The Cirque Dreams brand, led by Artistic Director Neil Goldberg, doesn't want you to be confused. They are not the "other Cirque". They have their own production center and training facility, out of Pompano, FL. Not any French faux-artsy crap. And because everything has to be bigger and better in This American Life, so it is with Cirque Dreams – Holidaze. And I think that's my problem. Cirque Dreams doesn't seem to trust that the awesomeness of their circus performers can sustain a show by itself.
From the top of the show, the staged is bursting, crammed full of candy (mostly of the eye-and-ear type, but sometimes, literally): singing and dancing Christmas ornaments (ostensibly dreamt into life - although the only references to dreaming, unless I totally missed something, came in the second act, after the premise is supposedly set up), ridiculously ornate sets and costumes that seriously just stab you right in the eyeball, and loud pulsating, "poppy " holiday music. "Holidaze" is an appropriate title; there was so much going on at any one time, that it was hard to handle without going little "Christmas crazy" (which, frankly, I thought was impossible for me). A lot of it I loved, and a lot of it I didn't.
The things that I liked:
The performers. Holy moly, the cast was uniformly gorgeous, talented, and above all, winsome. They are definitely the hardest working cast I've seen in a long time, unflagging in their enthusiasm, while performing quadruple duty as actor/singers, circus acts, set changers, and sometimes, scenery itself. The three soloists (Kelly Pekar, Emily Matheson and Jared Troilo), given the huge, but largely thankless task of being singers in a circus (?!?), handle their roles with earnestness, and often, grace. The women, in this case, seemed to be the better singers.
The lighting. The lighting by Kate Johnson, was both lovely and exciting, and often at the same time. Not unlike the performers she illuminates, Johnson very effectively walked the tightrope between over-the-top-rock-and-roll-excess, and artistic beauty.
The circus acts. The artistry of the circus acts was the real star of the show, as it should be. I enjoyed almost all of them (even though I've seen many of these types of acts before – thanks to "the other Cirque", and, of course, our towns' own Circus Flora and Bumbershoot). My favorites were The Flying Reindeer (Molly Murcia and Rebecca Starr, aka Lyralicious), making lovely body art on a giant hoop, hoisted 30 feet into the air. There was angelic silk aerials, performed by the husband and wife team of Marque and Rebecca Ohmes. A real crowd pleaser were contortionists Bing and Jun Long, as Two Times Fun, hilariously squeezing themselves through small metal hoops and tiny aluminum tubes, with amazing dexterity and great comic timing. The highlight of the evening, however, was a simple clown act. Really. Marcello Balestracci as The Bell Conductor worked true magic, effortlessly holding the audience in the palm of his hand, as he slyly teased and cajoled five random audience members into practicing a sort of Christmas Cowbell Quintet, then shocking us all as he led this ragtag bunch into a beautifully conducted Christmas 'bells" piece.
Things I didn't like as much:
The music. Original music by Jill Winters and David Scott was horrid (and, trust me, I am an obsessive Christmas music fan – a full fourth of my 120G iPod is Christmas music. That's a LOT of it.). The melodies were overly derivative of every pop-Broadway show around (I could swear, at times, they were attempting to write a Christmas version of Wicked – and I KNOW Willy Wonka's "Oompa Loompa song" was in their somewhere, too!), and many of the lyrics were just outright stupid. The familiar Christmas tunes, both the carols, and the ones they had to pay rights for, were OVER-ORCHESTRATED (!!!), and I felt assaulted by the music – the same as you must feel from my use of all CAPS – much of the evening. And, I am used to rock concerts - I still go to them, and try to sit as close as possible – but intermission music was just plain LOUD.
Then there's the direction. In an effort to dazzle us, Mr. Goldberg had waaaay too much going on onstage, splitting our focus on far too many occasions, and spoiling our wonder at the fine circus acts themselves by tossing in too many clever, gratuitous, "artistic", distractions during his casts' hard work. I think this may be a classic example of what happens when an "auteur", with a bone to pick with his successful older brother, has a little too much money to throw around at a project. My date, who, I think, wanted to shoot herself in the face by the end of the evening, aptly said, "Well, this would go over well in Branson".
I didn't dislike it as much as that. I guess Cirque Dreams – Holidaze and I have this "love-hate" relationship, where I like the innate idea and feel of it, but not so much when it's all dressed up.
But, if you LOVE glitz and dazzle, and seeing exactly where your ticket money goes, then Cirque Dreams – Holidaze is certainly for you. Many things, will, indeed, "wow" you.
