Broadway on Ice nearly sells out

Waterford Tricenturena Skating Club presented Broadway on Ice in two shows Saturday, March 29 in Waterford. Wearing bright red jackets, Seventy-Six Trombones – Music Man was one of the first numbers in Act One.

Chris Abbott

Editor

In the On Broadway song, the ‘neon lights are bright’, and ‘there’s always magic in the air.’

Both were true on Saturday, March 29 when Waterford Tricenturena Skating Club presented its annual skating carnival, Broadway on Ice, in Waterford.

“Very happy with how things went,” said Meaghan Tompkins, WTSC carnival chair, a few says after their two carnival shows. “The biggest thing is the skaters had fun. We’re definitely glad how everything comes together. It’s definitely not the first time we’ve done this, but it’s a lot to pull it all together.”

The dazzling opening number was practiced for the first time during Friday’s dress rehearsal, bringing together all the junior and senior StarSkaters, and adult skaters, who typically skate on different nights. 

“Our coaches had a vision of what they wanted and they had about an hour’s worth of practice. And away they went. We’re happy that it turned out as well as it did.”

Broadway on Ice numbers included Welcome to New York, Sixty-Six Trombones, New York New York, Fame, You’re in the Band, Ever After, Moulin Rouge, Grease, Circle of Life, Backstage Crew, Roar, What is this Feeling, Tommy Pinball Wizard, Defying Gravity, Footloose, Pirates of Penzance, Mamma Mia, Hair Spray, Rock of Ages, Little Mermaid, Greatest Showman, Seussical, and Cats.

“Over the years, we’ve been trying to slowly build our costume ‘store.’ We do re-use costumes, but we will get a couple new things. We try to keep things fairly simple and use what we have. A lot of costumes were re-worked… we kind of combined two costumes together to make things work.”

As guests and skaters were leaving the afternoon and evening shows, they were presented free ice cream courtesy of Unilever/Breyers, a custom that goes back at least four years.

Following their carnivals, the club typically takes a two to three week break. This year the ice is scheduled to come out at the Waterford arena for maintenance, which will push  the start of a shorter spring session back to mid-May. The summer session, which includes skaters from Waterford, Simcoe and other area clubs, will run July and August in CanSkate, Hockey CanSkate, and junior and senior StarSkate programs.

Registration for the spring session started April 5 and continued April 9. It will continue until all programs are (quickly) filled up.

“Right now, we’re slowly kind of wrapping everything up and saying thank yous to everybody that helped us out,” said Tompkins.

“We have an awesome group of volunteers who have helped us out and we try very much to be community-minded. We try to do things with local sponsors, local businesses, so just a really big thank you to all of those who helped us put on the show.”

More than 500 guests watched the afternoon show this year, close to a sellout, and 400-plus watched the evening show, both featuring approximately 150 skaters.

There are typically 300-plus skaters from year-to-year including fall, spring, and summer programs, and the 13-week winter program.

The Waterford Tricenturena Skating Club, which includes Waterford and Simcoe area skaters, can be contacted through email wtsc.info@gmail.com or their redesigned website waterfordtricenturenaskatingclub.com . They are also active on social media.