Dazzling ice skating, songs cheer audiences at The Gateway

Thirty-eight song favorites with wow-wee singers, imaginative skits, gorgeous costumes adorned with sequins and tulle, and skating with elegant and impossible lifts and spins, mesmerized a recent packed full house. Those looking for an ebullient holiday performance got their wish.

Please, bring the kids; it’s a fabulous and true family show.

The Gateway’s “Holiday Spectacular on Ice” was jumping for two hours, with a 20-minute intermission, its upbeat energy infused by its host, two-time Olympic-medalist Nancy Kerrigan.

It’s the second Gateway show for Kerrigan, who displayed her fabulous skating, frequently interacting with the audience and having as much fun as her fans, even giving a shout-out to staffers from Avino’s.

Oh, the torture to pick just a few sparkling numbers; they all were great, but here goes.

Bellport’s Shannon Gibbons (top 40 finalist on ABC’s “American Idol”) and Jennifer Brett have amazing voices, as does Jose Contreras (remember him saving the day in “The Wedding Singer?”) and Tyler Shore (he of the many regional and Off Broadway shows, as well as television). They sang together and soloed several times.

The “Two-Step ‘Round the Christmas Tree” is a (yahoo!) country Western number, with this fab four singing and two-stepping as Kerrigan joins them—just one of several collaborations.

Brett vamped it up in red sequins with “Santa Baby,” while four tuxedoed men vied for her attention escorting her to a sled, and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” got a tweak in the lyrics (“Murray the driver just pulled up outside,” sings an amorously frustrated Contreras), with Brett in this humorous remake.

Before skating, while Gibbons, in a beautiful green gown, sings the lovely “Like It’s Christmas,” Kerrigan commented on the young singer’s new release (“On My Mind”).

There’s a joyful “Chanukah, O Chanukah” rendition, and The Holiday Shoppers scene with the Youth and Ensemble Skaters, as frenetic consumers zooming by with packages past an old lady trying to maneuver a cane, is a hoot. She pummels the policeman, then winds up strutting her stuff on skates victoriously to cheers. Boston terrier Brady John Oliver Smith, a canine cancer survivor, makes his Gateway debut, popping out of a Christmas box.

“Run, Run Rudolph” featured poodle-skirted skaters rocking, rolling, and swooning over Ryan Dunk, a true John Travolta of the ice, who does a split and a triple axel; he also cartwheels in “Jingle My Bells.” (Dunk, who performs throughout the show, is a United States Junior Men’s National Champion and two-time Collegiate National Champion with a legion of TikTok followers.)

As for the skating choreography, how these performers soar, lift, spin, and hoist bodies over two inches of ice with ease and elegance, is a wonder. Kudos to figure skating casting and choreographer Tara Modlin-Maurizi.

French-born American skater Alain Sandrez performed a luminous “Christmas Eve/Sarejevo,” as did  pair skaters Daniela Ivanitsky and Jonathan Rogers, in “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” in an ethereal, silvery skating dance.

The gorgeous “Silent Night,” with female ensemble skaters emulating floating winged angels through a veil of fog, touched a lovely spiritual quality; fire performer Kayleigh Linkus in “Code Name Vivaldi” was amazing, as was Kevin Lee, Dayron Tondike and Alain Sandrez.

Your favorite songs are in there. “The Christmas Song,” “Feliz Navidad,” “All I Want for Christmas Is You”; there were sing-a-longs, clapping moments, Santa, playful ice shavings, and candy being tossed.

The man on my left, who came with his wife and two daughters from Plainview, was an enthusiastic spectator, tapping out the beat at times, murmuring the songs.

“Isn’t it fabulous,” he said enthusiastically, while a woman in the back yelled out, “Unbelievable!”

Yes to both, thanks to another hit show by director Keith Andrews. Ditch the trip to the city and come see these remarkable performers. It’s playing until Jan. 1.