I had a fantastic ‘blast to the past’ the other night. Together with my family, I was able to see the ice skaters that I enjoyed watching as a pre-teen perform live in the Smucker’s Stars on Ice 25th Anniversary.
This show was only being performed once in my area at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA. I was impressed with how friendly and helpful the staff was. Plus, if you buy tickets directly through the stadium versus Ticketmaster, you can save quite a bit. We dealt with some inclement weather as we made our way to the venue so had to eat there. Expect ‘typical’ event food quality and pricing.
The opening act was so much fun all the skaters came out and each was introduced. Kurt Browning was the main MC for the show with a little chat via the screens with Scott Hamilton. I was secretly hoping Scott would pop out some time during the show but that didn’t happen. I did notice that Scott Hamilton will be presenting at the shows in Boston, MA, St. Paul, MN, and Cleveland, OH – I’m so jealous! Ah, so much nostalgia. Kurt Browning is still hilarious, Katerina Gordeeva is till cute, and Todd Eldridge is still boring.
I was a bit concerned as to how my husband and daughter would like it as they did not have the same affinity to the skaters as I did. Yet, I had nothing to worry about. There was a little bit of everything with both single and pair skaters. My husband was actually familiar with some of the more recent skaters and my daughter enjoyed the programs with fast music. Her favorites were the country-themed performance by Michael Weiss and the one by Jamie Salé and David Pelletier to the song, “Scream” by the Jackson siblings. These exhibition performances are more enjoyable as the skaters can just have fun and not be so concerned with technical requirements.
We had a great time. The Smucker’s Stars on Ice program is a wonderful ‘feel-good’ event that will provide a fun evening out.
Disclosure: Though I was provided with free tickets, it was not in connection with this review, which contains 100% my honest opinion.
