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Shipboard Entertainment Matures

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Chicago Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 14, 2008

Sure, the fanfare and the feathers are still there: the high-stepping Vegas-look-alike hoofers, the brassy Broadway revues, and the bauble-bedecked million-dollar productions. But entertainment at sea is broadening to include classical music performances, opera, contemporary dance and theater. Cunard Line, for instance, showcased the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, one of the world's most distinguished chamber music ensembles, on Queen Mary 2's eastbound trans-Atlantic crossing that departed New York on Sept. 4.

On Crystal Cruise Line's Classical Music cruise to Scandinavia and Russia on the Crystal Symphony, which set sail in June, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade headlined a program of distinguished artists and composers. Live performances and guest lecturers highlighted the music of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart and transformed the Symphony into a floating concert hall on the 11-day voyage to the Baltic's imperial cities.

In addition to performances by von Stade, a six-time Grammy-nominated American singer with more than 60 recordings, Crystal's program included Anders Paulsson, a master of the rare soprano saxophone, and Jake Heggie, composer in residence to the San Francisco Opera and renowned for his contemporary operas including "Dead Man Walking."

Celebrity Cruise Line, in conjunction with Haven Entertainment, will host a Smooth Music Cruise in 2009 aboard the Celebrity Century. The five-day Caribbean cruise will spotlight some of the top talents in smooth music, including Norman Brown, Nick Colionne, Boney James, Mindi Abair, Larry Carlton, Heather Headley, Acoustic Alchemy, Marion Meadows, Michael Lington, Shilts, Steve Oliver, Chieli Minucci, Alan Hewitt and Althea Rene. The cruise (smoothmusiccruise.com) sets sail from Miami on Jan. 31.

Also on the docket for next year, Hurtigruten Cruises, formerly Norwegian Coastal Voyages, announced seven theme vacations on its fleet of vessels as they wend their way above the Arctic Circle along Norway's fjord-filled west coast.

Among the offerings: In March, music lovers aboard the Finnmarken can enjoy performances by some of the world's most talented musicians, notes the line's announcement. Hurtigruten's "Virtuosi Classical" cruises pay tribute to the life and work of famed Norwegian Edvard Grieg and the music of some of Europe's most accomplished composers.

In April, passengers on the Trollfjord can experience the sounds of Benny Goodman and Cab Calloway on the "The Big Bands Are Back!" cruise. Live music from that era features a medley of offerings, from Dizzy Gillespie to Jimmy Dorsey. (hurtigruten.us)

Meanwhile, entertainment elsewhere is stretching the envelope. On Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Jade, passengers not only can see four new off-Broadway musicals, but also the long-running "Tony n' Tina's Wedding," an expanded Second City comedy show and, most unusual, a classical dance production by award-winning choreographer Twyla Tharp.

"Tony n' Tina's Wedding" satirizes a traditional Italian-American wedding with audience members as "invited guests" to the nuptials of the Vitale and Nunzio families, portrayed by an improvisational cast of 25. The wedding and reception are held once per cruise in the ship's Spinnaker Lounge, which is transformed into Vinnie's Coliseum restaurant, a classic Italian wedding hall complete with pasta served on paper plates.

Tharp's Sinatra Suite, choreographed originally for Mikhail Baryshnikov, is a ballet duet set to Sinatra music and performed as part of a classical evening that includes an opera singer and another Tharp-choreographed work, Junk Duet. (ncl.com)

On Silversea Cruises' voyage from Athens to Venice aboard the Silver Whisper, which set sail in July, award-winning actor John Lithgow performed portions of his one-man show, "Stories by Heart," which had a limited engagement in New York City's Lincoln Center. The show was a comic meditation on the art and essence of storytelling, invoking memories of Lithgow's grandmother and father as well as a family history spanning three generations.

Perhaps as testimony to the degree of changes taking place in the entertainment-at-sea department, even the Metropolitan Opera has made a mainstream appearance. In an industry-exclusive event last April, Princess ships became the first cruise vessels ever to broadcast a performance live from New York's Metropolitan Opera.

The special, dubbed "The Met: Live on the High Seas," was a presentation of Puccini's La Boheme. It was part of the Met's series of eight opera performances transmitted live via satellite to movie theaters around the world. The Puccini classic was broadcast fleetwide on all 16 Princess ships.

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