Front Row Reviewers

“AVATAR: The Last Airbender in Concert” is Magical

Front Row Reviewers

Front Row Reviewers

Review By Zachary T. Miller, Front Row Reviewers

I always worry about how to dress up for live events, such as those that I attend at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City, Utah. I went to this week’s performance of AVATAR: The Last Airbender in Concert wondering if the hole in my jeans was too informal. Anyway, the guy who sat behind me showed up in a full-on Appa costume, so I ended up feeling right at home.

The Nickelodeon series, Avatar: The Last Airbender famously follows a young boy named Aang, the last of an extinct race of air nomads and the only person in world of elemental magic who can bring peace to the warring nations. He embarks on a journey to become master of all four elements and fulfill his destiny. This concert performance reenacted various high volume moments from the series with the orchestra bringing the story to life in real time as footage from the animated series plays on a screen hanging overhead. This sometimes includes the dialogue from the show, sometimes the music does all the speaking.

The experience is a dream come true for fans of the show, now coming on its twentieth anniversary this February (yup, we are that old, folks …). Surely, a lot of this credit is owed to the masterful storytelling of the television series, as well as Jerry Zuckerman, who composed the original melodies. But the prowess of this orchestra, bringing the magic of the story to the audience in real time, that is what makes this performance. We were invited to cheer along when our favorite characters or favorite moments came up on the screen, and the audience was happy to answer the call. (For this reviewer, one such moment was Avatar Roku’s grand appearance at the Fire Temple.) All 61 episodes comprise somewhere in the range of 25 hours of show, and this performance was about two hours: not every moment from the series gets a direct reference (moment of silence for that one kid’s whose favorite episode is “Avatar Day”). If this were a person’s first exposure to the series, they might miss out on some important narrative connections.

That said, this was absolutely not a show for Avatar novices. No one cried harder during the “Appa’s Lost Days” sequence than those who learned their first lessons in grief and reunification from seeing that storyline played out, whether they saw the series on its first run or whether they found the show later. This is fine because we were also invited to cry as we were so moved. There was a lot of that going on as well, though I personally was not anticipating that I would fall victim to this literally during the first number. See, the performance begins with Katara’s introduction as heard during the televised episode of “The Boy in the Iceberg,” but right as the title card theme starts to play, we get a rapid montage of many of the high-volume moments from across the series. What can I say? Threading together the entire saga like this with the signature music roaring to life, it was very overwhelming.

This performance was conducted by Heidi Joosten, who addressed the audience at the very end, giving a tearful shoutout to all the cartoon nerds who were living out their dream in this hall, whether they were in the audience or on the stage. It was a validating moment for everyone.

The tour continues across the country through January 5, (with a return performance in Salt Lake on December 1) before expanding to a global scale.
Live at the Eccles presents AVATAR: The Last Airbender In Concert
Sunday, December 1, 2024 at 7:00 pm (doors at 6:00 pm)
Delta Hall at the Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main St., Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Tickets $67-127

Front Row Reviewers

Front Row Reviewers

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