Review of Riverdance

            From the moment I started to get near the Gershwin Theatre I felt some kind of uplifting energy inside of me. As soon as I came to the doors I saw lot of people waiting to get in. All of us came for the same reason to see the "Riverdance". I felt very enthusiastic as I walked down the lobby to the escalators. The atmosphere of the theatre was solemn: coat-checkers, all people well dressed, everyone is smiling and expecting the event. As I sat down on my seat, I started to look around. It was a big auditorium with a seats arranged so everyone will see the event no matter where you seat. Gershwin Theatre is the proscenium kind of theatre. The stage didn't have any particular decorations that will catch your eye, so I flipped the playbill to get some information before the beginning. As the lights went down, from the first minute of a play I was swept away with a beautiful music and stayed like this until the last minute of the show. It seemed for me, though the musicians are the heart of the play. They brought life and energy. Some of these musicians were actors too. For example, one young lady who played violin came on to the stage a few times in the show, and danced and played solo, and with the rest of dancers at the same time. Music itself, which was a folk Irish transformed to something modern, was fantastic. A cappella singers also perform as a sort of chorus. Throughout the play we were able to hear the voice of unseen narrator, who were telling an impressionistic story of the Irish. The lighting pointed out the important moments and people at the write time. It did not have any special lighting effects and it really didn't need to. All together, lighting and sound created some feeling of spirituality for the show. Scenery of the play was very simple. It didn't use any extravagant decorations. Everything was very simple but it didn't give a feeling of emptiness. I felt that it was good because it didn't disturb attention of an audience.