icLiverpool.co.uk
by Philip Key
THEATRE producer James Cundall was walking along a New Zealand beach with fellow producer Tony Mercer when he had a wild thought. The two were discussing an ice show, and Cundall asked: "Wouldn't it be nice if a boy could throw a girl 5ft across the ice and another boy could catch her?" "It's never been done before," replied Mercer, an expert in these things.
Three years later, Cundall turned up for rehearsals for the pair's newest show Swan Lake on Ice. "I've got something to show you," grinned Mercer. Amazed, Cundall watched as the "impossible" feat was performed in front of his eyes.
"It had taken him three years, but he had finally cracked it," says Cundall. "How many times the girl fell in that time I can't tell you. There are a lot of injuries in ice skating which is why we always travel with a doctor." Yorkshire-based Cundall, 49, has been producing shows for close on 15 years, ever since he set up a company, Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, in Hong Kong in 1992.
He has presented every kind of show in that time, but ice shows have become a particular passion for him, ever since he teamed up with Mercer. Together they set up a new company, The Imperial Ice Stars, and toured the world with Sleeping Beauty on Ice. The show came to Liverpool's Empire Theatre and astonished audiences with its mixture of ballet and bravura dance.
The new show opened recently in Australia at the start of a world tour and is also on its way to Liverpool, where Cundall suggests it will astonish even more. "I would say this is 50% better than our last production." As before, it will feature some of Russia's top skating stars.
"We use Russian skaters because they are the best skaters at the moment, and have an incredible depth of talent. For every Russian you see in the Olympic team, there are 10 just as good back home. They are also very brave in their dancing."
Ice skating, once almost confined to the history books in Britain, is making a remarkable comeback, Cundall suggests. You can see that in the growth of ice rinks across the country, 11 in London alone. "The television show Dancing on Ice also attracted huge audiences with 11m at the weekend at its peak. Incredible figures."
Indeed, Olga Sharutenko, one of the stars of that show, will be skating the role of Odette in the new show, one of a 26-strong cast of Olympic, world, European and national championship skaters. Between them, they have over 200 competition medals. But quality does not come cheap. The production has cost around £1m to stage and tour - all without the benefit of cultural handouts. As producer, Cundall is taking some of the risk.
"You can produce with other people's money or your own and I tend to produce with partners." In this case, that includes Mercer, a Russian friend and David Atkins, an Australian producer who helped create the opening and closing shows for the Sydney Olympics.
Cundall, whose background is in merchant banking, does not like taking too many risks, however. "I tend to stick to brand names and never do anything new. "That's far too dangerous." The ice show may be new, but he is aware that Swan Lake and composer Tchaikovsky have the sort of brand names he likes. As a ballet, it is probably the world's favourite, and Tchaikovsky's music is timeless.
He learned producing the hard way, making a loss on his very first production, a version of the musical Barnum which he took to Hong Kong with Paul Nicholas. But since then, it has been virtually plain sailing. For the Imperial Ice Stars, he has a good working relationship with Mercer who had already been creating ice shows for over a decade before they met.
The two are co-producers. "I leave the artistic side to him and he leaves the money and marketing side to me. He has strong views about my side of things, and he accepts that I occasionally have strong views about the artistic content. "But we are really very compatible." He compares Mercer's role with that of a football manager who has a squad of people under him.
"The traditional way of doing a musical is to have a director and a choreographer," Cundall explains. "But in ice skating there are various disciplines, single men, single girls, pairs and figure skaters and each needs a different coach. There are also a lot of gymnastics. "So Tony has brought together an all-star creative team including a choreographer and costume designer both from Moscow. The set designer is by Eamonn D'arcy, who is creating the opening show for the Asian Games. Tchaikovsky's score has also been newly recorded in Britain.
"Tony also did some research in the archives in Moscow, and found some music that Tchaikovsky wrote for Swan Lake that was not used in the original production. So he has put some of that in and cut a few other bits. ut all the favourites are there." Quality might be costly but Cundall thinks it worth spending that extra dollar.
"The word of mouth goes out and it gives a show longevity; people see it and buy it for overseas which allows us to put more money in to shows." Swan Lake on ice is expected to tour for two years.
The new production also has some surprising moments. "At the end of the first act, we set fire to the stage, and that's something that's never been done on ice before," says Cundall. "When the show opened in Sydney, we had the usual stuffy opening night audience and all these luvvies were going 'Oh my gosh!' Well, even I was saying Wow!"
Swan Lake on Ice is at the Liverpool Empire, November 28-December 2.