Older Party

Judie Abott? If so, she was adored by everyone who sailed with her, myself included.

Prior to Kirk becoming the Executive Director at the Marion Palace Theatre, he was the Entertainment Director for a resort in St. Maarten. He brought in Melissa Cook, one of the original Artists of Silversea. She is now a flight attendant for American Airlines (and a gorgeous one at that), and when he departed for the Marion, Jon Shade replaced him. Jon is now a Silversea CD. Kirk was my favorite CD as well ... along with Fernando of course! ❤️

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.

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.

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.

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. 😁

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.

As the person who created the all vocal program for Silversea, you are right regarding it being stale, and that is not a reflection on the current production team, but on my concept itself. When I removed the dancers, and cheesy sets, and went in a classical music direction, I did so with the SS demographic in mind ... guests who have seen the best entertainment all over the world. The idea of hiring seasoned entertainers who had their own shows is what The Artists of Silversea was about, coupled with an average age of 32 so that they had life experience and were able to converse intelligently with the guests. I created the program in 2010, more than a decade ago, so its shelf life is certainly past its expiration date, as entertainment trends are cyclical. They used to change every 10 years or so, but with ever changing and expanding technology, entertainment must now change every 3 to 5 years in order to keep its audience. I stopped creating and producing shows in 2015 noting then the need to refresh formats quickly. My friend Brian Burke, who is the Creative Director for AGT and American Idol, surrounds himself with young creatives because of how quickly entertainment trends change today. Even Franco Dragone, may he Rest In Peace, started repeating himself. It's tough staying current.

I housed both her team and mine at The Peninsula Bangkok. We had their car service, which yes, added cost. She was absolutely lovely to work with, as was everyone on her team. The only thing in her rider I could not provide was a car on the tarmac, and the ability to clear immigration there as well, something we used to do pre 9/11.

Headliners have many considerations when they accept one-off gigs, and it's not just their rate of pay, it's also their riders. Riders oftentimes cost more than their fee. Other considerations are the location of the event (sometimes its just someplace they want to go), whether they are currently touring or not (if not, their team may be working other gigs and are not available). They also look at what perks might be included in the gig. Jennifer Hudson accepted our contract for a private concert at the Sydney Opera House because of the venue, plus she only had to do 45 minutes, and an executive meet and greet after the concert. Nice work if you can get it (said with tongue in cheek).

I produced a concert with Sarah Brightman in Bangkok in 2006 and her rate at that time was 250K ++. Each plus equals 35% of the performers fee. I also hired a 50 piece orchestra to play for her. She provided her first chair violin, plus her sound and lighting people, her road manager and her hair and makeup people. I housed everyone at The Peninsula. All in, my costs were over 400K. Headline entertainment is very very pricey, and not only is it pricey, their riders add huge costs, time, and effort. So why not Sarah Brightman? After my years producing the entertainment for SS, I would guess she is simply out of their price range.

There was an announcement from one of the Executives on LinkedIn or some other networking site, who said they were working on upgrading their entertainment. I assumed then that the current production company was probably on the way out. RCCL has the best, most well oiled cruise ship entertainment company, Royal Caribbean Productions. They produce all their on board entertainment, including fabricating all the costuming, sets, etc. They hire production companies to create their shows, however the difference is they are "work for hire" companies, not "turn key" companies, like SS has been using. I have thought all along RCP would eventually take over the entertainment, but I have no idea who will be doing it. I do know RWS has tried for years to get this contract, even when I was producing the entertainment. Another perk re: RCCL is that they hire their entertainers as employees. When I created the first dive show for the Oasis, our two high divers, who dove off the 51' towers, were the only Independent Contractors onboard. They also had to provide their own liability insurance, as opposed to the rest of the cast who had the typical P&I coverage. When Cliff and I were creating the entertainment program for Viking Ocean, I tried to get him to use the Disney and RCCL model where the entertainment was concerned, and switch to hiring them as employees. We were using my brother Christopher's new company at the time, Sky-King Entertainment, to create the shows. We were in the middle of it all when Cliff passed. It will be interesting to see what SS comes up with. Even though I created the all vocal program for SS, I thought it long past its shelf life at least 2 years ago.

LOL! It was 2011. I love thinking about how much he resisted my idea of an all vocal program at first. My concession was changing it from 4 men and 2 women (I would have had more depth to the vocal arrangements) to 3 men and 3 women. Cliff always liked the pretty girls. 😉

I'm spending a lazy Saturday recovering from a big party I threw last night, so opened the Boards for some light reading with my morning cup o jo. I think you know Cliff Perry created the entertainment for Crystal? Gretchen Goertz and Kathy Orme always had an eye for quality, like my own company. Crystal hands down had the best entertainment of any of the luxury lines, thanks to Cliff Perry. He went on to Disney to create even bigger and better entertainment. His entertainment programs were always hard to beat.

They were a very special group of people, and the first cast of vocalists for Silversea. Kash is doing great in Nashville btw!