Zarkana Dress Rehearsal

So, one of the great perks of working for a circus is getting invited to Cirque du Soleil's dress rehearsal before the big premiere. Last night, I, along with 20 other students and colleagues, spent the evening at Radio City Music Hall, for Cirque's new show, Zarkana." My take? Definitely worth seeing.

Overall, the talent isn't top notch like most of the other cirque shows, but there are definitely some stand out acts worth the ticket price. Most notably, the ladder balancers, who are just insane...I will leave it at that. For all my aerialist friends out there, there was a pretty solid flying duo corde act. Nothing groundbreaking - basically take a duo flying silks act, and do it with corde...nothing we all couldn't do :). The show also features the wheel of death, an edge of your seat, adrenaline-inducing act...but if you've seen Kooza, you might be disappointed. Another favorite of mine was the flag juggling act. Jugglers filled the stage and tossed giant white flags in the air in amazing configurations. All around mesmorizing. Other acts included cyr wheel, flying trapeze, Russian bar, handbalancing...really the show had it all. They couldn't have packed in more variety. And with such variety, they really lost the story-line. It wasn't apparent at all. But honesty, who goes to Cirque for the story-line? They should probably give up trying at this point.

The music was unlike Cirque's signature non-language styles. It was all English lyrics and was belted out broadway-style. They did a good job incorporating the vocalists into the acts, by suspending them mid-air along with the other performers. The male vocalist was soothing and the female lead was shrill, kindof nails on a chalkboard after a while.

As a theater show, contrary to Wintuk and Banana Schpeel, which were met with horrible reviews, this show stands a real chance at a long, successful run here in the Big Apple. The producers really made the most of the theater space by engineering complex set changes, multimedia, and special effects. Cirque, you did again. You inspired me to keep going, keep developing, keep auditioning, keep dreaming.