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Covortingly Cool, Colorful Holiday on Ice Bigger, Better |y CLARA HIERONYMUS .*We hope no one will think ft an irreverent simile, but after so many days of 90-plus feather the 24th edition of Holiday On Ice is like frosty manna from heaven. % That is, if you can think of! Jfianna as a cooling, colorful 'Snow-cone running over with delectable, shivery drops ice-sparkled delight. AS ONE WHO always thought Holiday On Ice was "the biggest show on earth," I'm astonished that it could get any bigger. But it has. The 1969 Ice show that opened its six- day run at Municipal Auditorium last night is a 2V2-hour entertainment crammed with the best and fastest-paced theater you're likely to see in our region all year. It's incredibly lavish with feathers and silk, sequins and beads, opulent wigs and showgirl costumes, rowdy comedy and spirited spoofing, languid grace and phenomenal dancing and revue-type, skating-drama production numbers. I The most impressive aspect, jhowever, is that its producers ;have not used the magnificent costumes, sets and lighting effects to mask . a weak show. The skater-dancer-actors are gifted and disciplined, timing is i sharp and the multiple cues ;are mashed with stunning professionalism. IF ANYONE HAD ever wondered what happened to vaudeville, he need wonder no more. They've put it on ice. And kept) al lits tricks and style. Holiday On Ice, with its extiavagant| production routines is latter day vaudeville-on-skates, whisk-) ing from big song and dance, rink-filling numbers like "Hello j New York" to the wild farce comedy of Alfredo Mendoza and John La due as the Ole Houn' Dawg himself. Speaking of which, it isn't every show that finds a per- cheron-size, very shaggy, very wet dog cuddling up to the critic I with eyelashes flapping and red tongue wagging, and then sitting in her lap for good measure. With Mendoza and Ladue filling out the doggy hide, it is very easy to join the ranks of animal-lovers. It may seem a little improbable, but an African jungle has been brought into the show this year, complete with hot-blooded rhythms and weirdly wonderful voodoo ritual scenes. Freddie Wittop's sensational costumes have enough cowrie shells to bail out the economy of all of Africa ?╟÷ if cowries are still legal tender ?╟÷ and the shells make a deliciously mysterious sound as the performers race about in black light. STARRED IN "Jungalero' are Helga and Jorge Valle whose fiery style makes the pulses pound like the drums in this fantastic tribal drama. You hope nobody's sticking pins in your effigy after the voodoo bit, but before it's over, you almost] feel the jabs. Those in the audience over 30 (40, maybe?) swooned with nostalgia at "Astaire Time," hearing "Dancing in the Dark" and "Night and Day" as Marei Langenbein and Ronnie Robertson danced solo. Miss Langenbein is dazzling as a beauty and as a performer, and Robertson remains the undisputed virtuoso of ice skating. He is a sensitive and knowing actor which lifts him miles above other fine skaters. An audience favorite, Alice; Quessy excelled in this number as a sassy and beautiful blur in' silver sequins and pink plumes. FOR SHEER extravagance inj the tradition of old stage and! movie musicals, nothing tops , "The Gates of Granada," with'i its fountain and iron gates, indescribably glorious costumes full of subtle variations and splendor ?╟÷ and Robertson's haughty Spanish male airs. The artistry of Alfredo Mendoza and Darolyn Prior, of a newcomer to the Ice Show Cast ?╟÷ tiny Anna Galmarini, of Grete Borgen, and of the enchanting Cook family, and the comic skill of Paul Andre, Johnny Leech, Gerry Willis and Todd Schoon- maker, in an enormous company! of skater-actors, add up to a memorable evening. The program ends with a] great five-scene act called "Star Time" that recounts and spoofs the early days of the movies. There are 32 Charley Chaplins in the Chaplin ballet, 8 or ten Jean Harlows in platinum wigs and slithery sequin gowns, and Pearl White and Valentino, the Keystone Kops, the Marx Brothers, and even Doug Fairbanks, all funny and fast and quiet beautiful, and Madison Square Garden ?╟÷ the show's next stop ?╟÷ is going to be bowled oyer by the whole gorgeous business. WOgLD PREMIEPF |W0RLD FAMOUS ICE SPECTACULaS Cr^cA Z Faj'M?·0"s Productions Created, Staged, Directed by DONN ARDEN OPENS TOMORROW TUES., AUG, 20 thru SUM., AUG. 25 Nights 8 P.M. except Sun, MAT,NE** SAT.,2!30P.M.^SUN.)1!00and 4,30 P.M. PRICES: $2.00, $2.50, $3.00, $3.50, $4 00 TirS,-rT*?der 16 Half-Price a" Ma"??*?╜ ' IICKETS AT AUP- & HARVEYS DOWNTttWM MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM I Wk mservationT