Cirque vs. Cirque: BATTEL
Oct. 10th, 2008 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oakenguyFriends, this has been a long time in coming. It's been what, six weeks? since I spent a weekend in NYC and I still haven't posted about it. That's totally wrong, and my only excuse is that I am very, VERY lazy when a 4-hour span includes a pedicab ride down the middle of 42nd Street, singing waitresses stepping on my hair *and* a Broadway show that was designed by Liberace on peyote, it's hard to even know where to begin.
Well, drinking. Yes. But after that.
Folks, there's a show now touring the country called Cirque Dreams-Jungle Fantasies. Since it's impossible not to compare a show with that title to Cirque du Soleil, let's just jump right in.
WAYS THEY'RE SIMILAR
'Dreams' involves a jungle with performers scampering about dressed like forest creatures (like Varekai), an "audience member" who gets sucked into the show (like Saltimbanco), and musicians and performers who wander to and fro about the stage while the acts are underway (every Cirque du Soleil show ever).
The Playbill's "Who's Who In the Cast" sections are much, much more interesting than, say, 'Urinetown', from the role each actor plays ("percushroomist", "blackbird hairialist") to entries like, just as a random example: "Uranmandakh Amarsanaa (contorting lizard, aerial bird) is a recent graduate of the Mongolian State School of Contortion." Screw Harvard, I want *that* school sticker on my windshield.
WAYS THEY'RE DIFFERENT
Buckle your seatbelts, kids. Okay, you can pretty much visualize your typical Cirque du Soleil performer by this point, right? And even if you haven't seen pictures of 'Varekai', you can probably intuit what their jungle costumes look like--tights, elaborate makeup, maybe a headdress.
Here, on the other hand, is the Cirque Dreams cast:
It's like the H.R. Pufnstuf cast and a Mardi Gras float got drunk and had babies, isn't it?
Next up, the "audience member" who's the main focus of the show, our surrogate up there on stage, the person who in a Soleil production would probably be played by an androgynous gamine who acts about 12? Not so much. Try this guy:
Okay, yes, that's actually Carmine from Laverne & Shirley, but it's the closest picture I could find. And let's be fair: the *real* Carmine had the ability to be on stage without his mouth open, a skill "The Adventurer" doesn't seem to have mastered.
And then there's...well, let's pull up the transcript from the casting call:
PRODUCER: Let's see, you're 6'5", you've got washboard abs, and with your long hair and chin you look like Legolas on steroids. And your talent?
JARED: I play the electric fiddle.
PRODUCER: You're so fucking hired. Get your bags, you start tomorrow.
JARED: Yes! I have been working on a character concept.
PRODUCER: ...oh?
JARED: I shall be SOUL TREE, part of the jungle.
PRODUCER: A musical tree? That could work...it'll offset Mother Nature, give her someone to look at while she walks around singing.
JARED: My costume is already designed. See?
PRODUCER: Okay, love the bare chest. But, a floor-length brown skirt?
JARED: My TRUNK. I look more TREE-LIKE.
PRODUCER: This also explains the tiara?
JARED: My FOREHEAD-BRANCHES. Also, I have glued a collar to my violin so I can wear it around my neck.
PRODUCER: .....
Here's the biggest difference, though, and it might make![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katestine shake her head at what a circus-philistine I am: when I go to Cirque du Soleil shows, it's the central concept that I'm most focussed on, and the actual acts are secondary. With this show I wanted the dancing emus to just get the hell out of the way so the acts could get more stage time, and none more than this duo:
LOOK at that! That is two men, Vladimir Dovgan and Anatoliy Yeniy, who wear glow-in-the-dark giraffe-patterned ZOOT SUITS, balancing on a plank. On a tube. On a tube. On a tube. On a tube. On a tube. On a table.
I've never before or since watched an act where I was scared to clap or breathe because of how the vibrations and air pressure changes might affect the performers. I was FREAKING OUT.
It was glorious.
Well, drinking. Yes. But after that.
Folks, there's a show now touring the country called Cirque Dreams-Jungle Fantasies. Since it's impossible not to compare a show with that title to Cirque du Soleil, let's just jump right in.
WAYS THEY'RE SIMILAR
'Dreams' involves a jungle with performers scampering about dressed like forest creatures (like Varekai), an "audience member" who gets sucked into the show (like Saltimbanco), and musicians and performers who wander to and fro about the stage while the acts are underway (every Cirque du Soleil show ever).
The Playbill's "Who's Who In the Cast" sections are much, much more interesting than, say, 'Urinetown', from the role each actor plays ("percushroomist", "blackbird hairialist") to entries like, just as a random example: "Uranmandakh Amarsanaa (contorting lizard, aerial bird) is a recent graduate of the Mongolian State School of Contortion." Screw Harvard, I want *that* school sticker on my windshield.
WAYS THEY'RE DIFFERENT
Buckle your seatbelts, kids. Okay, you can pretty much visualize your typical Cirque du Soleil performer by this point, right? And even if you haven't seen pictures of 'Varekai', you can probably intuit what their jungle costumes look like--tights, elaborate makeup, maybe a headdress.
Here, on the other hand, is the Cirque Dreams cast:
It's like the H.R. Pufnstuf cast and a Mardi Gras float got drunk and had babies, isn't it?
Next up, the "audience member" who's the main focus of the show, our surrogate up there on stage, the person who in a Soleil production would probably be played by an androgynous gamine who acts about 12? Not so much. Try this guy:
Okay, yes, that's actually Carmine from Laverne & Shirley, but it's the closest picture I could find. And let's be fair: the *real* Carmine had the ability to be on stage without his mouth open, a skill "The Adventurer" doesn't seem to have mastered.
And then there's...well, let's pull up the transcript from the casting call:
PRODUCER: Let's see, you're 6'5", you've got washboard abs, and with your long hair and chin you look like Legolas on steroids. And your talent?
JARED: I play the electric fiddle.
PRODUCER: You're so fucking hired. Get your bags, you start tomorrow.
JARED: Yes! I have been working on a character concept.
PRODUCER: ...oh?
JARED: I shall be SOUL TREE, part of the jungle.
PRODUCER: A musical tree? That could work...it'll offset Mother Nature, give her someone to look at while she walks around singing.
JARED: My costume is already designed. See?
PRODUCER: Okay, love the bare chest. But, a floor-length brown skirt?
JARED: My TRUNK. I look more TREE-LIKE.
PRODUCER: This also explains the tiara?
JARED: My FOREHEAD-BRANCHES. Also, I have glued a collar to my violin so I can wear it around my neck.
PRODUCER: .....
Here's the biggest difference, though, and it might make
katestine shake her head at what a circus-philistine I am: when I go to Cirque du Soleil shows, it's the central concept that I'm most focussed on, and the actual acts are secondary. With this show I wanted the dancing emus to just get the hell out of the way so the acts could get more stage time, and none more than this duo:LOOK at that! That is two men, Vladimir Dovgan and Anatoliy Yeniy, who wear glow-in-the-dark giraffe-patterned ZOOT SUITS, balancing on a plank. On a tube. On a tube. On a tube. On a tube. On a tube. On a table.
I've never before or since watched an act where I was scared to clap or breathe because of how the vibrations and air pressure changes might affect the performers. I was FREAKING OUT.
It was glorious.
