A change in entertainment, maybe?

[Port Power]

All six of the Voices were very good on Silver Dawn this month, but Cruise Director, Bruno, did tell us that the current format was finishing in two months’ time.  I really enjoyed all the performances.  Two of the singers said the new line up would be two singers and four dancers.  That doesn’t sound so good. What happens if one singer is sick?  
 

Maybe it will be like the old Azamara (under Royal) when there were two lead singers, two dancer/singers as from musical theatre, and two dedicated dancers.  That will work, as long as the shows are changed often.  People who cruise the same company regularly don’t want to see the same performance on every cruise!  I’ll find out when on Dawn again in November.

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, Port Power said:

All six of the Voices were very good on Silver Dawn this month, but Cruise Director, Bruno, did tell us that the current format was finishing in two months’ time.  I really enjoyed all the performances.  Two of the singers said the new line up would be two singers and four dancers.  That doesn’t sound so good. What happens if one singer is sick?  
 

Maybe it will be like the old Azamara (under Royal) when there were two lead singers, two dancer/singers as from musical theatre, and two dedicated dancers.  That will work, as long as the shows are changed often.  People who cruise the same company regularly don’t want to see the same performance on every cruise!  I’ll find out when on Dawn again in November.

Azamara had a dance-focused show called Danzare!  I saw it twice and would happily see it again.  Since it's dance-focused it didn't get 'old.'

[A Tucson Guy]

8 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Azamara had a dance-focused show called Danzare!  I saw it twice and would happily see it again.  Since it's dance-focused it didn't get 'old.'

On the Nova currently four singers, five dancers and five live band members. They are doing a great job.

[Mayflower1]

Hopefully Port Power the message you were given by Bruno is somewhat more accurate than the mesage he gave us in May on The Silver Dawn '' The Voices are finishing at the end of this Cruise and a new Entertainment Format will be introduced '' ???

[turtlemichael]

10 hours ago, Port Power said:

All six of the Voices were very good on Silver Dawn this month, but Cruise Director, Bruno, did tell us that the current format was finishing in two months’ time.  I really enjoyed all the performances.  Two of the singers said the new line up would be two singers and four dancers.  That doesn’t sound so good. What happens if one singer is sick? 
 

Maybe it will be like the old Azamara (under Royal) when there were two lead singers, two dancer/singers as from musical theatre, and two dedicated dancers.  That will work, as long as the shows are changed often.  People who cruise the same company regularly don’t want to see the same performance on every cruise!  I’ll find out when on Dawn again in November.

A couple of comments. On this year's World Cruise on Shadow, your fears about a singer getting sick (and on another occasion having to leave for a period for personal reasons) were exactly what happened thus severely limiting the performances of the remaining performers. We were told they would review the format. If your informant is right, they appear to have decided not to change the structure. Big mistake. On the other hand, A Tuscan Guy reports Nova has four singers and five dancers. Hopefully, this will be what happens on all ships.

Edited August 25, 2023 by turtlemichael

[Port Power]

1 hour ago, turtlemichael said:

A couple of comments. On this year's World Cruise on Shadow, your fears about a singer getting sick (and on another occasion having to leave for a period for personal reasons) were exactly what happened thus severely limiting the performances of the remaining performers. We were told they would review the format. If your informant is right, they appear to have decided not to change the structure. Big mistake. On the other hand, A Tuscan Guy reports Nova has four singers and five dancers. Hopefully, this will be what happens on all ships.

 

Nova does have more passengers than previous ships, and that might be reflected in the entertainment spaces and numbers.  But I'm with you if the new format does come to fruition.  However, Cruise Directors are usually past entertainers or were in the entertainment business.  One of the female singers on Silver Dawn was also the assistant CD.  Another of the redundant singers is also going that route.  So they might have to do double-duty and return to the stage in case of emergency!  Yep, it will be interesting to find out.

[Mahogany]

I am currently on Dawn. The only entertainment as most know are the 6 singers and their several production shows with the occasional solo or duet show by them . However, there was a guest singer Christine Andreas and her husband-accompaniest Marty Silvestri who gave us 2 outstanding performances. More please!

[Dolcevita Diva]

17 hours ago, Older Party said:

While I agree with you Silversea has never made entertainment a priority, when I created the all vocal program, the requirement was for professional performers, average age 32.  Cliff Perry removed all the extra duties in order to attract the best talent possible to Silversea.  I hired Vicki Van Tassel, who was quite reluctant to take the contract.  Our Music Director, Michael Brennan, had worked with Vicki when he conducted Mamma Mia, which is how she came to us.  Many of our Artists were AEA members, most AEA eligible.  I cannot speak for the company that replaced us, but when Choozi was hiring the entertainers, they were all professionals.

