SHOWBIZ DAVID'S FIRST CIRQUE DU SOLEIL REVIEW

In 1987, I was in good stead with Variety, having been a free-lance contributor to the "bible of showbiz" for fifteen years, filing occasional circus reviews and major state-of-the-circus reports in their annual  January anniversary issues. That year, in the 226 page edition, I profiled three circus producers --- Paul Binder, Kenneth Feld, and Cliff Vargas --- under Variety's heading, Big Tops Back in Form. 

Eight months later came a new circus to Los Angeles from Canada, making its first appearance in the states, in-fact anywhere outside the country.  I watched the show in Japan town, and sent off this notice.  Not a word has been changed here. 

Circus Review          Special for Variety

by David Lewis Hammarstrom

Cirque Du Soleil, Guy Laliberete, President and General Manager Guy Caron, Artistic DirectorRene Dupere, Composer; Benoit Jutras, Music Director Luc Lafortune, Lighting Designer;; Andre Caron, Set Designer Michel, Costume Designer, Richard Bouthillier; Technical Director; Debbie Brown, Choreography Michel Barette, Ringmaster Features Marc Proulx and The Children; Benny Le Grand, Catitan Cactus, Amelie Demay and Eric Varelas, Masha Dimitri, Christopher Suszek, Luc Dagenais, Roch Justrus, Alain Gautheir, Andre St. Jean, Nathalie Sabourin, Nicolas Dupere, The Andrews, The Shao Family, Denis Lacomee ,At the Los Angeles Arts Festival, September 7 (1987). $17.50 top.

 And from so tiny a tent, oh what wonders filled it!

One of the hottest tickets of the Los Angeles Arts Festival, Cirque Du Soleil is a wow of a show and the talk of the town.  The youthful company, based — along with a burgeoning circus school — in Montreal, and sponsored by Canadian Airlines International, offers a revelation of the infinite viability of circus art.  They take it to new heights with deft creative direction incorporating a bold original score played on synthesizer, a sax and drums. Dry ice effects and fine lighting schemes add further to the magic and mystery of the performance.  Unlike some other companies, which have undertaken to “reinvent’ the circus along similar lines but have failed for lack of real talent, this organization has at its core a number of gifted performers.  Together, they make it work, and results are fairly miraculous.  Sometimes she show resembled a stark sensual ballet, other times a hip video in the making

Massive government aid and backing, combined with hefty corporate and private donations, has no doubt helped   So, too, has the extraordinary artistic vision of the company, lead by director Guy Caron.  The program is woven around a scenario of simple charm that has a group of locals — grotesquely masked — wandering into the tent to discover they are at a circus..  They take advantage of the audience by indulging their own amateur antics until, through a misty surface, the actual circus stars emerge. Some of the locals are transformed into participants, one of them becoming the ringmaster, another, the lady on the stack-wire.  When it's over, the ringmaster is turned back to himself, the common man, but given the hat to take with him as a souvenir. He sauntered off enchanted, having lived out a wonderful fantasy.

What happens along the way is a theatrically  wrought circus, the program skillfully assembled so that each act seems to top the previous.   In the first half, Christopher Suszek and his acrobatic associates offer entertaining gymnastics on tables and chairs.  A group of teeterboard tumblers enter dressed as penguins, and effect some novel movements off the springboards, all the while sustaining a sort of penguin strut.  Masha Dimitri wins high plaudits with her work on the slack wire, manipulating an umbrella in the tip of her foot.   Her number is backed by several dancers, and by the enthusiastic antics of Marc Proulx, a magical jester-like character who dances and tumbles through the show, striking poses at the opportune moment to intensify audience reception.

The second half builds further, Eric Varela and Adelie Damay starting off with a head and hand balancing act, marvelously placed in context of a tango production number.  The two demonstrate a finesse and accuracy, not a single motion wasted, normally associated with Chinese artistry.  Show’s one aerial number, presented originally by Andrew Watson and Jacqueline Williams, is a cradle act of spellbinding novelty, only the payoff being a standard cloud swing breakaway.  Then, to whip up a rousing conclusion, come the Zhao Family, trick cycling wizards, augmented effectively by more cyclist from the company at large. The thirteen person pyramid on a moving bicycle is a marvel to behold.

Given the show's remarkable overall standards, one could argue that the mechanics (safety wires) used during the table and chair number are out of place.  And they are.  One could also argue that the clowns, Catitan Cacitus and Benny Le Grand, are only very good, being a mischievous blend in a broad, bawdy way, and delivering some funny enough spoofs of, among others, escape illusionists to Karate Kings. There’s also the hilarious example of Denis LaCombe, satirizing an overly frenetic, half smashed musical conductor at the podium.

The score is a fabulous accomplishment, a rich and varied jazz/rock fusion ever sensitive  to the changing moods. Michel Barrette is a charming ringmaster, unconventional in the sense of not announcing all the acts. That would bot be proper considering the dramatic fluidity of the program. It’s undeniably affecting as an epic entertainment event, and it proves what a superior art form circus can be especially when it draws from other forms to glorify its own essential magic. Cirque du Soleil, which has only been in operation for four mere seasons, is already a company of world class stature that bears watching closely.  It’s likely to have an impact on the way others circuses are produced and directed, and on the way they’re perceived by the public.

                                  End    

 

Variety dd not respond to my submission, and so, after taking in another performance of the show in Santa Monica, I sent them a slightly revised version of the review, toned down a little. Still not even a simple rejection note from their end. My best guess was to wonder if the lavish advertising the Felds were spending on Variety for full-page and gorgeous wrap-a-round ads had anything to do with it.This marked my last submission. The magazine was undergoing management upheavals and would gradually focus in on movies, television, and Broadway. Oh, too have "the bible" back as it once was!