Sadly, we were disappointed in some.....

Let me start by saying that we have been fans of Stars on Ice for ages. We have seen most of the shows. We appreciate all of the stars, and their hard work, along with the rest of the staff behind the scenes. We want you to know where we are coming from with this review.

Let me also start by saying that we have always found the shows to be excellent---we travel out of state for it on an overnite which involves HOTEL fee, MEALS fees, gas fees and time, etc. in addition to the ticket prices. Probably the show trip "costs" us roughly approximately $3-400.00. Point being that we always felt it was "worth" it to spend that to see the show.

This year...not so much. And anything and everything we write here is said with FULL appreciation of the skaters---we in no way are disappointed in the skating skills. In fact, the next morning we ran into other travelers to the show, this time all the way from West Virginia to Hershey, Pa. They, too, travel every year to see the stars. They, too, were discussing around town and the stores their reactions, so we want you to know that this is not only our opinion.
With only 2-4 exceptions, we all agreed and discussed that the show was entirely too DARK, somber, almost depressing, except for a few of the other highlights. Many of the music choices were almost all not attractive to a lot of us...maybe to teenagers? But the large amount of "techno" or "non-classical" or "rock" music, combined with the large amout of "dark" and somber choreography....some of it just lacking so much in content...made us feel sometimes that it was self-indulgent of some of the soloists to themselves enjoy sweeping around telling their stories, while we hoped to have seen beautiful and more INTERESTING music and choreography combinations...showing more content and more uplifting showmanship.

We know full well what goes into the training and preparation to perform these shows, and we expect to see and celebrate that. Instead, we came out of it not elated, not excited, and let down...except, of course, for some exceptions...(we are reluctant to list or name them here, as we do not have the full program to refer to, so it would be totally unfair to mention some and mistakenly erroneously omit some; we will say, however, that of the three or four total highlights, among those certainly were the Adagio by Meryl and Charlie, the Chinese solo by Karen Chen, and a few others...as mentioned, we are afraid we are omitting certain other names without a program to refer to).

If you are reading this far, then let us emphasize again-certainly we are in no way critical of the spectacular skating-people like Ashely, Nathan, Adam, Gracie, Madison and Evan, and ALL the others....we emphasize this because we in no way wish to appear to diminish our appreciation of all the skaters. Our disappointment in this show is with the dreary and dark music and choreography of TOO MANY numbers. It was not such an enjoyable program or trip for us. We now question whether this trip and expense is worth it for us to go next year, if this is the direction the show will continue to go.

We must add in all fairness here that the last group costuming was quite uninspired---it seemed amateurish, elementary, uninspired, and it certainly did not add anything to the great skating.

Additionally, however---let us also mention the PRICE hike. If we read the flier correctly, each ticket we purchased this year will INCREASE in price by $30.00 more next year! What?!

Will we attend next year, and continue to support and follow Stars on Ice? We do not know how to find out if this is the direction the shows will continue to follow...so we do not yet --know if we will attend.

In conclusion, let us hope for more "classical" or "traditional" style music and shows. Even though they can contain newer music, the general concensus by people we met was that it was too dreary and boring SOME of the time. Not to take away from the credit where credit is due. Please, please consider the many reviews we have seen here that coincide with this one.