User Reviews

This is a "revised" Riverdance presentation, staged at Radio City Music hall in New York City. Of the three Irish "dance" musicals that I watched during the mid to late '90s (which includes the first "Riverdance" and "Lord of the Dance") I liked this one the best.

I thought it was better than the original, held in Dublin, Ireland, because it adds segments that are mostly good, it has a more varied and colorful stage setting and it eliminated apiece for two from that original that wasn't good to begin with. This is just a very solid show with few weak spots. To be certain, there are some songs/dances that are just "fair" but none that are poor, which is amazing considering there are 20 numbers in all.

The cast is similar to the first Riverdance with the main exception of Colin Dunne replacing Michael Flatley as the featured dancer. Both are extremely talented. The major difference might be in their looks with Dunne a little, goateed black-haired guy while Flatley is the clean-shaven blond. I prefer Dunne because Flatley's ego is so big he gets annoying at times. The female lead, Jean Butler, thankfully, is still there and is great to watch: what graceful beauty and talent! Butler and the rest of these women have the greatest legs I've seen on dancers. I also enjoyed the dancing of Maria Pages, a Spanish flamenco performer, and two guys: Daniel B. Wooten and Ivan Thomas. One number - with those two pairing off against Dunne and two other dancers -0 is called "Trading Taps" and is terrific fun to watch, maybe the highlight of the whole show. I have no complaints about violinist Eileen Ivers, either.

The "fast" Irish songs here appealed to me the most. I appreciated the audience not getting in the way of the performance either with shrieks and screams like the women do in the "Lord Of The Dance" video.

Others have commented on the somewhat strange video arrangements. I think they were trying to capture what you'd be looking at when attending a live performance. The feet, the faces, the overall view. Unfortunately, it falls a bit short. But, having said that, watching Colin Dunne is nevertheless gratifying. It's an interesting contrast to Michael Flatley in the original video. The progression of the show is evident, changes from the original Dublin production are evident.

"Trading Taps" is the highlight of the video, in my opinion. Tarik Winston is unbelievable, as is his partner in the piece.

I think the audio was better in this version than the original video production (1995). In Dolby 5.1 on DVD it's excellent.

Despite the flawed videography, it's a must-own for Riverdance fans.

The show is GREAT. No words to describe it. Wonderful music. Incredible dance. The editors couldn't spoil it, not because they were not *that*bad*, but because the show is really *that*good*.

The editors are compulsive cutters, you can't see a scene without a cut for more than 15 secs. It's OK to show various angles, but those guys were working with multiple cameras for the first time in their lives, and they will remind you of how many cameras they have every five seconds on average... They manage to film the start of a jump with one camera, then cut it in the middle, and show the rest of it in another angle.

No matter how much they tried, they couldn't spoil that wonderful show. It's a must for dance and music lovers.

In my opinion, Flatley ruined the first show with his ridiculous ego. He was disrespectful to his dancing partner, tried to upstage everyone and had no awareness of the spirit of Riverdance. It's well he left the show. Colin Dunne, the new male lead, is superb, and when he and Jean Butler dance together, magic happens! Eileen Ivers' fiddling is astonishing (as is Noel Eccles' percussion,) and Maria Pages' "Fire Dance" is worth the price of admission! When Pages and Ivers get together, near the end of the show for a musical duet, well, it's a genuine treasure. I agree, the editing isn't complimentary, but no technical shortcoming can quell this extraordinary tour de force. This is the one to get. There's never been anything like Riverdance! This is the real one!

I saw Riverdance - The New Show and loved it from the very first moment! It is an energetic tribute to Irish dance filled with brilliant dancing, music and choreography! The leads, Jean Butler and Colin Dunne had me captivated with their exquisite dancing! May they always keep shining and keep dancing. Their on stage chemistry was amazing, and the unity between them on stage was obvious. They look like they were made to dance with each other! This show is my absolute favourite, and probably always will be. Long Live Riverdance!

This production must have been edited by some psychotic MTV speed freak. I don't think there was a single stretch of film that lasted more than 15 seconds long before an editing cut was made, which completely destroyed the flow of the dance. RIVERDANCE was a wonderful show, but this tape was a butcher job. See the original 1995 video, with Michael Flatley as the primary dancer, and get an idea of what it was really like.

I've seen Riverdance in person and nothing compares to the video, but the show is awesome. The dancers are amazing. The music is impacting. And the overall performance is outstanding. I've never seen anything like it! I suggest that you see this show if you can!!!

The New Show is just about half as impressive as Michael Flatley's Feet of Flames. Angles and perspectives of the camera were almost annoying at times and the show itself lacked the spark of adventure and mystique I saw in Feet of Flames, Possibly because this seems to be set up in NY and not in forests of England? :) The set and special effects could have been better too. However the music and dance lived up to expectations, though it lacked the master himself. This isn't a must have for every Riverdance fans, but still fun to watch it for the music once or twice.

The dancing is amazing, the sets are beautiful and the music very good. Unhappily the editor chose to limit cuts to a few seconds, so that just as interest was aroused the image shifted off to a view of the auditorium or some other distraction. The musical continuity is perfect, but the visual continuity is sometimes puzzling. This may be a necessity in this live recording in Radio City Music Hall (perhaps this is a composite of several performances), but the choppy cutting is not.

Well, after seeing Feet of Flames, this was a VERY very big disappointment. For all those who didnt, then go ahead, its worth it. But if you can, please so what you can to get FoF. Its far superior to this Riverdance. I saw it for the first time 1 year ago and normally, i re-view it every month maximum. sometimes, every week. This Riverdance lacks some of the features seen in FoF. And they're SO much comparable, that one cannot escape from the fact that it is... inferior in a whole variety of ways.