined the cast on January 8th. A native of St Louis, he has played Radio City once before in a 1983 production of Porgy and "I warned them all that New York audiences are juiced up. They're an honest crowd. If they love it, you will know, because they will boo if they don't."
There were certainly no boos on Thursday night. "That's the best Irish dancing you'll ever see," said John Cunniffe (27), a step dancer who drove five hours from Boston to see the show. "It was pretty eye opening," said Maggie Mushy (33), who grew up in the Irish enclave of Woodside, Queens. "The beats, the rhythm and the body language... in Irish American culture has been sort of limited to St Patrick's Day and green bread, but more and more, what's coming across is the richness."
According to Peter Smith, president of the Irish Dance Teachers' Association of North America, the influence of Riverdance is strong among teachers Stateside. "The use of hands is now very much accepted. I've taught thousands of students through the years and I want as many as possible to see this. It's a shame it's only here for a week."
That, of course, may change. Moya Doherty says that since arriving in New York, three of the most influential impresarios operating in North America have expressed interest in presenting Riverdance - Garth Drabinsky of Toronto, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useless Group and Steve Wynn, a Las Vegas casino owner. "The show is now set," said Ms Doherty. "The question is if we tour it on the scale that we have now, or whether we break it into smaller units. That decision has yet to be taken."
Moya Doherty called the New York run "a massively expensive publicity campaign", since the gross ticket sale of $2 million was entirely consumed by high production costs. Radio City has reserved three weeks in October for a return engagement, but the show's future is still very much under discussion.
Riverdance returns to Britain and Ireland at the conclusion of the eight show New York run, opening at King's Hall, Belfast on March 25th for 27 performances, then in Millstreet, Co Cork, on April 29th. A return engagement in London is scheduled for this summer.
Riverdance: The Documentary is currently being videotaped.