Ah, just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, another snarky post from Fred. (Please tell me that someone got that pathetic reference to a famous movie and the rhyme of “snarky” to a key character in that film. If not, all of this Macallan Single Malt that I’ve been consuming will have been for naught, alas!!)

First, as to the subject of the quite justifiably beloved Terry Breen, we don’t really know what her schedule is for the near future, other than that she is leaving the ship when we arrive in San Francisco on May 26. It is all associated with the imminent publication of her new book, which I think is the 3rd Edition of “The Cruiser Friendly Onboard Guide to Alaska’s Inside Passage”. If I can manage to track her down (and approach her before she sees me and dashes in the other direction), I will ask her whether she will be returning to the Navigator any time this summer. She is a very good storyteller (as she calls herself), although the section of her talk this morning regarding the Mayan culture became a bit esoteric when she entered the realm of the Mayan numbering system, which is a base-20 system, rather than the base-10 system we commonly use. While she explained the system, I looked around and noted more than a small number of the passengers (a generally highly-educated group on Regent) developing a serious case of “glazed-over eye” and finger-and-toe counting. My personal conclusion was that the Mayans practiced human sacrifice primarily to get rid of their mathematicians. In any event, be it based on 10’s, 20’s, or gazillions, we’ll post anything we learn about Terry’s plans for returning to a Regent ship soon.

Another subject that has been noted on previous posts is the replacement of the Peter Grey Terhune (or something like that) performance troupe with a new group from the Jean Ann Ryan Singers & Dancers. Whilst I, like many passengers, had certainly become a bit weary of the PGT productions, the jury is still emphatically out (way, way, way out) on the JAR effort. So far, it is certainly jarring.

There is no doubt that this is a clear departure from the PGT approach of having a rather standard group of singers & dancers, most of whom are skilled at both singing and dancing. Rather, of the ten members of the happy JAR team, only two are described in their bios as “vocalists”, while six are described as “Dancer/Aerialist”. The final two are a husband/wife team which performs “specialty acts” (don’t worry – their stuff is all more or less PG as “specialty acts” go – so far, not a riding crop in sight…). The h/w team are wonderful gymnasts/aerialists, in the mode of “Cirque du Soleil”. The only problem so far is that their routines are astoundingly out of place in the productions. Two nights ago the JAR production was a Latin music medley, which was fairly routine, other than the unfortunate fact that two of the dancers/aerialists can’t lip sync at all. Suddenly, the stage was filled with fog out of which emerged a shirtless guy and his gorgeous wife doing an elaborate strength and aerial routine which had nothing remotely to do with the rest of the show. Maybe the Latin connection was supposed to be that some escapees from the cold Canadian north where Cirque du Soleil was born were trying to live “La Vida Loca” (with all due apologies to Ricky M.)??? In any case, it was all a bit peculiar.

Please understand, gentle readers, that I am not in the slightest sense offended by the appearance of a muscular shirtless guy and his magnificent wife on stage – quite the contrary – but it might be handy if the shtick had at least a tangential connection to the whole production. It is likely that the JAR mess will make a lot more sense when they perform their fourth production in a few days, which is being advertised as a “Cirque” experience. As for their third production, a tribute to big band music, it will be great fun to see how shirtless-guy handles Glenn Miller.

One other interesting routine in the Latin medley was a dance number featuring the four female dancer/aerialists. It was done with straight-back wooden chairs and turned out to be a sort of bizarre tribute (or rip off??) to Bob Fosse. Our reaction was, “Yikes, this is “Cabaret” meets “Basic Instinct”!! It was not a dance routine to which one would take one’s sweet old auntie, unless said auntie was Auntie Mame.

These JAR productions are brand new and are being performed for the first time on this cruise. Therefore, they are bound to get better (and, one assumes, they will figure out how to make better use of the shirtless-guy, while still keeping him primarily shirtless). This change from PGT to JAR is a bold move by Regent. We genuinely hope that it works out well.

On a more positive note, Navigator has a terrific new entertainer in Star’s Lounge, a pianist named Constantine Dragulyov. He will have his own feature show tomorrow night in the main theatre.

Enough (and well more than enough, no??) for now.

Cheers, Fred