After all these years, show still fresh

REVIEW /

To many viewers, the Irish dance show “Riverdance” has a distinctly mid-1990s vibe.

In spring 1996, when the production made its debut in the United States, Bill Clinton was president, “Fargo” was a popular movie (and not yet a television series) and another dance sensation was soon to become ubiquitous — remember the Macarena?

Perhaps “Riverdance” suggests that era in part because many of its most famous numbers have remained unchanged: The production still kicks off with “Reel Around the Sun,” and its first act still culminates with the kinetic title dance.

Even so, the show continues to dance on: As part of a tour celebrating its 20th anniversary, “Riverdance” opened Friday and continues through Sunday in the Palace Theatre.

Happily, Friday’s performance was enlivened by the crop of dancers who currently populate the cast, including central Ohio native Courtney D’Angelo. Alternates are cast from performance to performance, but Friday night’s leads joined long after the show’s mid-’90s glory days: Jason O’Neill became a member in 2009; Lauren Smyth in 2010.

In fact, the energy and agility of O’Neill and Smyth made for the most memorable moments in the show. Both possessed poise and posture, as well as feet capable of moving with remarkable rapidity.

The serious-faced O’Neill made an early appearance in “Reel Around the Sun,” in which the powerfully percussive sounds of the dancers’ shoes competed with what was at times an overly loud band.

Smyth had her moment to shine in “The Countess Cathleen”: Troupe members, as well as gymnastically inclined Russian folk dancers, encircled the lithesome Smyth.

The production boasted dynamic light changes, periodic plumes of smoke and ever-changing visual projections. Occasional prerecorded narration, however, was a distraction; during “Thunderstorm,” blinding light effects evoked lightning, and the dancers’ shoes simulated thunder, more effectively than such spoken lines as “Thunder and lightning batter the rocks.”

Act II highlights included the festive “American Wake” and a striking dance called “Anna Livia,” in which female dancers move to a motor-mouthed vocal track apparently quoting lines from James Joyce’s novel “Finnegans Wake” (this reviewer caught a reference to “riverrun,” a famous phrase in the book).

Credit the cast for making “Riverdance” feel fresh.