Zarkana Review

Last week, I traveled a few blocks off the Broadway path (6th Ave.) to Radio City Music Hall to take in the latest Cirque du Soleil creation: Zarkana.  This was my third live Cirque production (the other two being O in Las Vegas and Ovo on Roosevelt Island), and probably my least favorite.

From Broadway.com

I enjoyed the individual acts for the most part.  The talent (or should I say brute strength and work ethic) of the performers was clearly evident.   The art direction was inspired.  The use of video screens in place of traditional flat backdrops made for a technically advanced show, unlike any other I've seen (Woman in White tried and failed with this).

Most Cirque shows presume to have a story, though it's usually fairly incomprehensible, not to mention inconsequential in light of the acrobatic feats being performed.  Zarkana's plot line, or what I could gather of it, seems to center around the separation and reuniting of a ring master-like man dressed in a red coat and top hat and his sought after love interest, some animal-morphing siren-like woman.  This is all I could ascertain, and the songs were in English not French (there were also very minimal amounts of Cirque-jibberish).

As I mentioned before, the actual circus acts were enjoyable, though fairly standard for Cirque-fare: tutu-clad juggler, trapeze artists, tumblers...  Surprisingly, the stand out acts for me were those showcasing the effects of practice and hard work, not thrill-seeking danger.  I greatly appreciated the color-guard quartet whose precision tossing of butterfly flags put my coordination skills to shame.  I also very much liked the sand artist (who made intricate images out of sand on a projected back-lit board) and the classic gymnast-guy (who performed carefully balanced handstands all while wearing an eighties cut-off sweatshirt imitation).

The least successful acts included the traditional high-wire act and the Russian bar balance beam.  The high-wire featured four burly men in unitards, more than one of whom was sporting what can only be called a gestating beer-gut (though two of them partially made up for it with the rotating wheel of death act [think Pirates of the Caribbean 2]), performing the usual back and forth across the rope routine.  The Russian bar would have been especially thrilling if I hadn't already seen a similar act performed on America's Got Talent (don't judge me, it's summer and there's only crap television on).  I admit I'm not really qualified to judge the difficulty of the acrobatics themselves, but I can say the AGT group performed over a bed of flaming nails and the Cirque team did not.

Overall Zarkana is an entertaining show, but not one of the best Cirque productions.  Part of my opinion may be due to a developing jadedness (I've now seen several productions), however I think it's most likely due to the show's bizarre goth-circus/mad scientist theme.  Backdrops featuring wandering eyeballs and Cirque clowns trapped in spider webs was just weird.  Though nothing quite matched the moment when a giant fish bowl-like prop was wheeled across stage, upon which was projected a multi-limbed, large headed baby singing "welcome to my funeral."  I felt like Seth Rogen in Knocked Up, only I was definitely not tripping on any illicit substances.

I would recommend Zarkana only to those who are big Cirque fans and feel a need to see the show out of a desire for completeness.  I would not recommend it for those looking for their first Cirque experience.  I would save that for one of the many other productions either in Vegas or traveling around the country.

Daily Monku:  Why is it that there are two British judges (Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne) on America's Got Talent (the name of the show itself deserves a grammar bitch daily monku)?  You mean to tell me Brits are a better judge of American talent than Americans?