You deserve special thanks for bringing Vicki Van Tassel to Silversea. 

[Older Party]

54 minutes ago, Dolcevita Diva said:

You deserve special thanks for bringing Vicki Van Tassel to Silversea. 

She's an incredibly talented entertainer.  Working with her was such a pleasure, as was working with so many of those first 24 Artists of Silversea.  Vincent Ortega, Melissa Cook, Camilla Twisselman, Kashena Sampson, and so many more.  Exceptionally talented entertainers.  It was my Creative Team that drew these people to us, Vicki included.  Between Michael Brennan and Christopher *' resumes, everyone wanted to work with us.  Getting them to leave New York, LA, or Las Vegas to work on a cruise ship, however, was the hard part. 😁

[Older Party]

1 hour ago, Older Party said:

She's an incredibly talented entertainer.  Working with her was such a pleasure, as was working with so many of those first 24 Artists of Silversea.  Vincent Ortega, Melissa Cook, Camilla Twisselman, Kashena Sampson, and so many more.  Exceptionally talented entertainers.  It was my Creative Team that drew these people to us, Vicki included.  Between Michael Brennan and Christopher *' resumes, everyone wanted to work with us.  Getting them to leave New York, LA, or Las Vegas to work on a cruise ship, however, was the hard part. 😁

Oh and Jonathan Shade.  He is now a Silversea Cruise Director as well.  He has one of the finest voices I have ever worked with.

[Silver Spectre]

On 8/24/2023 at 7:56 PM, Older Party said:

While I agree with you Silversea has never made entertainment a priority, when I created the all vocal program, the requirement was for professional performers, average age 32.  Cliff Perry removed all the extra duties in order to attract the best talent possible to Silversea.  I hired Vicki Van Tassel, who was quite reluctant to take the contract.  Our Music Director, Michael Brennan, had worked with Vicki when he conducted Mamma Mia, which is how she came to us.  Many of our Artists were AEA members, most AEA eligible.  I cannot speak for the company that replaced us, but when Choozi was hiring the entertainers, they were all professionals.

You did a fabulous job for SS and it was a shame when they decided to copy the format with a downmarket replica. We made good friends with most of the original 24.

[TLCOhio]

On 8/25/2023 at 9:46 AM, Older Party said:

Getting them to leave New York, LA, or Las Vegas to work on a cruise ship, however, was the hard part. 😁

 

Great and interesting background, history and insights.  Keep it going on this thread, especially as more is learned and known in the coming months as to what the Silversea entertainment will be for the future.  

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

[Older Party]

Hi Terry.  I am not privy to the new entertainment, only that I wish Silversea great success with it.  I can only give you a short history on the vocal program I created for Silversea in 2010, installed in 2011.  Cliff Perry, the Entertainment Director, saw my name in Porthole Magazine when I created the first dive show for Royal Caribbean, so he contacted me to have a look at Silversea's entertainment.  When I saw the entertainment, it felt very disconnected to the guest demographic.  The guests of Silversea had seen the best entertainment all over the world, so why would they be interested in a song and dance review that is typical of mass market cruise lines?  

At dinner one evening, I listened to one of the performers chatting with guests, a requirement of their contracts.  The young lady did not have enough life experience to engage these guests in interesting dinner conversation, nor did she have a resume that would be of interest to them either.  My immediate recommendation was to elevate the entertainment offerings.  I come from the world of ballet, opera, and symphony and knew I could create a more compelling entertainment program for the guests of Silversea.

The Artists of Silversea was the program I created.  I hired my brother Christopher, who was an Artistic Coordinator for Cirque du Soleil and Le Reve at the Wynn in Las Vegas (I was the ballet instructor for Cirque du Soleil's resident division and Celine Dion's A New Day), and Michael Brennan, Franco Dragone's music composer and Broadway conductor, to create Choozi's shows, however the key to its success rested solely on the entertainers I would hire for the program.  Because my creative team was at the top of their field, we were able to bring some of the finest professional entertainers to the ships of Silversea.  They wanted very much to work with both Christopher and Michael.  I also doubled the starting rate of pay so that there would at least be conversation regarding taking a job on a cruise ship in the first place.  

