Celtic Rhythms Go Cross-Cultural : In Its Second Half, ‘Riverdance (The Show)’ Benefits From Interactions With Other Styles

Wonderful as Irish step dancing is, something particularly magical happened when it encountered other cultures in the second half of “Riverdance (The Show),” Thursday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (through June 13).

First off, most of the vague and incoherent New Age mythic mumbo-jumbo of the first half fell away. If there were supposed to be a story line that made sense of the plotless sequences, neither the staging, the songs nor the amplified offstage narrator provided it.

Second, the reality-sapping recorded tap track and especially the disembodying amplification that had cleaved singers from the songs earlier seemed less a presence and decidedly less important.

Thirdly, the numbing line regimentation that had all but obliterated the dancers as individuals also receded.

The show shrank to human proportions, real reactions and interactions took place, and some sense emerged--if not of complete authenticity, at least of the possibility--of people influencing one another creatively.

Credit tappers Toby Harris, Rolondas Hendricks and Karen Callaway Williams, flamenco dancer Nuria Brisa and the small sextet identified as the Moscow Folk Ballet.

Also credit the show’s virtuosic male lead, Pat Roddy, for his sunny give and take. Roddy may lack the charisma of Michael Flatley (the show’s original lead), but he danced splendidly and for the glory of Ireland and the show, not himself.

His partner, Eileen Martin had an elfin lightness and elevation, but she could not command the stage as had her predecessor, Jean Butler.

Throughout, the corps threw itself into the choreography with selfless and energized devotion, but it was always compromised by director John McColgan’s belief that the more people, the better.

Vocalists Katie McMahon, Michael Londra and Charles Gray couldn’t do much with Bill Whelan’s banal songs, though, heaven knows, they tried. Maybe rhythm, not music, is the universal language.

On the other hand, maybe traditional music wasn’t given a fair enough shake. Still, Eoghan O’Neill conducted the Riverdance Orchestra with flair. Fiddler Liz Knowles played with power and bagpiper Brian O’Brien played hauntingly. But neither of their solos was long enough.

“Riverdance,” as everyone knows, evolved from a 1994 seven-minute television showpiece into this near rock ‘n’ roll light-show extravaganza. It lost its Celtic heart in the process.

* “Riverdance (The Show)” continues at 2 and 8 p.m. today at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Also 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday and June 13, 8 p.m. Tuesday through June 12. (No performance Monday.) Very limited ticket availability. $45-$70. (714) 556-2787.