Word: axels
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...Cabranes-Grant, Playing With Fire is the farcical story of a married couple, the husband's parents, the wife's lover, and a female servant whom every man on stage wants to bed. The couple's marriage has lost its passion. Kerstin (Emily Hsu) has fallen for the itinerant Axel (Paul Vietzen), while Knut (Alexander Franklin) spends a considerable amount of time in the garden with the servant Adele (Maria Padilla). Knut's father, played by a singularly hilarious Andrew Sean Kuan, divides his time reciting obscure biblical proverbs, trying to woo Adele and attempting to foil the nascent love...
Fortunately, Playing With Fire is far lighter fare than Creditors. It's an off-beat, fun show. While the script is less than compelling, the acting is uniformly outstanding. Kuan's bumbling, over-the-hill father is spectacular. Hsu and Vietzen make Kerstin and Axel's affair believable, though their kissing scene is a bit frenetic. And as Knut, Franklin is downright bizarre in an appealing, homey...
...ladies, Nancy Kerrigan is the closest to having a cult. Purists love her. She does graceful jumps, finishing them with an open, ample spread of her arms. She doesn't have a triple Axel and doesn't jar judges or spectators by trying one. She just skates as if annealed to the music. In some respects she is a throwback to Peggy Fleming, who gave the impression that she would skate with exactly the same purity if she were alone on a pond. To Kerrigan, the great advantage of her elevated status is that she usually gets to practice...
Kristi Yamaguchi does not have a triple Axel either, but that's about the only weapon her arsenal lacks, and in the past year she has completed the transition from a cute kid trickster to a poised and elegant stylist. She too had to leave her home as a teenager and pursue superior coaching at Edmonton, Alta. Canadian champion Kurt Browning, who also trains there, is a pal and a one-man cheering squad. Bezic, who has worked out many routines for the likes of Katarina Witt and Brian Boitano, is also on Yamaguchi's team. Bezic devised a short...
They are at their most beautiful, these rarefied athletes, in the six-minute practice session where competitors warm up, a few at a time. Done by a Kerrigan, the waltz jump, a mere half revolution, is a perfection of grace. A double Axel is clear and open, not the whipped-up whir that a triple must be. Yamaguchi and Harding may land perfect leaps in tandem, a few feet apart on the ice. All the women are intently absorbed, and their jumps look less like stunts than whitecaps bubbling out of waves. To a purist, Ito and Harding may lack...