Sunday, May 06, 2007

Tarraa


We all went to see "Le Grand Cirque" yesterday, apparently described as the next generation of Cirque du Soleil. That is a tough accolade to live up to. Now, to be fair, they were squeezing into a relatively small theatre. A good theatre, but a small one. So their acts will have been restricted. And the acts themselves were good. I think the reason it can't be compared to the Cirque du Soleil is that the music was not original (I recognised the music from "The Apprentice", Clannad, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Bolero, A James Bond theme) and there wasn't the same weaving of a story. In addition the dancing girls were just weird. I don't mean they looked weird, but the dancing was strange in that it felt like a throwback to a 1920s glamour show with a lot of feather boas, and twee costumes (for instance pretending to be babies). It was a bit incongruous and seemed to simply be a "filler" while the set was changed. At times it felt a bit emarrassing to watch, what with bits of anatomy being wiggled in front of me (and I mean in front, we were in the front row).

That said, it was a great spectacle and very enjoyable. If you have the choice and it is one or the other then you have to go for Cirque du Soleil but, if you don't need to decide between them, why not see both.

2 comments:

HippieChyck said...

i had been considering a trip to see Cirque next month...now that you've raised the possibility of cringe-worthy moments in these types of performances, I'll try to sit a bit further back than the front row.

just in case.

Merlin said...

No no no, HippieChyck. You need to be in the front row. Definitiely if you mean Cirque du Soleil, but for Le Grand Cirque as well. The minor risk of having your eyes taken out by a misjudged nipple is worth taking. Get as close as you can and feel a part of it.