CaraNua shared this fantastic promo video from Bring Me's trip to Evermore Park.

https://www.facebook.com/buzzfeedbringme/videos/2158614870839140/


Role playing isn't normally my thing (I'm too shy), but this looks wayyyyy too fun!

Must experience Evermore!!!

Where did you hear or see it? I haven't yet except for the little clips they've posted on instagram, but I'd like to.

I managed to find it on the RTE Radio One site.

You'll probably have to allow Flash and pop-ups in your browser to get it to work.


Direct Link to Celtic Woman's segment:

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradiowebpage.html#!rii=b9_21459632_15036_08-11-2018_


Links to the full show:

https://rte.ie/r.html?rii=b9_10959368_15036_08-11-2018_
or
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradiowebpage.html#!rii=b9_10959368_15036_08-11-2018_

The Celtic Woman segments are spread out over the second hour of the show, starting near the 1 hour mark.

~ 00:53:00 ... Be Still (live acoustic version)
~ 01:33:55 ... Going Home (live acoustic version) ... Megan sings Eabha's early part in the song
~ 01:38:10 ... Interviews with the girls

Tara practicing Across the World:

https://streamable.com/t6ix1

I wonder if it will make a return on the Best of Christmas tour?

Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games (Tour)

I saw Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games!

I actually had a mixed reaction to this show. It had lots of energy and the dancing was amazing! It was good, don't get me wrong, but I think you'll enjoy it more if you haven't seen the original Lord of the Dance or Feet of Flames (or at least haven't seen them in a long time). Explanation to follow.

I know shows change over time. They have to in order to stay fresh. Most of the time I don't like comparing new and old versions of shows because each version should be appreciated for its own strengths. In this case though, I think I have to compare this show to the Lord of the Dance DVD or Feet of Flames DVD in order to make my point (it's been almost 20 years since I saw the original live, so I can't use that for comparison).


Story:

The story is almost exactly the same as the original. For most of the pieces, the songs and choreography have been re-worked significantly. Each piece reminded me of its original counterpart, which I thought was pretty cool, but also ended up being a double-edged sword (more on that later).

There was a good plot twist (well, more of a tweak) in the second act. I don't want to give away what it was, but let's just say that one of the characters does something compelling in Dangerous Games that the character did not do (at least not clearly) in the original or Feet of Flames. I thought it added dimension to the character.

There were some aspects of the new show that improved the storytelling and made it easier to understand some scenes in the show. There was a big video screen at the back of the stage that helped set the scene far more effectively than the giant gate in the original show.


Dancing:

The dancing in the original and Dangerous Games is great! There was lots of energy and talent on that stage. It feels like I should be talking more about the dancing for an Irish dance show, but I don't have anything to complain about, so it wouldn't make for an interesting writeup.


Costumes:

I thought the costumes in Dangerous Games were great for the most part. They had some very pretty dresses, including some stunning, spectacular sparkly ones. The male dancers on the antagonist's side got costume upgrades too. They retained the sense of tackiness that was present with the original, but in the new show, they wear armor reminiscent of Judge Dredd or some other futuristic security force. The lead villain's new costume felt like a Borg (although this character was significantly more mobile). The peak of the tackiness was new costumes I'll call "Cybermen" (for my fellow Dr. Who fans). Those were kind of distracting in my opinion. I felt like I was paying more attention to their costumes  than the performance and even though I'm a sci-fi fan, this felt a little over the top. I think overall though, I was quite pleased with the costumes, both in general and relative to the original.


Acting:

The acting was a weakness of this Dangerous Games performance, in my opinion. It felt like the performers were good at dancing, but didn't have the same dimension in the other aspects of their performance as they did on the Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames DVDs.

The dancer that played The Little Spirit (the adorable flute fairy) in this Dangerous Games performance was a fantastic dancer, but Helen Egan (from the early DVDs) was just at a whole different level in terms of facial expressiveness. I really cared about Helen Egan's "The Little Spirit" because her insanely good acting skills made me care. The new Little Spirit didn't establish that same emotional connection.

That said, the chemistry between Saoirse (aka "good girl" dancer) and Morrigan ("the temptress") was great. The jealousy came across much more effectively in the new show than it did on the old DVDs.


Music:

The biggest difference and the thing I found the most disappointing in this new show was the music.

The original composer was Ronan Hardiman. The new composer is Gerard Fahy.

As I mentioned earlier, I thought it was cool that the new composer managed to make the new songs in such a way that they reminded me of the originals. The progressions and other characteristics of the songs were similar (except for a few brand new pieces) were similar to their original counterparts. They were fun, energetic, had good rhythms, and had a good irish flavour.

It's the melodies that were the biggest difference for me. The almost all the new instrumental songs felt bland and significantly less catchy than the originals. Quite frankly, they *butchered* some of my favourite pieces from Lord of the Dance.

The original "Victory" was an AMAZING tune! The new counterpart is not. It's not catchy. It's not nearly as powerful emotionally. It didn't make me want to cheer. It felt like a far less effective version of Victory Celebration, which replaced the beloved Yub Nub in the special edition of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

The first half of "Dance Above the Rainbow" from Feet of Flames was an outstanding piece! Similarly "Siamsa" was extremely fun to listen to! The songs replaced those two scenes it with in the new show were rhythmically similar, but the melodies weren't nearly as memorable.

Aside from those 3 travesties, most of the other instrumental songs I thought were just different and I wasn't disappointed in them.