Our top hiring requirement was that they all had to read music at an advanced level, as our arrangements were very complicated ... all 6 part harmonies, arranged by Jim Belk, David Foster's arranger.  The first 24 artists we hired for the program had Broadway credits, Met Opera credits, and many were AEA or AEA eligible.  Their average age was 32.  Our show "Fabbalicious" garnered a Best Show at Sea award by USA Today.  The other shows were "Signed, Sealed, Delivered", "High C's", and "Aria" and "Hooray for Hollywood", two shows we created specifically for one of the World Cruises.

It was an honor to create this program for Silversea, most especially for Cliff Perry.  Cliff was an entertainment titan in the cruise industry.  He brought out the Crystal ships, as well as the Disney ships.  We were working on the entertainment program for Viking Ocean Cruises when he passed.  His stamp of approval on the Artists of Silversea was a great honor for Choozi Entertainment.

[TLCOhio]

1 hour ago, Older Party said:

Hi Terry.  I am not privy to the new entertainment, only that I wish Silversea great success with it.  I can only give you a short history on the vocal program I created for Silversea in 2010, installed in 2011.  Cliff Perry, the Entertainment Director, saw my name in Porthole Magazine when I created the first dive show for Royal Caribbean, so he contacted me to have a look at Silversea's entertainment.  When I saw the entertainment, it felt very disconnected to the guest demographic.  The guests of Silversea had seen the best entertainment all over the world, so why would they be interested in a song and dance review that is typical of mass market cruise lines?  

At dinner one evening, I listened to one of the performers chatting with guests, a requirement of their contracts.  The young lady did not have enough life experience to engage these guests in interesting dinner conversation, nor did she have a resume that would be of interest to them either.  My immediate recommendation was to elevate the entertainment offerings.  I come from the world of ballet, opera, and symphony and knew I could create a more compelling entertainment program for the guests of Silversea.

The Artists of Silversea was the program I created.  I hired my brother Christopher, who was an Artistic Coordinator for Cirque du Soleil and Le Reve at the Wynn in Las Vegas (I was the ballet instructor for Cirque du Soleil's resident division and Celine Dion's A New Day), and Michael Brennan, Franco Dragone's music composer and Broadway conductor, to create Choozi's shows, however the key to its success rested solely on the entertainers I would hire for the program.  Because my creative team was at the top of their field, we were able to bring some of the finest professional entertainers to the ships of Silversea.  They wanted very much to work with both Christopher and Michael.  I also doubled the starting rate of pay so that there would at least be conversation regarding taking a job on a cruise ship in the first place.  

Our top hiring requirement was that they all had to read music at an advanced level, as our arrangements were very complicated ... all 6 part harmonies, arranged by Jim Belk, David Foster's arranger.  The first 24 artists we hired for the program had Broadway credits, Met Opera credits, and many were AEA or AEA eligible.  Their average age was 32.  Our show "Fabbalicious" garnered a Best Show at Sea award by USA Today.  The other shows were "Signed, Sealed, Delivered", "High C's", and "Aria" and "Hooray for Hollywood", two shows we created specifically for one of the World Cruises.

It was an honor to create this program for Silversea, most especially for Cliff Perry.  Cliff was an entertainment titan in the cruise industry.  He brought out the Crystal ships, as well as the Disney ships.  We were working on the entertainment program for Viking Ocean Cruises when he passed.  His stamp of approval on the Artists of Silversea was a great honor for Choozi Entertainment.

 

Appreciate this great, very interesting background and follow-up by Older Party.   Your comments about the "more sophisticated" audience with Silversea does indicate challenges and opportunities as to the staffing required with the talents to be hired.

 

If you are doing a longer cruise (as we have upcoming, February 2024 on the Silver Moon, Mumbai to Singapore), the quality and variety with these performers is of strong interest.  

 

Clearly, Silversea has challenges as their ships are smaller and the number of passenger more limited.  They cannot financially do the "Big Shows" like done by Princess, Celebrity, etc.  Seeing how they "evolve" from the Voices to the Silversea of the future is of curiosity to many, including for our purposes. 

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Canada 2022/2023: Scenic visuals, details from Canada Maritimes (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island).  Plus, new from Aug. 2023, exploring historic/charming Quebec City.    Visual/Info Summaries:

www.flickr.com/photos/196555480@N08/albums

 

For the "good old days" sake, below are a couple of visuals from our sailings with the "Voices of Silversea".  For a small ship, appreciate the various songs, music, costumes, sets, etc.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see this visual larger/better!)

 

[jollyjones]

I'm currently on the Moon and we have the new 2 singers, 4 dancers troupe.

