Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy is a dazzling extravaganza. It crams onstage eye-popping set, flamboyant costumes, an astonishing international cast, with music and a storyline of sorts. All this, however, does not make it musical theatre. It is a circus, a European-style fantasy that opened at the Broadway Theatre after touring over 120 U.S. cities. It is the first Broadway appearance for a circus, but odds are, it will not be the last, even if the fit seems uneasy at first. Just pop it in the category of seasonal or holiday entertainment

Created and directed by Neil Goldberg, the Florida-based Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy features no animals and no narrative. Jon Craine designed the stage as an enchanted verdant jungle, with performers emerging out of the trees, vines, flora and fauna. The animals tangle and untangle themselves into flexible snakes, bright green leaping frogs, witty emus, including one pushing a baby carriage, exotic birds, bees and butterflies, giraffes and tigers, all imaginatively costumed by Lenora Taylor and Santiago Rojo. Lighting by Kate Johnston changes the mood into a psychedelic nighttime eeriness in Act II.

Disappointing is the bland and generic New Age style music by Jill Winter and six co-writers. It is piped in, electronic, deafening and dumbing. Strolling in and out are Jill Diane as a lithe Mother Nature who sings syrupy inspirational pop tunes about nature's lessons, and a Fabio-type Soultree violinist, Jared Burnett, who expends considerable energy jumping in place. There is also "Percushroomist," Lee Miller, tucked into the greenery.

This is the ambiance for the storyline, which is, unfortunately, a mere thread weaving through the two hours and one intermission. The movement never stops, from the ambling turtle at the start of the show, who makes his way across the stage. There is a short opening scene involving some audience participation, which leads to a parade of splendid acts of undeniable physical prowess by contortionists, jugglers, aerialists, "jungleboys" and "vine swingers." A young hunky chap (Marcello Balestracci), called Adventurer, innocently wanders into the jungle, ready for whatever comes, with Mother Nature as his guide. Marcello is one of the few North Americans in the show. Most of the performers are from Mongolia, Russia, Bulgaria, and the Ukraine, where they are well known among cirque aficionados. Stefka Jordanova is one of the last Bulgarians today performing the — "eek" — art of hair-spinning. Denis Kucher and Vitalii Lykov from the Ukraine swing and twirl on vines over the audience, and four seemingly boneless Mongolian contortionists slither into lizard like poses. "Jungle-ibrium" is an impressive, balancing routine with two giraffes (Vladimir Dovgan and Anatoliy Yeniy) piling chairs, boards and cylinders over 10 feet high. Butterflies (Sergey Parshin and Naomi Sampson) swoop and soar in a romantic and challenging aerial ballet. Even the enthusiastic Marcello takes part in various robust activities, including a delightful company frolic of "Jungle Jumping."

The performers are well-trained with enviably toned bodies. Tara Jeanne Vallee designed the choreography. Many of these acts, or reasonable facsimiles, have been seen before, but they are uniformly attention-grasping

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy is aimed as family friendly entertainment for "children of all ages." Ooh and aaah if you wish over the spare-no-expense spectacle, but it is still a circus, performing in a theatre instead of three rings. .

Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy opened at the Broadway Theatre on June 26, 2009 and closes August 24, 2009 to make room for Shrek The Musical..

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
June 26, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org