Dueling Violins was similar to the original, except that nobody can replicate Mairead Nesbitt's energy.

The new version of The Lament (the slow, sad violin duet) was one aspect of the new music I really loved. I thought the new arrangement was far prettier and more effective at communicating emotion. The images on the video screen and the music complimented each other very well for this piece.

The vocal songs in the original were slow, traditional Irish songs. The new songs were contemporary, including pop and rock songs. They weren't nearly as spectacular as the songs performed in a show like Rocktopia, but they were still good and they were well-performed. For the most part, they added to the story and maintained the show's pace and energy well.


The Encores:

One of the features of encores in a Michael Flatley's old shows (aside from repeating the Lord of the Dance theme / dance multiple times at the end of the show) was that the lead performer would do a special solo dance without any music. I don't want to give it away, but I thought the solo in this show was pretty cool.


Crowd:

This was the second night of a back-to-back at the venue. Hopefully there were more people on night #1, because the theatre was about a third full (possibly less) on night #2. The crowd was ok. They sometimes needed encouragement to clap along to some pieces and the clapping wasn't particularly enthusiastic. The ovations at the end of the acts or big numbers was actually pretty loud and impressive for an audience that small though.


Overall Impression:

This is a good show! I enjoyed it overall, but some of the changes disappointed me, so I left the theatre feeling a little unsatisfied. If you haven't seen the original or haven't seen a previous version in a while, it's definitely worth seeing. If you're a big fan of the old DVDs and/or have watched them recently, just be aware that some of the things you loved about the old production may be lacking in the new one. Whether or not all the many good aspects of the new show can outweigh the shortcomings, you'll have to decide for yourselves. If you go see it, I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks to Tom for getting me into this new forum....seems weird being a "newbie" as I had some 45000 posts on the old forum. I `ve seen CW 8 times, have my usual front row ticket for next April. I`ve seen most incarnations of CW in 9 years, Lisa Kelly, Lisa Lamb, Chloe, Lynn, Alex, Meav, Mairead N. , Mairead C. , Susan, Eabha, Tara and have chatted with them as they exited the stage door last couple of years. I LOVE  Ancient Land, it`s wonderful and look forward to seeing them perform it in a few months. Kevin in Rhode Island.

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for your patience.

Celtic Woman Ancient Land is airing on Buffalo PBS (WNED):

Saturday, November 24, 06:00 pm on WNED-TV
Friday, November 30, 03:00 am on WNED-TV

Duration:
1:59:00

Description:
Delight in the shimmering voices and enchanting music of this new concert filmed at the beautiful Johnstown Castle in Wexford, Ireland. Features stunning new music from the latest album, Ancient Land, along with a selection of timeless classics.


That means the first airing on PBS for me is just a few days before I see the Celtic Woman: Best of Christmas tour!

Album

Billoboard World Albums chart

Weeks on Chart:	37
Debut Position:	8
Peak Position:	3
Weeks at #1:	-
Chart Debut:	October 13, 2018
Peak Date:	March 30, 2019
Last Date on Chart:	January 4, 2020

Source:
Original: http://www.billboard.com/music/celtic-woman/chart-history/world-albums/song/1101142
Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20190929035431/http://www.billboard.com/music/celtic-woman/chart-history/world-albums/song/1101142
Update: https://www.billboard.com/charts/world-albums/2020-01-04

---

Official Irish Albums Chart

Weeks on Chart:	1
Debut Position:	13
Peak Position:	13
Weeks at #1:	-
Chart Debut:	November 2, 2018
Peak Date:	November 2, 2018
Last Chart Date:	November 2, 2018

Source:
Original: https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/irish-albums-chart/20181102/ie7502/
Archive: https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/irish-albums-chart/20181102/ie7502/

---

Week by Week:

Billboard World Albums Chart:

Source: http://www.billboard.com/charts/world-albums


Week   of...         Chart Position

Oct 13, 2018      8*
Oct 20, 2018      -
Oct 27, 2018      -
Nov 03, 2018      -
Nov 10, 2018      6
Nov 17, 2018      8
Nov 24, 2018      7
Dec 01, 2018      8
Dec 08, 2018      6
Dec 15, 2018      6
Dec 22, 2018      6
Dec 29, 2018      5
Jan 05, 2019      6
Jan 12, 2019      13
Jan 19, 2019      8
Jan 26, 2019      7
Feb 02, 2019      11
Feb 09, 2019      11
Feb 16, 2019      6
Feb 23, 2019      8
Mar 02, 2019      8
Mar 09, 2019      10
Mar 16, 2019      5
Mar 23, 2019      5
Mar 30, 2019    3
Apr 06, 2019      4
Apr 13, 2019      4
Apr 20, 2019      5
Apr 27, 2019      8
May 04, 2019      6
May 11, 2019      6
May 18, 2019      6
May 25, 2019      5
Jun 01, 2019      7
Jun 08, 2019      10
Jun 15, 2019      14
Jun 22, 2019      -
Jun 29, 2019      -
...
Sep 21, 2019      9
...
Dec 22, 2019      13
Dec 28, 2019      12
Jan 04, 2020      15      


* The digital-only album released in North America a month before the worldwide CD release and international digital releases. The physical CD sales debuted on the Billboard World Albums chart the week of November 10, 2018 (which were posted Tuesday, November 6, 2018).[/i]