June 2009 Archives

Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell kicked off his U.K. tour last night in Glasgow at the King's Theatre. The reason for his tour is the release of the paperback version of Outliers: The Story of Success, the best-selling pop sociology book with entertaining stories of how people become wildly accomplished. As Gladwell joked in his performance, the purpose of his tour was to convince the audience to buy his book "in triplicate." Gladwell chose to make the current global financial crisis the focus of his one-hour talk.

And to explain the phenomenon and not bore his listeners with discussion of head-spinning derivatives, he chose to use an example of the American Civil War, a topic he joked his Scottish audience wouldn't challenge him on. What Gladwell basically says is that "miscalibration" - the overconfidence of experts - helped spiral the world's economy out of control. Those who were armed with information, expertise, and most of all, power, didn't react fast enough with urgency and solutions to handle the crisis looming in the horizon.

Perhaps it's an oversimplified explanation given in hindsight of the recession we're living in now, but I'm looking forward to his next article or book that'll elucidate more on his theories. Gladwell is an important thinker in the modern world, and not to be missed if you get the chance to see him live.

-Helen I. Hwang

For more tour dates, go to www.malcolmgladwell-live.com. For more information on Malcolm Gladwell, go to www.gladwell.com.

Cinderella on Ice, currently playing at Theatre Royal, is full of twists and turns in several dimensions.

First of all, the glass slipper is replaced by a glittery ice skate, and the act is a whimsical performance with the women skating on single blades, coyly pointing their hosed toes out for the Prince to size up. Instead of a royal ball, the plot climaxes with a skating production of Swan Lake, where the evil stepsister slips up in her role as Odette. Cinderella is picked from the ensemble of swans to dazzle the audience.

The storyline is actually an enjoyable alternative retelling of the classic, though the show stretches on for three hours, including intermission.

Another surprising aspect is the number of acrobatic maneuvers and surprising high-wire theatrics, which adds to the magic of the ice dance show. Skating in such a small rink is no easy feat for the primarily Russian troupe. The choreography is based on a complicated sequence of counter-clockwise maneuvers, sometimes with as many as ten skaters synchronized tightly. Yes, there were a couple of scary slip-ups, even from the principal male skater, the Prince (a dead ringer for Prince Harry with a mullet.) But the gracefulness of Cinderella, played by Olga Sharutenko, and the ardent passion of the evil stepmother, Olena Pyatash, more than make up for any pitfalls.

Perhaps in a nod to its Gaelic audience, the skaters performed Irish step dancing on ice skates, immensely pleasing the crowd.

Altogether, the show is exciting to watch, entertaining old and young alike.

Theatre Royal,
Tue 9th - Sat 13th June
Tue - Sat eves 7.30pm
Wed, Thu and Sat Mats 2.30pm
Tickets: £13.50 - £30
www.ambassadortickets.com/glasgow
Box Office: 0870 060 6647