Barry Manilow (live!) plus Kristi Yamaguchi and Co. equals ‘StarSkates’

Kimberley McGee

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 1999 | 9:51 a.m.

"StarSkates Salute to Barry Manilow."

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Tickets: $50, $37.50 and $25.

Information: Call 632-7580.

He wrote the songs that make the whole world sing -- and apparently skate.

"StarSkates Salute to Barry Manilow" combines the chilly thrill of champion figure skating with the live performance of The Copa Man himself.

As Manilow belts out a bevy of his hits -- and a few surprises -- live at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on Saturday, Kristi Yamaguchi, Elvis Stojko, Phillipe Candeloro and other famous skaters will dip and twirl to "Copacabana (at the Copa)," "Mandy" and "Can't Smile Without You," among others.

The two-hour show will be taped for airing on NBC (KVBC Channel 3) from 4 to 6 p.m. on Oct. 23. The four-show series will continue with an Oct. 16 "Ice Jam" in Biloxi, Miss., with performances by En Vogue and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, to air Nov. 7.

"It's going to be different every single time," Yamaguchi says. "I'm used to skating to recorded music so it's always a treat to have live music to perform (with). The energy is tripled."

And the treat is not limited to just the four-time world pro figure skating champion who will skate to two of Manilow's Top 40 hits. "It's so much more entertaining for the audience to have two aspects of a performance going on at once," she says.

Yamaguchi says that a live orchestra and performer heighten the experience because anything can happen. "We know how to be flexible," she says. "Sometimes (we allow) the singer to start (their) performance on their own first and it's like you join up with them and start skating."

The fluid movements of the skater complement Manilow's melodies.

"The dynamics are different live -- you want to present each other as well as just yourself," she says.

Champion skaters know the heat of the solitary spotlight and the thrill of personal and professional victory. But they don't mind sharing the ice. However, getting the hard-working skaters together with a legendary pop star who is also on a national tour is harder than a triple axel.

"It's hard to coordinate logistics of getting artists and skaters in the same place at the same time," she says. "It's really difficult to get together."

She crooned Manilow ballads as a child in the '70s, traveling in the Yamaguchi clan's van. "Growing up we had Manilow on an eight-track, it was one of the only eight-track tapes we played in the van," Yamaguchi says. "We knew all the songs. I have a lot of fond memories of Barry Manilow."

As do a lot of fans. Manilow, who started his career as Bette Midler's accompanist at New York's Continental Baths in 1972, has had 25 Top 40 hits and has a large, loyal fan base.

For Robin Cousins, choreographer and co-creator of the StarSkates series, skating to a live performance makes the air crackle with the excitement of both performers. The audience is in for a triple treat: their favorite skaters, performers -- and surprises from both.

"There is something unique about being able to have somebody performing the live lyric that you are trying to interpret (skating)," says Cousins, who is also performing in the show -- one of his last major performances. "Skating has a certain feel when you are doing it in terms of how melody translates to the ice and how the skates can move, and choreographically how music is broken down. With Barry's music, I don't think I've found two or three songs that couldn't be skated to."

Cousins, who won the gold at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., is known as figure skating's Renaissance man: He has performed on stage as an actor and worked as a sports commentator, as well as having created and choreographed ice shows since turning professional in 1980 and winning three world championships.

"They love having another dimension to their performance," Cousins says about the performers. "And they feel from watching the skaters they get something emotionally that they can add to their song that they hadn't been able to do before."

And skating to the performer is something contemporary professional skaters haven't been able to do often, although that is changing. "We've spent our lives as skaters performing to recorded music," Cousins laments.

When skating began as live entertainment and as a sport, orchestras provided the accompanying music, but that bit of history is buried beneath television's portrayal of contemporary figure skating.

"It's been a long time with the old 78s, 45s, 33s, and then it became cassettes and CDs and so it's come full circle that we can actually get live performers back out (there) with the skaters," Cousins says, adding that Manilow writes the songs in a way that is lyrically adaptable to the ice.

"I wanted to do somebody in terms of a tribute show who was not necessarily anybody whom people would associate with skating," Cousins says. "One of my things in talking to Barry initially about this project, and about being able to do this tribute, was for us to be able to put into a little broader market some of the music that people wouldn't know is his."

Although the State Farm insurance jingle, which Manilow wrote early in his career probably won't be "there" (like a good neighbor).

Cousins had a hard time throwing out classics he'd love to take for a double axel. "It came down to a fact of whittling it down," Cousins says. "I think if we had looked at doing all the material I had found initially it would have been about a five- or six-hour show."

But Cousins, along with Manilow, spent months poring over Manilow's catalog of hits to get the right combination for the skaters to represent the performer and impress the audience. "Even though it's a tribute I wanted it to be something that he would approve of," Cousins says.

They chose some of the true, tested and expected hits -- the aforementioned "Copacabana," "Mandy" and "Can't Smile Without You," as well as "Trying to Get The Feeling Again," "Looks Like We Made It," "The Old Songs," "This One's For You" and "I Write The Songs" -- along with a few teasers and pleasers Cousins hopes will give the audience a unique ice concert.

"People who know Barry will think this is a little different," Cousins says. "Obviously we want to try and show the scope of his material as it is a tribute to him rather than just him singing his hits."

Manilow will also cover hits from his recent CD, "Manilow sings Sinatra," as well as tunes he penned for the 1994 animated film of Hans Christian Anderson's children's book, "Thumbelina."

"Hopefully (it's) giving a nice perspective of his career, as it were, certainly musically," Cousins says. "I'm quite excited about what we've got,"

And he thinks the ice skating devotees and fans will be too, noting that this is becoming a successful event in the world of professional-entertainment ice skating. "The idea is that next year we will find another single artist to make one of the shows a tribute show."

Cousins spends a lot of time finding the right singer, songs and skaters to meld together for a performance. "Manilow fans probably have heard this music," he says, "but maybe we could convert a few people who didn't realize that Barry is quite the genius."

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