Word: lordly
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...star of the two-year-old, 85-member Riverdance, the traveling Gaelic dance show, Flatley hopped, stepped and high-kicked to exultant houses in London and Dublin. When he parted ways with the company in October 1995 over a bitter, and still unresolved, creative dispute, he fashioned Lord of the Dance, a glitzier rival extravaganza showcasing his talents and the updated, freer-form manner of Irish dance he helped pioneer...
...success of Riverdance and its spin-off has been remarkable. Lord of the Dance began its U.S. tour this month with 13 sold-out performances at Manhattan's 5,854-seat Radio City Music Hall. Having made its debut in Dublin last June, it reached New York City via London, New Zealand and Australia. Riverdance now maintains two touring companies, and producers are putting together a third. The show will return to the U.S. in September after a string of sold-out performances last year. Riverdance the CD won a Grammy last month and remains the top-selling album...
While fans may be hard pressed to select their favorite between the two troupes, most critics have no problem. Having hailed Riverdance for rejuvenating the Irish jig, most reviewers have derided Lord, which has Flatley blasting onto the stage in puffs of smoke, as a sort of Siegfried and Roy with tap shoes. "There is only one word for it all," wrote Ismene Brown in London's Daily Telegraph: "embarrassing." But harsh comments do not deflate Flatley. "When there are 7,000 people in an audience cheerin', and there's one guy who doesn't like what I'm doin...
This thorny history has left competition between Riverdance and Flatley's own venture less than amiable. At the start of Flatley's tour, promoter Harvey Goldsmith claimed that Riverdance executives were pressuring certain venues not to book Lord of the Dance. Flatley, in turn, is not above taking public jabs at his onetime bosses: "Took Riverdance a year to sell one million videos--Took Lord of the Dance under 12 weeks to sell 1.5 million," boasts his press material...
...Riverdance producers are not the only people with whom Flatley has had tumultuous business relationships. Since his rise to stardom with the company, he has gone through a long list of lawyers and handlers. Former Lord of the Dance publicist Mark Borkowski left Flatley this year. "He's focused on one thing, and that's himself," says Borkowski of his former client. "I can't be at his beck and call every moment of the day. He wanted me to stay, but I have a business to run." In January Flatley fired his manager John Reid for not being sufficiently...