Wish Upon a Star on Ice

You remember going to the Ice Capades as a kid, don't you? Anticipating the day for weeks, begging to bring your best friend so you wouldn't have to actually talk to your brother, bouncing around the car for a three-hour drive, and then spending the next few hours alternatingly awe-struck by the lights and skating and nauseated from the cotton candy and caramel corn. And then there was the souvenir chintz, the ribbons and banners you brought home and kept for the next week or so or until the cat peed on them.

The '90s version is a bit -- a bit -- more sophisticated. Stars on Ice was started by the ultimate skate rat, Scott Hamilton. The plan, he says, is to showcase "athletic achievement and creativity," which basically translates to buns and '80s kitsch, the latter manifesting itself in town this week with live appearances by the still-kicking Olivia Newton-John and awesome saxman Kenny G. Hamilton had a recent bout with cancer; Stars on Ice's charity beneficiary this year is the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Hamilton's also got a handful of world-title-totin', national-championship-winnin', charity-skatin' stars. A few of the household names involved in the show are Kristi Yamaguchi, Paul Wylie, Ekaterina Gordeeva, and Katarina Witt.

-- Kelly Silbernagel

Stars on Ice shows Tuesday only at 8 p.m. at the Oakland Coliseum, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland. Tickets are $30 and $45; call (510) 639-7700.