Riverdance: what you’re getting is exactly what you ordered

Absolutely predictable. Absolutely enjoyable.

If you are one of the 25 million people worldwide who have witnessed this phenomenol theatrical show at 11,500 performances — and more than once, you know it’s like your favourite restaurant. You know the menu; you know your favourite dish(es) and you can’t wait to dine there, again and again, your taste buds tingling with every morsel and thoroughly gorging yourself.

Riverdance — The 20th Anniversary World Tour at Prospera Place on Wednesday night served the same delectable menu to 2,800 enthusiastic fans: the unbelievably beautiful female lead, the handsome male lead, the sultry flamenco dancer, the tall songstress with her high lilting voice, a baritone, exquisite costumes.

Accompanied, of course, by that soundtrack — three million copies of the Grammy Award-winning CD sold. Those songs have been indelibly imprinted in our heads for the past 23 years (20 years after the first global road trip by the company).

And you can’t deny the primeval impact of that rapid-fire footwork. The drumming from all those feet, almost hypnotic, stirs something primordial in all of us, as if it is calling us, drawing us into negotiations with elemental powers.

As you watch some of the world’s finest at their craft, you come to the realization that these are indeed professional athletes through and through. As you watch their flying feet, high kicks and intricate manoeuvres, you are almost nervous that a misstep will put them out of action for the rest of the tour. Yet every move is perfectly timed and executed.

For the record, Maggie Darlington is the sexy female lead; Jason O’Neill, a man’s man male lead; and Marina Claudio Manso, the spirited flamenco soloist. Every solo or ensemble number featuring them was greeted by a roar of cheers and thunderous applause.

But the highlight for virtually everyone was the classic clash between O’Neill with two Irish compatriots and the Riverdance tappers, Lamont Brown and Tyler Knowlin.

The two tap dancers put on quite a demonstration of their considerable skills, but when the two faced three, there was a crescendo of audience appreciation and clapping in unison as the competition intensified.

Darlington and O’Neill were constantly smiling as they interacted while the other dancers often only focused on keeping their upper bodies stiff, arms by their sides and the lower limbs going every which way.

The Riverdance Band, on the other hand: musical director Mark Alfred on drums, percussion and bodhran, Ceilidh Briscoe on fiddle, Emma Frampton on saxophone and Tara Howley on Uilleann pipes, low whistle, tin whistle and concertina, looked like they were have the most fun while entertaining at a wild Irish party. And wild it was.

For those unfamiliar with the menu, Riverdance has a little of everything, and a lot of Irish meat and potatoes. There is the requisite flamenco and tap — you know they are coming — but also the challenging Russian folk segment with all of the incredible acrobatic jumps, twists and turns that have delighted audiences for centuries.

The 20th Anniversary World Tour, performing in 40 cities across North America from Jan. 5 through April 15, features new costumes, new lighting, new projections and the addition of a brand new number, Anna Livia, featuring the female members of the Irish dance troupe in an a cappella hard-shoe number.

The finale was still the line of 20 dancers, reminiscent of the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, but even more impressive with that incessant drumming of feet.

There couldn’t be and never is an encore. The ensemble and all of us in the audience were spent.

No doubt there is at least another 20 years of Riverdance and a chance to dine again.