Today there is an announcement that one of the singers is 'indisposed' so the CD (JP) and ACD (Adam) are putting together some sort of impromptu singing show themselves.

So that's what is probably the expected fallback option since most CDs have a background in musical entertainment.

I've no idea if any of them are any good since I haven't been to any of the shows, they don't appeal to me.

[Port Power]

2 hours ago, jollyjones said:

I'm currently on the Moon and we have the new 2 singers, 4 dancers troupe.

Today there is an announcement that one of the singers is 'indisposed' so the CD (JP) and ACD (Adam) are putting together some sort of impromptu singing show themselves.

So that's what is probably the expected fallback option since most CDs have a background in musical entertainment.

I've no idea if any of them are any good since I haven't been to any of the shows, they don't appeal to me.

 

Shades of Azamara under RCCL/RCI.

[turtlemichael]

3 hours ago, jollyjones said:

I'm currently on the Moon and we have the new 2 singers, 4 dancers troupe.

Today there is an announcement that one of the singers is 'indisposed' so the CD (JP) and ACD (Adam) are putting together some sort of impromptu singing show themselves.

So that's what is probably the expected fallback option since most CDs have a background in musical entertainment.

I've no idea if any of them are any good since I haven't been to any of the shows, they don't appeal to me.

As I detailed earlier in this thread, exactly what happened on Shadow earlier this year.

[Older Party]

On 8/27/2023 at 11:27 AM, TLCOhio said:

 

Appreciate this great, very interesting background and follow-up by Older Party.   Your comments about the "more sophisticated" audience with Silversea does indicate challenges and opportunities as to the staffing required with the talents to be hired.

 

If you are doing a longer cruise (as we have upcoming, February 2024 on the Silver Moon, Mumbai to Singapore), the quality and variety with these performers is of strong interest.  

 

Clearly, Silversea has challenges as their ships are smaller and the number of passenger more limited.  They cannot financially do the "Big Shows" like done by Princess, Celebrity, etc.  Seeing how they "evolve" from the Voices to the Silversea of the future is of curiosity to many, including for our purposes. 

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Canada 2022/2023: Scenic visuals, details from Canada Maritimes (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island).  Plus, new from Aug. 2023, exploring historic/charming Quebec City.    Visual/Info Summaries:

www.flickr.com/photos/196555480@N08/albums

 

For the "good old days" sake, below are a couple of visuals from our sailings with the "Voices of Silversea".  For a small ship, appreciate the various songs, music, costumes, sets, etc.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see this visual larger/better!)

 

Did you never see the Artists of Silversea Terry?  Here are a few fun photos for you ... the "Fabbalicious" platforms and thigh high boot photo was taken by Norman, the Hotel Director.  He took some exceptional photos of our shows.  The one with the mics was from "Signed Sealed Delivered" our Motown show, the two women Kashena Sampson and Anastasia Lange in costume for the Pub Lunch on the Cloud, and our "Aria" show that was created only for the World Cruise.  I have hundreds of fabulous photos from these shows.  They are wonderful memories for sure.

[tinaincc]

On 9/5/2022 at 2:05 PM, Texas Tillie said:

Didn't I read somewhere that Silversea had hired the former entertainment head from Crystal?

Gosh I hope not, I found the Crystal offering to be a bit boring.

[bitob]

On 9/2/2023 at 8:52 PM, tinaincc said:

Gosh I hope not, I found the Crystal offering to be a bit boring.

Don't let the Crystal aficionados hear you say that.  Heresy.

[Daveywavey70]

4 minutes ago, bitob said:

Don't let the Crystal aficionados hear you say that.  Heresy.

Quite true, you could get a nasty poke from a tuna melt (unavailable on Silversea).

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

Quite true, you could get a nasty poke from a tuna melt (unavailable on Silversea).

Even in Hawaii I consider poke pretty nasty.  🤣

[Lois R]

I have enjoyed the shows I have attended here on The Dawn. Last night was the tribute to Queen, which I have seen before but still love it. And the theater was totally packed.

[mandymay]

3 hours ago, Lois R said:

I have enjoyed the shows I have attended here on The Dawn. Last night was the tribute to Queen, which I have seen before but still love it. And the theater was totally packed.

Hi Lois, did you get to see Lulu ?

[Lois R]

2 hours ago, mandymay said:

Hi Lois, did you get to see Lulu ?

Nope, I ended up with other plans. I heard all kinds of different reviews about her show. Some good, some not, some disappointments.